Below is my response to an assignment associated with the online course, Digital Marketing Analytics in Theory, by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was an intriguing chance to explore the consumer decision process in this digital era.
Assignment Purpose.
The goal of this exercise is to examine the customer choice process in the digital era and how marketers may persuade consumers to create connections with businesses using the four primary channels (search, display, video, and social).
Assignment Specifics.
As digital platforms that brands may utilize to create relationships with customers, the following were discussed in the lecture:
- Search.
- Display.
- Video.
- Social.
Consider how firms may build relationships with their customers and assess the success of the four digital channels based on your own experience.
Then answer the following question:
Which, in your view and experience, is the most effective?
Explain your reasoning with one or two instances of firms that use that channel.
Response
Video is the most effective since it can engage our senses multiple times within a short amount of time while also activating various sensory connections such as sound and vision. Furthermore, YouTube, a video content site, is one of the most commonly utilized search engine sites at work. According to Alexa, YouTube.com has the world’s second-biggest combination of visits and page views, trailing only Google.com. SimilarWeb ranks youtube.com as the third most viewed and used website in the world. These rankings demonstrate how important video (especially videos posted on YouTube) is to today’s consumers.
I’ve discovered that video is an excellent marketing strategy since it allows for the creation of several content streams. For example, I’ve previously generated YouTube videos, which allowed me to make three various types of material. The first was video footage I uploaded on YouTube. I then extracted the audio from the video and turned it into audio (podcast) material. I recently finished transcribing the video and creating written (blog) material. I was able to do all of this by generating only one piece of content. I was then able to distribute all three content items as three social media content sharing at various times.
I have personally found that video is an effective marketing tool, due to being able to create various content streams from it. For instance, I’ve created YouTube videos in the past and in doing so I was able to create 3 different forms of content. The first was the video content that I posted to YouTube. I then stripped the audio out of the video and created an audio (podcast) content. Lately, I transcribed the video and created text (blog) content. I was able to do all of this simply by creating one content item. Later, I was able to share all three content items on social media at different times as three unique social media content shares.
Overall, the video digital channel is the only channel specifically designed to engage our visual and auditory sensory connectors at the same time and at a rate on par with our natural ability to process information.