Virtual engagement
Virtual engagement is commonly applied in customer lifecycle management, where virtual events play a crucial role in the marketing mix. Virtual environments are an important part of digital marketing strategies, helping businesses to measure audience participation and interest.
Industry analysts emphasize the importance of community engagement and noting that “Businesses must focus on individual customer behavior to determine the effectiveness of their outreach efforts.”
Virtual marketing communication
Advances in digital technologies have expanded the channels through which marketers interact with customers, requiring new metrics for online engagement. Virtual marketing is one of the latest developments in marketing communication. Virtual environments can affect how companies compete in changing markets.Facebook alone has over 3 billion monthly active users, which creates a virtual platform where marketers can connect and communicate with customers in a way previously not possible. They can identify their preferences, tailor and target their advertising, and create online conversations and communications. According to Claffey and Brady, word of mouth, or consumer-to-consumer advertising, is very effective and beneficial to consumers as it creates a virtual space where they can communicate with each other. They can inform each other about personal experiences with the company, whether positive or negative. The effectiveness of this is seen with TripAdvisor, which is increasingly becoming the first port of call for travel information and impacts tourism operators' business both positively and negatively, depending on consumer reviews.
Traditional marketing strategies are becoming less effective in modern society, as the rise of the digital age has reshaped how marketers reach and engage with their target audience. Where traditionally marketing focused on the product, now it is more important for the business to focus on the buyer and the brand itself. Businesses cannot expect to be able to communicate as they have been in the past, where they would simply post pictures and descriptions of their products. They must redesign their marketing structure to suit the needs of the digital consumer. Whether businesses should be able to advertise on social media, which is a place designed to contact peers and use as a form of leisure, is raised by Savulescu. For consumers, business advertising in these forums could be seen as intrusive, an invasion of privacy, or even unethical. This could affect the business's brand. However, consumers generally accept that social media sites are businesses that need funding to provide their platforms. So they accept that advertising contributes towards how the platforms are funded and therefore accept it as necessary. However, this does not mean the consumers may not feel negatively toward excessive and annoying advertising, which could in turn reduce the effectiveness of the message or damage their connection with the brand. Savulescu's question, however, is a reminder to businesses that they should respect the forums as a place of peer-to-peer conversations and social leisure and ensure their presence in these forums is not overbearing or intrusive.
The use of social media
A business can use this virtual platform as a place to advertise to customers. In particular, social media, such as Facebook, is used by advertisers to target consumers. Social media helps to categorize consumers by having groups that they can join, which identify their interests. Businesses now have a self-selected market segmentation to which they may target their advertising. Businesses can also use virtual engagement as a way to contact consumers and get feedback, market insights, and engagement, as well as give the consumer information they may require before they make the purchase. This virtual engagement allows the consumer to build a relationship with the business as they are able to interact and communicate easily with them, which leads to trust and brand loyalty being formed. Another strategy businesses are using through the virtual world is running competitions on social media and taking advantage of its accessibility.Often, these competitions are used to gain more followers by prompting social media users to like and share a post on their own profiles. Businesses are becoming ever-increasingly creative with “like and share this post” competitions to maximize the effectiveness and benefits. For example, when National Geographic ran their competition, My Nat Geo Cover Shot, over Facebook, they asked fans to upload their own photos, add a caption, and be in to win. This campaign not only gave the consumer a feeling that they are a National Geographic photographer, but also gave National Geographic a large amount of information about their customers and their travelling behaviors, photo techniques, and much more.
The use of social media has been a revolutionary marketing strategy for many industries. Tourism, for instance, once dominated by travel agents and travel brochures, is now dominated by online forums and booking sites. Tourism companies now have an easy platform where they can post photos to inspire and attract consumers. Social media can be utilized to provide consumers with information on holiday destinations and where to stay during their trip and, once the trip is over, successful marketing strategies can be used to help the consumer remember their time there. Businesses can either choose to have paid advertisements or unpaid advertisements on social media. Unpaid advertisements sometimes include groups and competitions run by the company. Paid advertisements are usually either on the side of the screen or can be “sponsored” depending on what the business pays. According to Xie and Lee paid, and unpaid advertisements have equal effect on consumers’ willingness to purchase a particular brand. One example of how tourism companies are using social media is NZ Rental Cars following travel Instagram accounts, liking posts, and re-blogging them onto their site to showcase NZ places to visit and attract customers.