Importance of Digital Marketing

WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING
Everybody has heard of “Digital Marketing” but exactly how many of us actually know what Digital Marketing actually means?
As per Wikipedia, Digital Marketing can be explained as:
Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.

Various mediums of Marketing products & services have evolved since the late 1800’s. The first invention that made marketing accessible to the masses was “Radio”. Most of us still hear Radio on our way to work or while driving & some of us like my parents start their day with radio – hearing the news.
Then came the “Television”, a shiny little black & white box which combined Video along with Audio making the products & services more presentable as people could actually see what the product or service was about rather than just hear of it.
Various platforms have evolved since the 1900’s on this new platform called an “Internet”. Internet was the new kid & everybody was anxious to get on it not because it was new but because of its reach. Imagine being able to reach out to Millions of people not just outside of your city but across States, Countries & Continents – WOW, the potential was just HUGE!
In 1995, 2 students at Stanford, “Larry Page” & “Sergey Brin” started a company called “Google”. Google was supposed to be an Internet Search Engine which will crawl the internet & gather information so that when somebody needed that information it could be quickly & easily provided to them.

From 1997 through 2001, there were so many ideas which were born around new products or services because of this revolutionary platform called the “Internet”. There was an altogether new industry which developed to take care of the demand to create a place on the Internet by creating “Websites” & Market your product or service using strategies like “Affiliate Marketing”.
The advent of “Google” just made it easier for people searching for them to find these websites & the information regarding their products & services.
That is when Digital Marketing was born!
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN INDIA
As explained above, “Digital Marketing” is the process of marketing your Products or Services on Digital Media like: “Internet”, “Mobile Phones” etc. So, it is safe to say that as long as we have these technologies handy, Digital Marketing is not going anywhere.
Digital Marketing is evolving with the advent of new technologies like “Speech Recognition”, “Artificial Intelligence” & “Social Media”.
Here are the top 5 reasons why Digital Marketing is important in India:
1. Reach – Smart Phone Usage is supposed to Increase to 339.35 Million users in 2018 in India alone & is supposed to increase to 2.3 Billion users in the world as per the stats provided by Statista.
By 2022 the users of smartphones will be around 442.5 Million in India. That simply means the market is just going to grow & your business can either use this opportunity to grow or ignore it until its no longer possible.


2. Millennial Generation – By 2020, 1 in 3 adults will be “Millennials”. These are 18 – 35-year-olds who have been in the 2000’s & hence are the “Internet Generation”. The way they access information before they buy a product or service is different from traditional means.

1. They don’t use laptops – they use Mobile Devices.
2. They don’t drive – they Uber & they use this extra time to stay connected using mobile devices on social media

3. platforms or browsing the internet to do research on a product/service. So, Hoarding Ads bye bye!
4. They don’t go to Marketplaces – they do Online Shopping & are not afraid to buy costly products on the internet too.
5. They are constantly connected to the Internet & will only buy from a company that has an online presence. If you don’t have an online presence – YOU DON’T EXIST for them.
6. They need Options – Since they are not worried about buying any product/service online they will be willing to buy products/services offered across the globe as long as the company has reliable testimonials.
7. They don’t watch TV – they Netflix. This Millennial generation loves the concept of “Curated Content”. They don’t want to waste their time watching whatever a television channel projects onto them they would rather watch a video on a topic that they are interested in. So out go the television ads!
Original Content is what they are looking for. They will NEVER buy if you shoot a video with a model, they hate artificiality. They would rather you shot a video from your phone of a real person talking about your brand.
3. Accessible – Digital Marketing is an accessible marketing technique which you can start using to market your products or services on the Internet immediately.
You don’t need huge budgets for “Television ads” or “Hoarding ads”, you can get your online presence up & run in a couple of months by:
1. Having a Responsive website – With platforms such as “Wordpress”, “Squarespace”, “Wix” & “Shopify” having a great looking responsive website with all the necessary features that you need for your business is easy & quick. These platforms are not that costly too & have great plugins that you can use for additional features if needed.
2. Ads placed on “Google”, “Facebook” & “Instagram” are very cost efficient at this point of time. With a Cost to Click of as low as Rs.10/-, you can launch your ad campaigns on social media platforms & also understand what keywords people are using to search for your products or services on the internet.
3. Time-sensitive campaigns can be run on the internet using the above platforms so you can optimise on your costs – for example, if you serve “Special Occasion days” centric products/ services like on “Festivals” you can only run campaigns during those periods & pause for the remaining days.


4. Tracking – Digital Marketing gives you an option to track:
1. How well your Product or Service is known in the market
2. How your Ad Campaign is performing
3. How much Revenue you were able to generate from your Ads costs
4. Calculate ROI to understand which medium is helping you generate more revenues
5. Re-Marketing or Retargeting – A wonderful opportunity to reconnect with users who engaged with your product/service.

If you have ever shopped online on “Amazon” or “Flipkart” you would have noticed that when you add products in the cart & don’t check out the next web page that you see will have an ad showing the same products. This concept is called as “Remarketing/Retargeting” & is used to remind users that they have products left in the cart & can check out if still interested.
Sometimes these platforms also offer additional discounts using these Retargeting ads. This provides a huge opportunity to businesses by being present before the customer to remind him of your product or service.
Using this technique you can also run ads only to people who have:
1. Visited your website
2. Taken a particular action on your website which shows that they are interested in your product/service
3. To offer additional discounts to push them to make a sale as per the desired action that they have taken in step 2.
Retargeting is also apt for Business to Business companies to ensure that your ads automatically follow up with your prospects even when you are not on your laptop, on vacation or sleeping.



CONCLUSION:
Digital Marketing is the process using which you can market your Products or Services on Digital Media like the Internet, Social Media, Internet advertising & Mobile Phones too.
Digital Marketing in India is important as
1. The number of users of smartphones is going to reach around 400 Million by 2022.
2. Millennials will be the predominant adult generation by 2020 which means your brand should be present on the internet if you are willing to be still in business.
3. Cost-effective means of advertising compared to traditional media like: “Television ads” or “Hoardings”.
4. Tracking availability to calculating the right ROI (return on investment) which is not available with traditional media advertising.
5. Re-Marketing or Retargeting which helps you to re-engage with an audience who have taken the desired action on your website.



You have 2 years to make your Business – Online ready so DON’T WAIT until the last minute, reach out to us at sirisha@brandingbypixels.com to get your Digital Strategy crafted because there is NO other way out.
Have a great week ahead.
Happy Marketing,
Sirisha Inapurapu,
Founder, Head – Marketing,
sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
www.brandingbypixels.com




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