Passing Through an Online Jungle
There was a lot delusions in my mind in choosing the open elective for 7th semester of my bachelor’s degree. Multiple options were presented before me and I had zero knowledge on any of those. Even to choose any of the course, there should be a preliminary knowledge on that domain, right? which I was lacking heavily. So then comes the other studentical ways of choosing open electives like, seniors review on the course, course handling faculty’s approachability and last but not the least: grade scoring capability of ourselves in that course. So, by performing design of experiments using these parameters I finally got landed in a page called Digital Marketing for Engineers. From the title itself this course seemed very unique and to be more precise, Contradictory. I was like how in the world would digital marketing be meant for engineers and that too for my specialization of production engineering. Here I would like to thank my course handling faculty Mr. Vigneswaran C for completely change my perspective on not only digital marketing but the basic definition of marketing itself. In a world where marketing in seen as a phishing and scam activity, he made me understand what an ethical marketing looks like. And a personal note, I never thought that my professor would be so approachable and empathetical towards me in my previous three years of engineering phase.
Let’s start of with the basic definition of marketing that it is not a unethical phishing activity instead it is understanding the customers need and satisfying their needs by adding value to them as well as to our product or service. And this marketing took a great leap when it got exposed to various digital tools. Digital marketing overtook the conventional way of marketing:
Broadcast
Direct mail
Tele marketing
Digital marketing for proving to be a way of making people aware and hold their attention towards the product or services in a faster and accurate way. It had numerous advantages like having a very wider reach, reaching the people in a very controlled and targeted way so that we can convert them into our potential customers easily, it also had to use very less manual work force and proved to be highly cost-efficient, real-time customer interaction and user analytics was made possible through digital marketing. Seriously, this course completely changed my perception on how I see a firm’s portfolio in many aspects. I got to realize that every minute feature and detail of a website is linked to human’s behavioral and cognitive aspects.
In between the classes we had many crazy sounding questions by our professor like: “why have you woken up today.” Although it might seem that there can be multiple answers to this question, it always ends up to be an improper answer. Then, discussion on my microniches made me understand that even focusing on microniches can be a potential lead for starting a business out of it. My professor have always iterated the fact that always “Try to be producers, and not only consumers”, this mindset makes a continuous engaging factor to the students in this course of Digital Marketing for Engineers.
Now lets have a dive in various strategies that used in the domain of digital marketing considering a situation where you are trying to sell your product which is - Japanese comics, Manga.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Online, search engines like Google are the big deal. When people are looking for something – let's say, a comic book - they type it into Google's search bar. Now, Google's job is to show them the best possible book shop based on what they typed. That's where your colorful signs (SEO) come in handy. With SEO, you're making your website and content super-friendly to Google. You're using specific words and phrases (keywords) that people might use to find books and comics like yours. You're also making sure your website loads quickly, is easy to navigate, and has cool stuff that keeps people hanging around.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is like setting up a virtual billboard to grab people's attention. You want to make sure that when someone types in a search like "cool manga for sale" or "rare Japanese comics," they see your bill board right at the top of the results.
This can be achieved by two main tactics:
Paid Search Ads: These are like the big banners you see at the top of the convention hall. You bid on certain keywords related to manga, like "rare manga" or "Japanese comics for sale." If someone types in those keywords, website pops up right at the top, and you pay a little bit each time someone clicks on your website to check out your manga collection.
Organic Search: This is like setting up a shop that's super attractive and has a reputation for having the best manga around. You optimize your website by using those keywords naturally in your content, creating great descriptions of your comics, and maybe even getting other manga fans to talk about your shop.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is like using your favorite social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok, to show off your manga collection, talk about your favorite characters, and recommend awesome series to your friends and followers. For example, you could post pictures of your manga collection, make short videos where you talk about your top 5 manga picks, and even share funny memes related to manga. As you keep doing this, more people who also love manga will start following you and engaging with your posts. Over time, you might become known as a go-to person for manga recommendations.
So, in conclusion digital marketing has made its entrance in reaching out to customers literally from any domain. Usage of different kinds of plugins make our website more and more interactive as well as act as an added advantage to know and understand our customers. Digital marketing is evolving day by day with ethical and advanced usage of world wide web.