The effectiveness of digital marketing organization on consumer outcomes. In the methodology, mention sustainability. After the conclusion, provide brief recommendations on how digital marketing organizations can improve for the consumers.
In the methodology, mention sustainability. After the conclusion, provide brief recommendations on how digital marketing organizations can improve for the consumers.
The use of the internet and social media have changed consumer behavior and the ways in which companies conduct their business. Social and digital marketing offers significant opportunities to organizations through lower costs, improved brand awareness and increased sales. However, significant challenges exist from negative electronic word-of-mouth as well as intrusive and irritating online brand presence.
This article brings together the collective insight from several leading experts on issues relating to digital and social media marketing. The experts’ perspectives offer a detailed narrative on key aspects of this important topic as well as perspectives on more specific issues including artificial intelligence, augmented reality marketing, digital content management, mobile marketing and advertising, B2B marketing, electronic word of mouth and ethical issues therein.
This research offers a significant and timely contribution to both researchers and practitioners in the form of challenges and opportunities where we highlight the limitations within the current research, outline the research gaps and develop the questions and propositions that can help advance knowledge within the domain of digital and social marketing.
Internet, social media, mobile apps, and other digital communications technologies have become part of everyday life for billions of people around the world. According to recent statistics for January 2020, 4.54 billion people are active internet users, encompassing 59 % of the global population (Statista, 2020a).
Social media usage has become an integral element to the lives of many people across the world. In 2019 2.95 billion people were active social media users worldwide.
This is forecast to increase to almost 3.43 billion by 2023 (Statistica, 2020b). Digital and social media marketing allows companies to achieve their marketing objectives at relatively low cost (Ajina, 2019).
Facebook pages have more than 50 million registered businesses and over 88 % of businesses use Twitter for their marketing purposes (Lister, 2017).
Digital and social media technologies and applications have also been widely used for creating awareness of public services and political promotions (Grover et al., 2019; Hossain et al., 2018; Kapoor and Dwivedi, 2015; Shareef et al., 2016).
People spend an increasing amount of time online searching for information, on products and services communicating with other consumers about their experiences and engaging with companies.
Organisations have responded to this change in consumer behavior by making digital and social media an essential and integral component of their business marketing plans (Stephen, 2016).
Organisations can significantly benefit from making social media marketing an integral element of their overall business strategy (Abed et al., 2015a, Abed et al., 2015b, Abed et al., 2016; Dwivedi et al., 2015a; Felix et al., 2017; Kapoor et al., 2016; Plume et al., 2016; Rathore et al., 2016; Shareef et al., 2018; Shareef et al., 2019a; Shareef, Mukerji, Dwivedi, Rana, & Islam, 2019b; Shiau et al., 2017, 2018; Singh et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2017).
Social media enables companies to connect with their customers, improve awareness of their brands, influence consumer’s attitudes, receive feedback, help to improve current products and services and increase sales (Algharabat et al., 2018; Kapoor et al., 2018; Kaur et al., 2018, Lal et al., 2020).
The decline of traditional communication channels and societal reliance on bricks-and-mortar operations, has necessitated that businesses seek best practices use of digital and social media marketing strategies to retain and increase market share (Naylor et al., 2012; Schultz & Peltier, 2013).
Significant challenges exist for organisations developing their social media strategy and plans within a new reality of increased power in the hands of consumers and greater awareness of cultural and societal norms (Kietzmann et al., 2011).
Nowadays, consumer complaints can be instantly communicated to millions of people (negative electronic word-of-mouth) all of which can have negative consequences for the business concerned (Ismagilova et al., 2017, 2020b; Javornik et al., 2020).