Understanding “Digital Marketing” | A Taste of ‘SUNNY SIDE UP’s Step-by-Step PR’ Vol.6
Hello! I’m Oku, in charge of this series 🌱
Digital marketing has become indispensable in modern corporate activities. SUNNY SIDE UP is also strengthening its solutions in the digital domain, including social media and websites, to keep pace with the times.
This time, we will introduce excerpts from Chapter 6 of this book, which focuses on digital marketing.
■ Introduction
This article is part of a series that excerpts content from SUNNY SIDE UP’s Step-by-Step PR, a manual published in May 2021 for PR beginners and solo PR professionals.
Previous articles in this series can be found here▼
A Taste of ‘SUNNY SIDE UP’s Step-by-Step PR’
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Now, let’s dive into the content!
■ What Exactly Does Digital Marketing Involve?
Digital marketing, which is well-suited for speed, virality, and strengthening customer engagement, refers to “marketing that uses a wide range of information existing on computers and internet media.” Websites, e-commerce sites, and social media, as well as photos and videos, are all positioned in the digital domain if they exist on digital media.
With rapidly evolving technology continuously introducing new methods and platforms, it is no longer possible to consider marketing strategies while ignoring the digital domain. This chapter provides specific explanations of key points in content creation and promotion primarily deployed online.
Two Digital Strategies and Analysis
Digital communication strategies are mainly divided into two categories: “buzz generation” and “community building.” “Buzz generation” refers to strategies that find topics likely to trend online, whether online or offline, and induce User Generated Content (UGC)—content created by users rather than companies—including individual social media posts, photos, and blogs.
“Community building” refers to using social media as owned media to communicate and operate in alignment with the target audience, thereby creating a fan community for products and brands, strengthening ongoing engagement, and encouraging product purchases.
The distinctive feature of digital communication is that, unlike other communication methods, it enables two-way communication with users while collecting and analyzing accurate data.
For example, digital communication allows you to know not only “how many people were reached” and “how many clicks occurred,” but also “the attributes of those who accessed the content.” Therefore, by analyzing this data, it becomes possible to execute a more accurate PDCA cycle (a cycle of Plan, Do, Check, and Action for continuous improvement).
Main Components of Digital Marketing
With social media and internet advertising as the two main pillars, there are various other types of creative content.
Social Media
SNS stands for Social Networking Service, referring to services where users communicate with each other online.
Internet Advertising
As the name suggests, this refers to advertisements placed on the internet as a medium. There are various types with different formats, distribution methods, and billing methods.
Other Creative Content
This includes a wide range of online creative content, from landing page creation to casting and direction for PR and advertising videos.
■ Maximizing the Use of Social Media and Influencers
Representative strategies include “influencer marketing,” “social media campaigns,” and “social monitoring.” “Influencer marketing” is a method that leverages influencers who have influence over specific communities or target audiences on social media. A typical example is a popular Instagram influencer posting a selfie with a product, adding “#PR” in the comments.
“Social media campaigns” can be conducted on any social media platform, but Twitter is particularly recommended because users can easily participate in campaigns by following and retweeting, and information spreads quickly and widely, making it easier to acquire new followers.
Additionally, by using analytical tools, you can perform hashtag analysis and analyze the online mood. Seeing real reviews of companies and products is very valuable.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing, which involves having influencers with strong influence on social media introduce products and services as PR to raise awareness among many consumers and influence purchasing behavior, has become indispensable in promotional activities.
The greatest advantage of influencer marketing is that it can reach people who were not reached by traditional mass promotions, banners, or video advertisements. Other benefits include precise targeting by appealing to the influencer’s fans, the potential for further dissemination through social media, and the ease of data collection and analysis.
Influencer Marketing Process
Since influencer marketing is a promotion using people, meticulous project management is very important. Please refer to the following six steps that are essential in influencer campaigns.
Step 1: Setting Objectives
Consider whether this is a short-term strategy to instantly and vertically increase awareness of a brand or product, or a long-term strategy for building fans of the brand or product, and create a plan accordingly. Clearly confirm the goals of the influencer campaign.
Step 2: Creating Posting Instructions
Create materials that carefully incorporate the brand’s selling points so that influencers can understand the brand or product story. Also include all details such as the posting period, required words, required hashtags, and specific shots that must be captured in photos.
Step 3: Casting
Confirm the number of people to cast, the number of people to reach (total followers), whether the brand and influencer’s worldviews match, and the budget.
Step 4: Creative
To avoid disrupting the influencer’s worldview, allow some discretion regarding the photos to be posted. Leave captions to their discretion except for required words. Consider effective hashtags to achieve objectives such as brand appeal, campaigns, and attracting customers. To avoid being mistaken for “stealth marketing,” which is conducted without making it clear that it is advertising, it is essential to clearly include tags such as #PR or #promotion. To increase the brand account’s followers and have people view the brand account’s posts, have influencers tag the brand account.
Step 5: Access Analysis
Confirm how many people were reached by using influencers or influencer marketing platforms.
Step 6: Project Management
The basic stance is to “request influencers to post.” To prevent trouble, share posting instructions and ensure thorough pre-posting checks.
Influencer Marketing Implementation Plans
Depending on the objectives, the appropriate social media platforms and costs will vary. Each time, determine the most suitable implementation plan (Figure 35).
The foundation of influencer marketing is the “event participation plan.” The main flow is summarized in Figure 36.
Influencers are invited to events such as PR events, product launches, tasting sessions, and pop-up stores held in various locations, and each influencer posts original articles on social media about the event content and their impressions from actually trying the products. By reading realistic articles based on actual experiences, you can attract the interest and attention of your target audience.
Also request that they include the product name, share URLs, and add hashtags. Consider whether it is better to concentrate posts in a short period or spread them out over several occasions, and ask for their cooperation accordingly.
■ Conclusion
This concludes the final installment of this six-part series. Thank you for reading!
If you want to learn more about PR, please pick up a copy of the book!
