Alin Opreana - A New Development in Online Marketing v2
Alin Opreana - A New Development in Online Marketing v2
Alin Opreana - A New Development in Online Marketing v2
29-34, 2015
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Sprint Investify. ISSN 2344-6773
http://Marketing.ExpertJournals.com
1. Introduction
Traditional marketing is perceived as an intrusive manner in which people are interrupted in order to
interact with a product. Similarly, traditional marketers have the job of pushing products onto potential targets,
or customers. For marketers, the old way of doing business is unsustainable.
However, this major flaw of traditional marketing is currently corrected by online marketing. The
ever-evolving internet has caused many changes in marketing. Now, there is search engine marketing, email
marketing, blog marketing, viral marketing, content marketing, social media marketing and so many more.
These, however, can be encompassed under one concept – digital inbound marketing.
This marketing development and evolution of this business area is mainly focused on attracting people
in a manner that showcases understanding of people’s problems and provision of timely solutions. In this
sense, relationship marketing tactics are more easily implemented using technology. For instance, this new
approach of marketing is prioritizing the attraction of potential customers with quality, search-friendly content,
*
Corresponding Author:
Alin Opreana, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania
Article History:
Received 15 July 2015 | Accepted 29 July 2015 | Available Online 10 August 2015
Cite Reference:
Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A New Development in Online Marketing: Introducing Digital Inbound Marketing. Expert Journal of Marketing,
3(1), pp. 29-34
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Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A New Development in Online Marketing: Introducing Digital Inbound Marketing.
Expert Journal of Marketing, 3(1), pp. 29-34
such as videos, still images or GIFs, and stories that get traction if they fulfill the usefulness or emotional
criteria (or the utilitarian or hedonic dimension of consumer behavior). Moreover, this content is syndicated
on various social media outlets that have to be relevant to the brand and its overall integrated communications.
Traditional marketing implies pushing messages via intrusive media like TV, radio, magazines.
Traditional marketing has lost its competiveness because of the advertising clutter, consumer inattention, and
the new methods people use to block unsolicited messages. Historically, marketers tried to find consumers or
markets for products or services, via tools such as advertising. The internet definitely changed marketing.
Companies practicing traditional marketing tactics might choose to attract consumers by approaching
sales funnel programs, trade shows, unsolicited email or mail campaigns, cold calling, telemarketing and
various forms of advertising (in newspapers, radio, TV, magazines, outdoors, etc.). However, these techniques
have lost their effectiveness in a world where consumers get to choose their object of interaction.
The obvious reason why these tactics do not work anymore is because any person, in any given day,
is inundated with hundreds of marketing interruptions as the ones previously described. Moreover, the recent
financial crisis and technological boom have added new pressures for organizations to increase their level of
marketing creativity and reach potential, existing and aspirational consumers in a non-intrusive manner.
Particularly in times of crises and increased competition, organizations focus on how to maximize
their available marketing budget. The easiest ways to reach consumers with a lower marketing budget is by
implementing digital inbound marketing strategies, such as search engine optimization, social media, online
brands, and content creation to get found in organic search results and draw interested prospects to websites.
An internet marketing company observed this consumer trend early on, and started an online marketing
platform based on the idea of inbound marketing (Hubspot.com, 2015).
In this paper we propose the term Digital Inbound Marketing (DIM) as a new academic concept in
online marketing literature. As a result, we propose the following definition:
Digital Inbound Marketing represents the process of reaching and converting qualified consumers by
creating and pursuing organic tactics in online settings.
The most prominent elements of digital inbound marketing are interactivity and engagement. These
two constructs offer marketers the opportunity to foster valuable relationships that transcend the limitations of
traditional media. Interactivity and engagement allows marketers to have continuous conversations with
customers or consumers who are interested in their products or services. In table 1, we showcase the main
feature and differences between these two types of marketing.
Edelman (2010) focused on the main aspects of focus of digital marketers in creating and sustaining
value through their marketing strategies. He identified four sources of value. Firstly, digital marketers focus
on coordinating their activities to create consumer engagement throughout the digital purchase funnel.
Secondly, they use brands in online settings to create consumer empowerment in the co-creation of products,
services, and strategies and in supporting the brand as an ambassador or advocate. Thirdly, marketers act like
publishers of different forms of content to support products, segments, channels, and promotions. Fourthly,
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Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A New Development in Online Marketing: Introducing Digital Inbound Marketing.
Expert Journal of Marketing, 3(1), pp. 29-34
they gather, establish and use a plethora of digital data to learn more about consumers and the next directions
of their marketing efforts.
Thus, digital inbound marketing is one of the most advanced fields today when it comes to big data.
Major ad space sellers leverage highly sophisticated algorithms to process customer profiles and identify the
most suitable type of banner advertising. In addition, automated ROI data is available for search engine
keywords, making it possible to optimize marketing budget in real time.
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Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A New Development in Online Marketing: Introducing Digital Inbound Marketing.
Expert Journal of Marketing, 3(1), pp. 29-34
marketers can significantly improve an organization’s profitability, revenue streams, and increase the loyalty
of customers who may become brand advocates in online settings.
Measurement is what makes marketing a science, rather than a simple tool. To measure the
effectiveness of a campaign of digital inbound marketing (DIM), an organization needs to monitor different
types of web analytics. For a successful online marketing campaign, it is necessary to study which tactics work
and which need adjustments in order to create relevant content that is syndicated on various outlets, including
the organization’s website. The main objective is to yield results of attracting more leads or converting leads
into customers.
However, DIM tactics have a long term perspective and results may not always occur overnight.
Nonetheless, any tactic needs to be measured to examine opportunities of improvement or establish the
programs to drive business growth.
In relation to Digital Inbound Marketing, there are four elements that can be measured to assess the
effectiveness and efficiency of an online marketing campaign:
1. Website Activity. This aspect is related to the website traffic (unique visitors + repeat visitors),
such as page views and popularity, new or recurring visitors, etc.
2. Source of Traffic. This aspect presents which search terms or keywords, languages, regions or
countries, mediums, email marketing, paid search, social media gather the most traffic for a
website or marketing campaign. From this category the most important metric is the channel-
specific traffic which can be direct traffic (how many people visit a site directly), referrals (external
links from other sites), organic (visitors who found a website after performing a search query),
and social (visitors who reached a website from a social platform).
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Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A New Development in Online Marketing: Introducing Digital Inbound Marketing.
Expert Journal of Marketing, 3(1), pp. 29-34
3. Nature of Website Activity. In this category, the metrics that should be considered are entry pages,
exit pages, browsers, platforms, click-throughs, inbound links, average time per page, bounce rate,
etc.
4. Responses and Outcomes. In this area, digital marketers focus on lead generation (or users’ opt-
in), most requested pages, number of downloads, requests for more information, orders,
incremental sales, return-on-investment (ROI), brand awareness, content downloads, consumer
engagement, social media reach, subscribers (blog, email, newsletter, etc.).
5. Integrated Marketing Metrics. In this category, online companies with digital inbound marketing
campaigns monitor metrics, such as cost of customer acquisition (COCA), customer lifetime value
(CLV), retention rates, lead-to-sale conversion rates, Net Promoter Score (NPS), referrals,
profitability, revenue growth.
5. Conclusion
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the strategic grant POSDRU/159/1.5/S/133255, Project ID 133255
(2014), cofinanced by the European Social Fund within the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources
Development 2007-2013.
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Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A New Development in Online Marketing: Introducing Digital Inbound Marketing.
Expert Journal of Marketing, 3(1), pp. 29-34
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