need to discuss replay with Harvard refrances —– “Digital platforms” is defined by Bekbergeneva (2020) as a multifunctional hybrid kind of virtual platform over which diverse interactions take place related to socio-economic relations to achieve a common goal through interactive communication, multimedia and technology for data gathering and analysis. Those digital platforms include social media platforms like Facebook, knowledge platforms like Yahoo!, media sharing platforms like YouTube and View and service-oriented platforms as Uber, airbus and GrubHub (Watts, 2020). Marketing was one of the main fields that were massively affected by the evolution of digital platforms. Marketing with digitalisation became customer-centric at the heart of achieving a successful marketing communication strategy with the right mix of offline and online communication channels. Focusing on highly anticipating and satisfying target market needs and wants for efficient and effective marketing and business performance. Furthermore, due to the high and fast B2C and C2C interaction through multimedia communication with digital platforms and consumers attaining an increasing power in content marketing and even product and service innovations, businesses started to highly value the importance of customer relationship management over digital platforms as a vital factor for effectively promoting their products and services. Companies nowadays can establish direct low-cost individual contact with customers at any time and any place and through any device, thus, more effectively promoting their offerings as Krasnov et al. (2018) emphasised. As Krasnov et al. (2018) added, through digital platforms, marketing activities transformation has developed in terms of the interaction arrangement with online consumers, improvement of digital methods for processing marketing information and automation of marketing planning, activities and implementation (Krasnov et al., 2018). With all these factors with digital platforms and the associated UGC, inbound and crowdsourcing marketing, marketing took the customisation dimensions where companies address their target consumers effectively and widely. Achieve high purchase intentions, offline and online leads, high conversion rates, social recommendation and advocacy, according to the RACE planning framework (Chaffey & Smith, 2017). Resulting, as well, in marketing mix innovation in product placement, design, packaging, promotions and effective pricing (Oslo management,2010). All the above-discussed innovation opportunities in the field of marketing provided by digitalisation indicate why marketers are focusing on digital and social media platforms in delivering their messages over the most effective channels, at the right time, to the right audience and with the right offering. Especially with search engine optimisation (SEO) and all other latest digital marketing activities such as direct email marketing, pay per click and PPC ads. Emphasising that through digital platforms, marketers have the differentiated advantage of direct, effective and low-cost social listening to accurately evaluate and measure Marketing KPIs such as those of social media platforms identified in the Altimeter social media ROI pyramid by Owyang (2010) relating to clicks, followers, views, check-ins, WOM, revenue and reputation. On the other hand, as Stankovska et al (2016) indicate, the lack of resources, knowledge, skills in the UKs SMEs was the most frequently identified barrier to expanding their usage to the digital technologies. Therefore, companies need to partner with third parties who have the skills and abilities to efficiently develop their (SMART) objectives and social media effective Key performance indicators (KPI’s) for efficient performance and to survive in this highly competitive digital marketplace. Considering the cross-functionality factor in the digital environment, where multiple channels, platforms, touchpoints and devices usage and integration take place. Besides the increasing customers’ power to control their purchase journey and information processing with the latest techniques such as permission marketing and cookies enabling and disabling. What can an entrepreneur or an SME with a limited budget do to increase traffic over its newly launched Instagram business page without the help of a third party? References Bekbergeneva, .. (2020) Digital Platforms as a Key Tool for the Transformation of Regional Economy. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration. VIII: 33-38. DOI: Chaffey, D. & Smith, P. (2017) Digital Marketing Excellence. 5th ed. Taylor & Francis. Available via the Vitalsource Bookshelf. [Accessed 25 November 2021]. Krasnov, A. Nikonorov, V., Yenenko, M. (2018) Digital Platforms based marketing innovation: new development trends. SHS Web Conference (44) DOI: Oslo management, Recommendations for collection and analysis of innovation data ZISN. Available from: [Accessed 25 November 2021]. Owyang, J. Altimeter (2010) Framework: the social media ROI pyramid. 13 December 2010. Altimeter blog post. Available from: [Accessed 25 November 2021]. Stankovska, I., Josimovski, S. & Edwards, C. (2016) Digital channels diminish SME barriers: the case of the UK. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraivanja 29 (1): 217232. Available from: [Accessed 25 November 2021]. Watts, S. (2020) Digital Platforms: Brief Introduction. 8 July 2020. The Business of IT Blog. Available from: [Accessed 25 November 2021].
