Digital Marketing in India

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing, also known as Online Marketing, is the promotion of brands, products, and/or services online. This can be done by leveraging multiple channels including search engines, social media, online content, and paid advertising depending on business objectives.

Digital marketing includes all strategies applied online to market products and services, whether you’re targeting potential audiences via computer, iPad, or app. If you follow brands or influencers on Instagram, you’re experiencing digital marketing daily—and likely every time you open your feed. The same goes for when you take a deep dive into Google search results to find anything from a new dinner spot to where to find online digital marketing courses.

Why is Digital Marketing important? 

1. Affordability

Digital marketing is considerably less expensive than other marketing methods. Specific prices vary based on what you’re doing but ad spend tends to be lower than other forms of marketing.

2. Mobile Access

You may not know this but  77 percent of Indian adults own a smartphone and are likely to use that smartphone or another mobile device for news, social networking, and countless other activities. Digital marketing helps you reach them while they’re doing this. With remarketing ads, email and text marketing, and social media – you can be in front of your audience while they use many different apps on their mobile phones.

3. Flexibility

There are many forms and uses of high-quality digital marketing, including banner ads, email marketing, content marketing, and social media posts. Thus by learning how to creatively market yourself digitally, you open up a wide range of possibilities for future publicity strategies. With digital marketing, you also have the flexibility of testing and stopping poorly performing campaigns in real time.

4. Expansion

Many consumers do almost all of their shopping online. Digital marketing lets you appeal to these people and thus expand the reach of your company. Between Google Shopping Ads and brand awareness campaigns, you can expand your brand recognition and boost sales.

5. Multimedia

Customers tend to engage more with marketing materials that combine multiple types of content, including photos, video clips, and audio. It is far easier to incorporate all these content types into digital marketing than any other type of publicity – and it is very important.

6. Interactivity

Digital marketing lets you communicate directly with the customers who see your content, notably through website comments, messages, reviews, and social media posts. This shows those customers that you care about what they say and think, leading them to feel respected and part of the community you’re building. It also allows you to gather invaluable information on customers’ reactions and preferences.

7. Tracking

Besides communicating with customers, digital marketing lets you track their activities. You can monitor which ads and types of content they have seen shortly before they make a purchase. This tells you which marketing methods are most effective, allowing you to refine and improve your strategy.

8. Authority

Digital marketing makes it easy to comment on issues and controversies that relate to your product or your industry. In this way, you can establish yourself as an authority on such topics, leading readers to trust you, come back for more information, and eventually make a purchase. Digital marketing allows you to come off as the industry expert that you are and will instill trust in your business.

9. Influencer Engagement

Many of the most influential figures in modern culture promote themselves online or through social media. Digital marketing allows you to engage with these influencers and gain their respect. If you play your cards right, you can get them to endorse you, leading their followers to become customers and spread brand awareness.

10. Print Enhancement

Digital marketing lets you expand on your print marketing efforts. By writing online content that explains claims you make in your print ads, you can go into greater detail, maximizing the effectiveness of all forms of publicity and integrating your campaigns.

Types of Digital Marketing

We’ve arrived! It’s time to dive headfirst into 9 types of digital marketing. Types of online digital marketing include:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Search Engine Marketing and Pay-Per-Click Advertising
3. Social Media Marketing
4. Content Marketing
5. Affiliate Marketing
6. Influencer Marketing
7. Email Marketing
8. Viral Marketing
9. Mobile Phone Advertising

Increasing Trends in India:

As a Digital Marketer, it can be argued that the most important phenomenon that happened in the Digital Marketing scenario in India, in the past few decades, is the “Jiofication”. On September 6, 2016, Reliance Industries launched Jio to the public, thereby creating a new meta. With dirt-cheap pricing and several free offers, it molded the average Indian mindset with a craving for more data.

People with no access to the Internet were given access and existing Internet users were given more data which provided them with a wide array of browsing possibilities. This meant more eyes viewing the content you put out on the internet.

T series is a shining example of the phenomena. As of 1st December 2018, the T Series YouTube channels stands at over 72 million subscribers and is well on its way to becoming the top Channel of youtube. The channel which was established in 2006 had about 30 million subscribers in 2016. This rapid growth can be attributed to Jiofication. Now imagine the same scenario with your business. More and more Indians are getting Internet savvy and are watching the content you put out online. So the Indian digital landscape is a great place to invest, as it full of new opportunities.

Demonetization has also had a huge impact on the Indian Digital landscape. After November 2016, there was a severe shortage of paper currency in everyone’s pockets. This is when digital payment gateways came into play. Even small-time merchants were forced to look into alternative ways of payment. This is when companies like Paytm flourished.

Digital transactions became the new meta for the average Indian consumer. Those vendors who had no digital alternative for payment suffered dearly. Paytm wallet was a simple application that was essentially a wallet for your digital currency. Customers flocked to it and vendors to adopt this alternative because it looked easier and was much more efficient.

In such a scenario where most Indians have the power of the high-speed Internet at their fingertips, it opens a rather wide avenue of opportunities. Let’s see how we can utilize them.