A business spring onto life with an innovative idea and leverages on the confidence and hard work of the entrepreneur. Unfortunately, even with the best efforts, some fails miserably while a fellow competitor even with an inferior product become an overwhelming success.
What makes the difference? The customers.
The customer is the sole reason for the existence of any business.
Marketing is a strategic activity to familiarize your brand and attract customers to generate revenue. The famous quote of Steuart Henderson Britt
“Doing business without advertising, is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”
perfectly explains the role of marketing in business growth.
Every marketer tries hard to grab the attention of the audience through various marketing activities such as advertisements, billboards, TV shows, influencer marketing using celebrities or even though sponsoring. Venues with high human activity such as busy intersections, sporting venues or premier Tv shows etc. are a hot choice. The tough competition escalates the marketing expenses to new heights and pushes the smaller ones to insignificant positions.
Digital marketing is an umbrella term used to address marketing activities using digital devices, both in online and offline worlds. It could be a website, electronic billboard, email marketing, SMS, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Blogs or even mobile Apps to improve brand awareness levels.
At present, the number of internet users is 4 Billion. It means more than half of the total world population now has access to the online world. Affordability of smartphones and data packets enable people to spend more time on the internet and it has turned out to be their second home. With such a huge audience, the internet is a sea of opportunity for the marketer to promote his brand beyond geographical limitations.
Internet, by its nature, provides equal and fair treatment to all. It enables small companies to stand side-by-side with the tycoons in the industry without coughing up a fortune.
The affordability and popularity of the internet make it a crowded place and requires a great level of expertise to make your content standout the competition. Contrary to the common belief of making web pages stuffed with keywords and some social media shares, digital marketing is a long-term strategy to build a brand reputation through various activities such as digital advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Content Marketing etc.
Even for a company with less online activities, better visibility on various popular platforms improves the brand credibility and authority. The Internet enables a user to compare the product features and a get fair idea about quality through product reviews within the comforts of his room. Nobody will be confident to purchase from a brand with no traces in the online world. This can potentially harm your growth perspective and may even push you to obscurity with low client engagements.
Digital Advertisements are designed with a specific target to benefit from timely intervention in the market to improve sales. For instance, a company can produce digital advertisements in various forms such as pay per click ads, social media shares, campaigns, landing page etc. during a festival season like Christmas or New year to improve the sales.
Digital advertising is often short-lived and will not have many impacts on the brand value even if one such advt. fails. But an incorrect digital marketing strategy can derail the entire process of brand building efforts and can cost dearly.
The major attributes of Digital advertisements are:
Affordability – The upfront investments are quite low when compared to conventional marketing tools like billboards or TV commercials. They are scalable and economical. For instance, you can design a pay per click advertisement and pay only for the clicks received.
Fast –Multiple versions of the same advertisement can be flashed across platforms with varying frequency and can reach the potential buyers instantly.
Specific & Targeted – You can design digital marketing materials specific to each age group, gender or ethnic group to attract the targeted audiences.
Measurable – The effectiveness of each marketing activity can be measured using specific tools and can change the strategy accordingly.
The ever-changing nature of the digital world and its continuous evolution makes the life of a digital marketer challenging. The solutions worked a few days back is no longer an option and demands continuous upskilling.
Some of the most happening areas in digital marketing are :
Content marketing involves the creation of enticing contents in various forms such as Web pages, Product descriptions, Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Social Media posts, Emails, Tutorials and marketing materials to improve the brand penetration. Creation of quality content which cares on human interactions than search engines is crucial for better ranking and conversion rates.
AI and Machine Learning algorithms perform intrinsic data analysis to prepare highly personalized marketing strategies for each individual and market to be more efficient and productive.
With the advent of AI enabled personal assistants such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant etc. the popularity of voice search is getting traction when compared to the text-based searches. This demands the content be tweaked to cope up with the challenges of this upcoming trend.
Chatbots are excellent virtual assistance in customer support segments where data analysis is highly required for efficient service. They are prompt, responsive, accurate and can even mimic human behavior without losing the temper or being rude, even to an annoying customer
Augmented reality elevates online shopping to a highly personalized purchasing experience. You can easily check the compatibility of a sunglass or the shade of lipstick before placing the order by using these tools.
Instead of sending a generic mail to all customers, a personalized mail based on the previous purchase or communication history adds more value to the relationships and helps you to improve the business. Marketing automation enables this without much efforts from your side and assures best ROI.
Website personalization is much beyond a user account and the limited scope of personal preferences. Personalization of current times serves a purpose and it is one of the driving factors for improved user engagements and SEO rankings.
A well-designed User Interface attracts the customer but it is the user experience that makes them stay with the site and reduces the bounce rate.
For instance, a hotel reservation booking website can enrich your experience by providing details about nearby restaurants, local entertainment availability and travelling guidance on the fly. For an eCommerce site, personalization can be derived from a user’s previous visiting history and can even suggest products or accessories for customized user experience.
MindLabs Systems, headquartered at Kochi provides comprehensive digital marketing solutions to companies with diverse requirements. Our competency, professionalism and expertise in developing tailor-made solutions, helped us to be successful in carving out a niche and brand reputation in the highly competitive Indian IT market.
