Digital Marketing is the idea whose time has already come & every time there is a life-changing event (Pandemic Lately), the belief just gets further re-enforced / implemented with more rigor. Marketing of products and services through digital channels, or digital marketing- has been one of the biggest megatrends of the past several years. Digital marketing involves promoting one’s product/services through Digital Ecosystem. Its essence lies in communicating with customers in a language they understand and at a place where they hang-out, which is increasingly becoming online like social media primarily. The exponential growth of the internet and the increased affordability of smartphones coupled with the 4G network launch have enabled companies to connect with their current and potential customers in unimaginable ways until some years back. Digital marketing is at its harnessing; this marketing has become a pivotal aspect for every business, such that most growth strategies now revolve around it.

Digital marketing is an affordable and efficient upgrade to traditional marketing techniques. It improves the efficiency of businesses by allowing them to gauge consumer sentiment in real-time. For instance, ‘Pay Per Click’ allows easy tracking of a campaign’s performance metrics and the possibility of improving it as you go, which helps the company make timely and informed decisions. It is far superior to the sunk cost of billboards and flyers that couldn’t be modified once in place, which businesses had to once live-with. Similarly, email and social media marketing have one of the highest ROIs by offering efficient ways to promote products, elicit feedback, and increase brand loyalty. Therefore, digital marketing has made way for more sophisticated ways to nurture the client-company relationship.

Data-driven marketing through the advent of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence has made it possible to track human behavior patterns and trends like never before, which has completely revolutionized the industry. The entire e-commerce industry thrives on the same. It offers vital insights into the target audience, which are extremely useful in creating more effective customer touchpoints. These innovations have made digital marketing to be the most successful platform of our times.

In this era of information explosion, there is also an increased focus on transparency. Customers today are smarter as they can research, review and compare products in seconds, unearthing any myths and false information along the way. As Jeff Bezos puts it, “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6000 friends.” Hence, digital marketing has proved to be an effective medium of enabling ongoing customer engagement conversations and paving companies’ ways to become more socially responsible.

From my first job in India’s Biggest B2B Portal, IndiaMART, to currently working big India’s most prominent Real Estate Portal, Magicbricks, life has come full circle for me. It has been a roller-coaster ride for all Digital Marketers / Digital Sales Professionals & I am personally excited to be part of such a ride. Every Digital Marketing Professional had to continuously evolve themselves & update with the latest technology & innovations prevalent in the market. A delay in catching up will invite the inevitable, i.e., make them redundant in this very competitive market. Digital Marketing has also come a long way in Real Estate, from Digital Marketing Spend of around 5-10% earlier to over 50%-70% currently. Digital Marketing is the most sought after medium to reach out to relevant TG’s in the current market scenario wherein every developer is looking to optimize the cash flows & marketing budget. End-to-end online interaction will very soon replace physical site visits by consumers.

Over the years, digital marketing has evolved considerably from merely being a medium to doing business. Designed as a combination of creativity, research, and analytics, digital marketing has become the holy grail for all companies, big and small alike. With the second largest number of internet users globally, the Indian economy hosts many opportunities to use digital marketing to realize businesses’ growth potential. With over 450 million smartphone users in the country, growth of regional language usage, access to technology through voice, and a mix of early and new internet users make, the market is ripe for opportunity. In this era of a brand explosion, we must embrace it now more than ever and develop growth opportunities centered on it.

Source: https://www.torbitconsulting.com/insight/the-universe-of-digital-marketing-opportunities-galore