Digital marketing is a growing trend day by day, with internet marketing concepts becoming a powerful medium for digital marketing and electronic devices such as cell phones, digital billboards, tablets and laptops, portable game devices, and many gadgets that help in digital marketing. In this chapter, the role of digital marketing in assisting companies to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage was analyzed. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has put an end to companies' sales and business growth predictions, and digital marketing is no exception. Digital marketing will be at the forefront as many marketers might be looking for creative ways to sell online, reduce lead costs, increase click-through rates and conversion rates, and seek out what's new in digital marketing. This chapter focuses on understanding digital marketing concepts and how firms can achieve a competitive edge using various examples. This chapter reviews the different digital marketing concepts and strategies adopted by major global companies.

Relationship selling is a strategy of attracting suitable consumers and then establishing, sustaining, and strengthening relationships with them to achieve long-term satisfaction through mutually beneficial partnerships. For a firm to remain competitive over time, it must ensure its strategies are difficult for competitors to duplicate. Thus, relationship selling is leveraged as a tool for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In today's competitive environment, customer relationships are expected; hence, the establishment and development of relationship metrics is not an anomaly within successful sales organizations. With product quality becoming a universal standard and no longer a major source of competitive advantage, firms are striving to escape the quagmire of the “commodity mentality” that has pervaded the market today. To differentiate themselves, a number of these companies are resorting to relationship selling. This chapter focuses on understanding relationship selling, its components, and processes, as well as how it contributes to sustainable competitive advantage.

The variety of risks and the frequency with which they can disrupt a supply chain are now vastly wider than ever, rendering heightened volatility the emerging norm for contemporary supply chains. Thus, resilience has grown in importance as a component of supply chain management. It is suggested that firms increase risk prevention and response strategies to inject resilience into supply chains. SMEs require resilient supply chains to anticipate potential changes, react to actual changes, and deliver superior value. By creating strategies that enable the supply chain to recover normal operations after a disruption, building supply chain resilience can assist in lessening and overcoming vulnerabilities to risks. The chapter aims to provide a detailed insight into the impact of one critical dimension of supply chain resilience, supply chain preparedness, which is aimed at boosting SME sustainability.

Contemporary marketing innovation embraces digital platforms, and irrespective of where SMEs operate, they are confronted with highly volatile, competitive, and dynamic market conditions. Research shows businesses cannot become profitable and competitive without implementing appropriate digital marketing strategies. By utilizing digital tools, SMEs can identify, engage, market, and successfully sustain consumer relationships. Therefore, the chapter analyzes literature to identify the various digital marketing strategies SMEs can adopt, the benefits they stand to gain, and the potential direct and indirect effects on SME performance.

E-marketing is a strategic marketing approach that has revolutionized how marketing is executed by transitioning from traditional to internet-based platforms. It has significantly altered how firms interact with their customers. To provide insights and offer guidance for the growth and development of e-marketing among SMEs, the chapter explored the organizational, technological, and environmental elements that may drive the adoption of e-marketing, as well as models that can be implemented to enhance e-marketing. A thorough analysis of the literature revealed a significant positive association between sustainable marketing strategy and SME performance, indicating that sustainability is significantly influenced by the level of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability.