Digital Marketing- An impeccable need of the hour for businesses in JK
Digital Marketing actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the chance to compete against the big boys
Ravees Bhatt
With the number of internet users in Jammu and Kashmir poised to touch a whopping half of the population of the state in coming time s per Internet and Mobile Association of India, investing in digital marketing guarantees a colossal growth for J&K Enterprises.
With the change and evolution of modern technologies, small and medium businesses are doing everything they can to keep up, which can be said true for the rest of human society. Brick-and-mortar businesses are either changing their business models to an online one, or beefing up existing marketing efforts with digital marketing strategies – in an attempt to capture a growing and very lucrative online marketplace.
For it is the process of attracting targeted audiences online that will spell the difference between a successfully thriving business – and a failed one. Even if you receive tons of daily traffic to your website, they would not amount to anything unless they convert to leads or sales. In the digital arena where business and commerce are heading to, Digital Marketing tools and techniques provide business owners the best chances for competition, survival and even business growth.
With these gigantic figures in place, no doubt the opportunities associated with digital promotion and marketing are immense and businesses are increasingly acknowledging this fact. In this write up you will find the essence of Digital Marketing and Branding and business potential of Digital Marketing.
Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field
Gone are the days when business owners still welcome the notion that Digital Marketing is only for the likes of multinationals and large corporations that have the sufficient resources required to mount an online marketing campaign. Digital Marketing actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the chance to compete against the big boys and attract their share of targeted traffic.
With digital marketing, small companies now have the resources to perform sales and marketing processes that were previously available only to large corporations. Without a call center, small businesses can engage effectively with multiple customers, even to customers from any parts of the world even if they don’t have physical stores or branches in these locations.
Unprecedented reach
While an innovative product does help in creating a buzz in the market, the real potential of a class apart entrepreneurial idea can only be leveraged is via a solid marketing strategy. Digital marketing in this regard proves to be a shot in the arm, building a brand from its nascent stage. A holistic digital marketing initiative including targeted campaigns on social media, email as well as mobile can do wonders when it comes to conversion rates. The booming smartphone penetration in India coupled with increased usage of internet has given rise to a new group of consumers who heavily rely on the internet for purchasing products and services.
Digital Marketing Entices People to Take Favorable Action
While social signals and testimonials help earn trust from targeted audiences, Digital Marketing makes use of effective strategies that will entice people to take a favorable action your brand or business intends them to take. Conversion to leads or sales is still initiated and under full control by the website visitor. They are not compelled to do so but digital marketers can make use of clever and innovative ways to entice conversion using Calls-To-Action.
Calls-To-Action specifies what your web visitors should do next – either to sign up, like, download something, call or buy – specific steps that will entice them to perform a favorable action. Innovative forms, buttons and texts are optimized according to copy, color scheme, graphics and even positioning on the page to generate the best results in terms of generating favorable action.
Lower Operating Expenditure
Since Jammu and Kashmir is home to a significant number of Small and Medium Enterprises, budget constraints have always been key obstacle for them when it comes to deploying aggressive marketing approach. A properly planned and effectively targeted digital marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods.
Digital Marketing Earns Businesses People’s Trust
Digital Marketing rides on the current online trend that focus more on social media signals resulting from direct and more personalized interaction between a brand or business and their targeted audiences. In the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey that involved 25 thousand consumers coming from at least 50 countries, 90 percent of respondents claimed they would trust information about a particular brand, product or service if the data comes from people they know.
Digital Marketing leverages on social media signals, social proof and testimonials from actual consumers who have previously purchased, joined, or availed of a product or service marketed by a particular brand or business. The more reliable these social signals are, the higher the trust rate it can generate from targeted audiences – most of which can be potential customers.
Undeniably Traceable
While measuring the effectiveness and accurate impact of a traditional marketing strategy is a daunting task, digital marketing can be tracked with a host of web analytics solutions and other online tools. The tools fetch you with comprehensive information regarding the behavior of customers after viewing your advertisements or website. This visibility also enables a business to make quick amendments to its digital marketing strategy for better results.
Highly Customizable
Notifying your customers with customized targeted offers as per their purchasing behavior will not only help you in increasing your revenue figures but will also result in a kitty of loyal customers. The more the customers engage with your brand, the more you can filter your marketing strategy to help them with tempting offers.
Digital Marketing Builds Brand Reputation
The power of digital marketing lies in its ability for attracting targeted traffic. These types of audiences for your content are most likely already ready to know more about your brand, products or services and may be interested enough to purchase what you have to offer. Delivering on what you promised will help you develop a better relationship with your targeted audiences, help them transition into paying customers that will go back and interact with your site some more – on a regular and continuous basis.
This will prove beneficial for your brand reputation, as satisfied customers will most likely tell other people about their experience with your brand, product or service. Your brand reputation will go viral as expected, further opening new doors of opportunities for reaching bigger markets and attain business growth.
Higher Conversion Rates
Digital marketing is a coherent process where in customers can engage and purchase with the brand with just a few clicks. This concludes in higher conversion rates for businesses unlike traditional marketing strategies with multi step processes.
Digital Marketing Caters to the Mobile Consumer
Undoubtedly, mobile internet will be the next wave of information dissemination and communication channel, brought about by the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices. These mobile devices have become a central part of American life that 91% of adults in the United States always have their devices within reaching distance.
Now would be the best time to have digital marketing campaigns intended towards mobile consumers, paving the way for them towards achieving better growth and faster expansion. Mobile gadgets have evolved from being mere alternatives for laptops and personal computers, into something that is influencing their purchasing decisions as confirmed by another report from eMarketer.
Digital Marketing Makes You Ready for the Internet of Things
The “Internet of Things” is a global ecosystem of interconnected devices – tablets, smartphones, gadgets, appliances and more – that can interact with each other through the Internet. Sounds like something from a Sci-Fi thriller, but this is what the projected 24 billion gadgets by the year 2020 will actually head to. Digital Marketing will prepare your business towards this eventuality, an interconnected ecosystem that will permeate through every aspect of people’s lives. Survival for your business in the era of the “Internet of Things” means inclusion in this interconnected grid – giving you an access window to reach out to targeted audiences belonging to this online grid.
Digital Marketing Ensures Business Survival Online
It is a normal occurrence for brick-and-mortar business establishments to encounter visitors entering their store, skimming through and inspecting products, then leave without buying anything. Many kinds of people like these come and go, but a targeted few will actually make a purchase and if satisfied, will come back for more on a later date. If you get less of the later and more of the few, sooner or later your brick-and-mortar business will cease to exist.
Your business can be likened to this. Even if you have tons of website visitors but none of them ever convert, your business will also cease to exist. Digital Marketing helps you make use of proven strategies and techniques that attract not necessarily more traffic – but highly targeted traffic that delivers results. Targeting the right kind of people that delivers the right kind of results is what Digital Marketing is all about – ensuring survival for your business.
To undergo Seven-Days Leadership Program on Digital Marketing and Brand Management all Entrepreneurs and aspiring professionals can apply on www.niitsrinagar.com/DMat Zero Training Fee
(The writer is Business Head NIIT Srinagar)
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