Abstract
Digital marketing has become significantly important to the industry and academia as one of the most effective marketing media ever since its inception in the early 1990s. Business-related people have discovered a new marketing framework by the advent and quick expansion of internet and information technology. Most of the companies are creating new dimensions in their businesses by taking numerous actions to switch to digital marketing from or add digital marketing to their traditional marketing strategies. But the evaluation practices of these newly developed digital marketing activities do not seem to have developed proportionately. This article is an attempt to examine digital marketing media and its campaigns and provide a framework to evaluate the digital marketing activities. To evaluate the performance of digital marketing campaigns, this article uses the balanced scorecard approach devised by Kaplan and Norton. Managers and researchers are expected to get insights into the different aspects of digital marketing and its effective evaluation tools from the outcome of this article.
TopIntroduction
Most of the recognized businesses, and renowned non-profit, government, and non-government organizations all around the world have started digital marketing by using digital media in addition to or instead of their traditional marketing practices during the last three decades or so. Electronic media available via the internet, computers, cell phones, smartphones, and many other devices constitute the digital media in general. Companies or organizations try to reach out to new segment or group of customers by using digital marketing techniques. Use of digital media helps them make faster and cost effective communications with the customers to understand their needs, wants, preferences, and concerns of the customers at a much deeper level in a much better manner. These processes result into having increased market share with satisfied customers. “Digital marketing refers to the strategic process of distributing, promoting, pricing products, and discovering the desires of customers in the virtual environment of the Internet” (Ferrell et al, 2019).
It is important to measure whether a company is able to take advantage of digital media, and digital marketing (DM) techniques. Business organizations are more conscious of performance management than ever before. With the global working environment adapting to a performance-based culture, many business organizations are using methods such as a balanced scorecard (BSC) to appraise and manage performance (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). This approach is often used to measure both financial and non-financial aspects of an organization. A balanced scorecard is often used by the top management to improve and identify performance factors within the internal and external environment of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to identify certain issues regarding the usage of a balanced scorecard approach in the context of digital marketing performance management.
The balanced scorecard was originally intended as a measurement tool for stakeholders and executives to understand how an organization is performing in context to the organizational goals and objectives (Kaplan and Norton, 1992). This paper focuses on existing literature to bring clarity on the development of efficiency and performance in context to a balanced scorecard approach. A balanced scorecard has been put into application on various business areas to bring forth a measurable performance on business and technology associated with it.
Even though balanced scorecard has been applicable for many financial and non-financial factors in a business, the question still remains about how it is going to be effective in terms of digital marketing. The main theme through which this research paper is going to be addressed is based on certain questions which are: How effective is a balanced scorecard approach in terms of its usability in evaluating digital marketing activities? Is a balanced scorecard the most appropriate method for evaluating digital marketing activities? Is there a better methodology for managing digital Marketing activities other than a balanced scorecard approach?
This paper aims to provide a thorough analysis of a balanced scorecard approach towards measuring digital marketing activities to evaluate the digital marketing performance as effectively and efficiently as possible. Even though a balanced scorecard approach has been adopted by many organizations to effectively measure performance, the question remains as to whether or not it is the most efficient method to measure digital marketing performance (Killeen, 2018). This paper aims to answer this question by providing insights on whether the balanced scorecard is a perfect methodology on performance appraisal of digital marketing, and if there are better methods out there which are more effective than this (Alexander, 2019).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Evaluation: Ascertaining, determining, examining, or judging the worth of anything, any activity, or any concept by applying certain criteria as standard or benchmark for that specific thing, activity, or concept. The purpose of such ascertainment, determination, examination, or judgment is basically to identify & correct the flaws or problems if any, in the said thing, activity, or concept.
Scorecard: An object of certain design, shape, and size corresponding to the purpose of its creation and use, to keep the records of different numerical or non-numerical results of i.e. data or information obtained from measuring any activity, task, method, procedure, or phenomenon, which may be used for different statistical or analytical purposes to make data based decisions to run the related activities, tasks, or phenomena more effectively and efficiently.
Perspective: Some kind of background, context, framework, relationship, situations, or surroundings to a particular issue to explain it in comprehensive manners, to make it perceivable to most of the stakeholders as easily and uniformly as possible. A total canvass or picture of the whole issue at a glance.
Digital Marketing: All kinds of marketing tasks done with the help or involvement of anything or everything of the hardware or software related to or used in the extended field or realm of information technology, to supplement the traditional marketing, or to do it absolutely newly and separately.
Balanced: A natural or any abstract state of a living or non-living entity, or of a concept, philosophy, or idea, - which is in an equilibrium, statically static, dynamically static, or usually in a stable position over a period of time or range of situations relative to the broader time frame or various situations, due to the interaction of all the internal and external forces or elements working on that particular entity, concept, philosophy, or idea over that period of time or range of situations.