The new face of marketing is continuously evolving as businesses employ new technologies to satisfy customers’ needs and wants. Nowadays, print and media marketing are usually complemented by social media channels. There are many businesses investing time and effort on reaching their customers through Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

It may appear that digital marketing is shifting its focus on content and this recent development is not so surprising. After all, marketing and promotion have always relied on visual and interactive media such as TV ads, video clips and billboards. To remain competitive, businesses often resort to new resources and technologies.

This contribution is putting forward some of the latest digital marketing tactics which are helping to raise awareness of businesses’ products or service offerings;

Infographics combine both information and graphics where inspiring ideas are presented in a relatively small space on web pages.

These type of media – which look like posters – feature relevant, top quality content.

They have to be as creative as possible. Of course, if corporate websites contain wrong infographics with erroneous data and misleading information, then it will backfire and will lead to negative results. In this case businesses can possibly risk losing their positioning for their lack of professionalism. Therefore, infographics must be original and based on accurate data and content. Businesses need to communicate interesting yet informative stories in their content marketing.

The idea is to create content that others like and will want to share through different social media. Therefore, the visuals need to be as vivid and colourful as possible.

Similarly, short video clips are gaining momentum among customers. Marketeers are increasingly uploading short, fun videos which often turn viral on Youtube.   Social video-sharing sites provide an opportunity for businesses to reach out to particular segments, such as teenagers and adolescents.

Interestingly, sites like Vine, Vimeo, Daily Motion and more are catching up with a core group of users because of their ease of use.

In this day and age, consumers themselves are quickly becoming ambassadors for businesses’ products and services.

Trip Advisor and Yelp offer trusted advice, opinions and reviews from real customers. Very often, customers are posting pictures and experiences asso­ciated with products and brands on Instagram and Pinterest. Customers’ are often invited or rather pushed to share Facebook statuses/ tweets about business offers and deals as a requirement to take part in competitions. Businesses and customers alike have also learned how to use the hashtag (#) to enhance the visibility of their posting.

Numerous businesses are re-targeting their existing customers through e-mail marketing.

These businesses often deliver ads according to their customers’ interests. Such targeting is usually based on items customers previously purchased or viewed.

Alternatively, businesses may advertise and promote complementary products of previous purchases of individual customers.

These efforts may turn out to be quite effective. Needless to say, consumers are becoming exposed to ads on internet sites for the very same products and services they may have viewed elsewhere.

Today everyone is keeping up with multiple social media networks

Businesses are quickly recognising the benefits of re-targeting customers via e-mail. This trend is particularly beneficial if customers have developed an ongoing, trustworthy relationship with the business per se. Hopefully, businesses are seen as helping customers, rather than invading their privacy.

Savvy marketers are quickly realising that they have to differentiate themselves from competitors.

Indeed, businesses can achieve an advantage relative to others if they offer unique selling propositions for their customers. This will be facilitated further if they enhance their presence on internet search results. Businesses have to find ways to get their ad message delivered to their customers. Conventional and digital marketing communications as well as search engine optimisation tools help to keep existing customers and attract new ones.

Today everyone is keeping up with multiple social media networks. Marketers are challenged to find new ways to leverage their business by creating fluidity between these ‘new’ channels. This cross-channel promotion can possibly include traditional print, media advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing if they want to reach many customer segments.

Shrewd marketers are the ones who are able to find new, innovative ways to get their messages across to customer bases.

At the same time, it is important to keep customers engaged and satisfied with their offering.

Mark Anthony Camilleri lectures at the University of Malta.

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