This article has been written by Muskaan Khandelwal pursuing Remote freelancing and profile-building program and has been edited by Oishika Banerji (Team Lawsikho).
This article has been published by Sneha Mahawar.
Table of Contents
Introduction
In a tech-oriented world, businesses owe a long-term path of defined success. If a business wants to flourish on a large scale, it must define its presence among people in different ways. Today people have a keen interest in becoming entrepreneurs as they are familiar with the power of online platforms to make their business idea a super hit or flop; digital marketing is one of those powers. This article aims at discussing the need for digital marketing and the scope it carries alongside the challenges.
A brief about digital marketing
As per Saura (2021), Digital Marketing (DM) is a set of techniques to persuade a customer to buy something (product/service). Any sort of involvement of electronic devices for marketing can be considered as part of digital marketing. Online and offline marketing are two key pillars of digital marketing. In the current scenario, each business has a strong internet presence to serve its existing customers and approach new ones. It is somewhat the same as traditional marketing but still considered a new method for companies for reaching customers and understanding their buying behaviour. As per Gupta (2020), techniques that are used by online businesses to know their customers better are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), programmatic advertising, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Email Marketing, Video Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Ephemeral Marketing, etc. Have a look on few of these:
- Search Engine Optimization: According to Olson et al. (2021) this is a procedure of bringing more traffic or improving the quality of traffic on a web page from search engines like Google, Yahoo, Binge. This helps in increasing the rank of a website on a search engine.
- Programmatic Advertising: This is a method of using automated technology in order to buy advertising space (Kiran and Arumugam, 2020). In simple words, it is buying and selling advertisements for targeting the right audience at the right time and right place.
- Search Engine Marketing: An effective and efficient way to grow business in a highly competitive market. Paid ads are used by businesses to make their page appear on SERPs. As per López García et al. (2019) this marketing offers an opportunity to run ads in front of eager customers for B2C companies who are ready to spend pennies.
- Content Marketing: This is a strategy for attracting, engaging and retaining an audience by creating videos, podcasts, articles, blogs, copies, etc. This is a kind of inbound marketing, if done properly, makes it clear that the respective company values its customers (Lopes and Casais, 2022).
- Social Media Marketing: Social media is the fastest and best way of connecting with people, the only need is to be consistent on it. Erlangga (2021) says that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. are places to showcase your business, grabbing attention and generating high sales.
- Email Marketing: For this you need to maintain a list of potential customers that are interested in your business, product and services. Just send them regular emails to update them about new products, services, discounts and so on (Desai and Vidyapeeth, 2019). Try to keep them engaged either via conversation or sales.
Opportunities in digital marketing
There are a variety of industries that rely directly on customer behaviour, like travel and tourism, retail, luxury, entertainment, technology, and so on. All these industries are open to digital marketing and, thus, also enjoy all the opportunities that come their way via their presence in the digital market.
a. Knowing customers with effective cookie handling: Today, every application used by an individual asks for storing customer information by way of system cookies. This stored information is later used to track the activities of a person, like what they are searching for, their preferences, buying power, etc., on behalf of which the ads are shown to the individual to push them to install a particular application or to buy a certain product or service.
b. Grabbing unsaid customer commitment by offering doorstep delivery: Since the digital market has taken place in our lives, the contact of manufacturers, traders, and sellers with customers has declined at a fast pace. Because of limited face-to-face contact, delivery or shipping service is the only way of knowing a customer and handing over the information to online businesses. For instance, during Covid, delivery businesses made up their position in a significant manner and proved themselves as an important part of the economy.
c. Cost-effective marketing: When a business is already familiar with its customers, their wants, and preferences, it becomes easy for it to design under-budget ads, billboards, etc., and these can attract lakhs of customers with one time of investment.
Key benefits of digital marketing
a. Personalised interaction: It promotes interactive and live communication with the customers, therefore giving them a chance to design a product or service as per their expectations and understanding. A personalised interactive one-on-one conversation with a customer helps in making up their mind to buy a certain commodity.
b. Easily measurable market results: Whenever a business runs an advertisement or campaign online, it is easy to track its performance in terms of how many people have seen it, how many have reacted to it, how many got influenced from it, and so on. This was not possible in traditional advertising, which gave inaccurate data indicating whether the funds are spent efficiently or not. Online ads offer a chance to monitor and evaluate customers’ behaviour and find ways to make profits.
c. Effective for start-ups and MSMEs: Digital presence is a panacea for evolving businesses. This would not only help them in attracting customers but also attract investors by creating creative ads, flyers, websites, applications, etc.
Key challenges in digital marketing
a. Digital Divide Issue: Digital divide is a disparity between those who can afford internet services and who cannot. Even access to reliable internet service and digital space is a challenge. In addition to technical challenges, this is also a social issue that needs to be resolved by digital marketers. Because of this gap between the privileged and underprivileged, not a notable percentage of people go forward with applications of e-marketing.
b. High customer acquisition cost: As discussed above, not so many people are aware of these online businesses; thus, attracting customers and retaining them on the applications is quite tough. Companies need higher investments for e-advertising via social networking and creating awareness.
c. Lack of skilled manpower: If an online business wants to succeed, it needs the right knowledge and capable expertise in the field of digital marketing. While hiring for this job, an employer needs to judge the technical as well as creative skills of the candidate because, at the end of the day, creativity is what lasts and attracts customers. On the other hand, candidates should have the ability to adapt to rapidly evolving technologies and participate in training sessions to embed new skills to counter the market.
d. Rising competition: As of now every small or big business is taking support of e-marketing to expand nationally and globally in the digital market, this is resulting in high competition. In order to stand out from the competitors, a business should have a major focus on its customer’s wants globally, and then send them ads, emails, and posts related to their preferences to make them buy certain products or services.
Conclusion
This article has discussed all the related perspectives of digital marketing whether good or bad. Above all its pros and cons, it is a fact that to chase this fast-changing world, evolving people, their taste, and their mindset, digital presence is the need of the hour. An individual running a business cannot go to each of its potential customers to know their needs and wants; this was the reason why traditional marketing strategies were slow in giving outcomes. And here, digital marketing plays a significant role in each industry type, the only requirement is to learn how to use its tools and techniques in the right manner. Therefore, it is not wrong to claim that digital marketing provides ample opportunities for building effective customer relationships by directly knocking on the doors of their mind with attractive ads and campaigns.
References
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2444569X20300329.
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/940/1/012065/pdf
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