Perspective - Digital Marketing: Not a fad to fade away || Ajay Singla || IIM Raipur || November 2015 edition

Digital Marketing: Not a fad to fade away

- Ajay Singla

  IIM Raipur

More than three billion population is internet user which forms around 40% of the world population. Internet has influenced all spheres of life. Be it banks, hospitals, corporate offices or any other field, all are dominated by internet. In such a scenario, how can marketing remain away from shackles of internet. There is no business currently which can think of going global without digital marketing. Talking in narrow terms, no business can even think of growing and surviving the huge competition without digital marketing. Such is the charisma of digital marketing which has mesmerized every business organization.

Digital marketing is actually nothing but marketing of products and services using digital technologies. It encompasses creating brands, customer values and increasing sales through the digital channels. Digital channels includes internet, Television, radio etc. Internet comprises the most significant medium of digital marketing.  There is a great scope for creativity and innovation in digital marketing which has brought about a revolution in the marketing arena. A lot of start-ups take birth every day. About 80% of them use digital medium to market themselves which points towards the potential of digital marketing.

Digital marketing is not just a fad which will fade away with span of time. It has become a part and parcel of corporate arena. You write the name of one commodity you desire and the web page will come up with numberless links escorting towards different sellers. Digital marketing has not just facilitated business organizations but have also made the life of the customers very easy. Ice bucket challenge is a prominent example of pinnacle of digital marketing where Indian celebrities take on the challenge and made the campaign viral within a couple of hours. Social sites like facebook, whatsapp, twitter etc. has made the job very easy.

Digital marketing can reach the places where traditional marketing could not think of. To reach 50 million customers, it took radio 38 years; television took 13 years while Internet took just 4 years to reach even more number of customers. Such a high population of internet users has increased created the wide base for digital marketing. Digital marketing is a very effective medium of communication to the customers. Through digital platform, the companies are able to collect good amount of information about its customers. So behavioral advertising is possible where digital marketing can be customized according to customers’ requirements. The cost involved in digital marketing is also very less compared to traditional marketing. You never know when a small advertisement goes viral within a small span of time. It gives almost equal opportunity to the small businesses to create an identity in corporate world. Digital marketing works at real time. You market your products through digital platform and you get instant feedbacks about the feasibility from the customers. Thanks to the digital marketing that every day so many startups take birth and survive.

Competition among the businesses is very strong and growing at compound rate. In such a scenario, there is a great chance that the customers tend to ignore the efforts made through digital marketing. Feedback mechanism does not prove a boon always.  One grave negative feedback and you start losing your customers very rapidly. So one should be very much careful at digital platform for marketing the products because here is the place where you can’t hide the things easily which you have shown earlier willingly.

The present government of India is making a wonderful use of digital marketing to market various public related facilities and amenities.  Apart from this, Indian tourism is growing by leaps and bounds thanks to the digital marketing strategy adopted by Indian tourism industry worldwide. Marketing of tourism industry at such a large scale could never be possible without digital marketing. Marketing of socially beneficial schemes of government of India like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Jan Dhan Yojana etc. digitally has played an important role in their success. Big campaigns like Digital India, Make in India, Skill India etc.  could never be launched in India had there be no digital marketing.

The current trends overtly speaks that digital marketing is a must for the businesses. Without effective digital marketing strategy, it’s very hard for the business to grow.  Digital marketing should be implemented strategically with a well-defined set of plans and procedures. Going for digital marketing without any material plan is like a shot in the dark. First of all, the market should be segmented and a particular market segment should be targeted for digital marketing. Continuous follow up is necessary to ensure the desired outcome out of digital marketing. Digital marketing has a huge scope for businesses to grow, develop and shine. It depends on the corporates themselves how they handle the steering wheel of digital marketing. A planned digital marketing approach, a correct strategy and a right stroke are enough to take the business to the sky.