EMERGING TRENDS IN DIGITAL MARKETING IN INDIA
Dr. Subrato Dey
Faculty and Public Relation Officer,
Symbiosis University of Applied Sciences, Indore
Symbiosis University of Applied Sciences, Indore
Capt. Shekhar Gupta
Pilot / Co-Founder
Aircrews Aviation Pvt.Ltd, Indore
Aircrews Aviation Pvt.Ltd, Indore
ABSTRACT
The massive Indian market is changing fast. Internet access is mainstreaming among professionals and the use of mobile is intensifying. The pace of change continues to be rapid with digital channels constantly growing in volume and strength. More people spend more time online in India every year, and the digital tools and sites they use play an ever-growing role in their lives. Smart marketers keep on top of the scale of change and ensure their marketing strategies and touch point’s mirror where the consumer is spending their time. These notes give a sense of the scale of change we’ve seen so far and implies the scale of what is coming.
Key words: Digi Marketing, SEO, E-Commerce, Web portals, Google.
I. INTRODUCTION
Digital Marketing is a part of a Digital Economy. India is a fast moving nation towards digital economy and this movement has been accelerated with the demonetization of the Indian Currency in the last quarter of year 2016.With it various government digital payment promotion schemes has been launched. Digital market requires digital promotion and marketing strategies. The telecom sector is also playing an important role in the digitalization movement. Recent launch of reliance telecom Jio with the free & unlimited internet facilities has played a revolutionary roll. The other prominent companies like Airtel, Idea, Vadaphone & BSNL are also offering attractive internet plans. Indian banks are also providing more customer friendly & secure money transaction services. Now Indian consumer is spending more time on social media and internet surfing. Thus the visibility of any product is more through digital medium than traditional marketing techniques.
Digital marketing techniques includes Content Marketing, Marketing Automation, AdWords, SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing and Website Design.
The key players role players and infrastructure providers in Digitization of an Economy are government, banking system, Shopping Portal in India, Internet Service Providers and Software Service Providers.
1.1. Meaning
The use of the Internet and other digital media and technology to support „modern marketing‟ has given rise to a bewildering range of labels and jargon created by both academics and professionals. It has been called digital marketing, Internet marketing, e-marketing and web marketing and these alternative terms have varied through time.
Digital Marketing is the term most frequently used today, so that is the term we focus on. In simple words we define digital marketing is “Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies and media”. So, digital marketing is about utilizing digital technology to achieve marketing objectives. There is no essential need for digital marketing to always be separate from the marketing department as a whole, as the objectives of both are the same. However for now it remains a useful term because digital marketing requires a certain skill set to utilise the digital technology effectively. As the recent Developing Digital Skills 2015 report showed, many marketers are now spending > 50% of their time on digital marketing activities and two of the three top job roles in marketing are digital, so clearly digital skills are needed for the marketers & managers.
1.2 Effective Ways of Digital Marketing
In order to achieve success one supposed to move in the following manner
· Plan - Create a structured plan and roadmap by reviewing your current weaknesses and the opportunities to boost online leads and sales.
· Manage - Review your marketing activities, so that you know where to focus to get the Quick Wins which will make the biggest difference
· Optimize - Learn the best practices and success factors to help you compete to get better results
It is no exaggeration that you live in a digital world and from that perspective it is imperative that your business has an impressive presence in the digital space. In essence, digital marketing is the future of marketing in the world with the added advantages that it is cheaper than traditional marketing and is measurable.
Let‟s list the different ways you can use the digital medium to popularize and drive conversions for any startup or business.
a) . Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
In layman‟s terms, Search Engine Optimization or SEO is essentially tweaking your website so that it comes up naturally or organically for search results in Google, Yahoo Bing or any other search engine.
Google updates its algorithms regularly so that only the relevant results come up. From that perspective, many experts say that SEO is dead and the effort is futile. However, the truth is that Google tries to prevent algorithm manipulation and filters sites that don’t deserve to be on the top of SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
So there is no doubt you should invest in SEO work. Your website should address the technicalities related to content and query matching, spidering, indexing, and interpreting non-text content.
Remember, it is the most cost-effective marketing strategy that will bring organic traffic to your business.
b) Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the comprehensive strategy to drive traffic to your business, primarily through paid efforts. Hence it is also called Paid Search Marketing.
The universe of SEM is diverse and complicated. Based on your business structure, you may choose PPC (pay- per-click) or CPC (cost-per-click) model, or CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) model.
There are different platforms for SEM. By far, Google AdWords (on Google Network) and Bing Ads (on Yahoo Bing Network) are the most popular.
You may choose a single-point strategy like PPC, or go for a complete SEM strategy, including Display and Retargeting. But whatever you do, make sure your work is managed by experts as wrong planning may make your costs go haywire.
c) Content Creation
Content can be presented in different formats, including blogs, white papers, e-books, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, forums, news and updates, images, banners, infographics, podcasts, webinars, videos, or content for microblogging and social media sites.
All recent changes to Google’s algorithm - be it Panda, Penguin or Hummingbird - point to the fact that content is the most important metric while filtering search results.
You can be creative and create content on any topic and then skillfully link it indirectly to your business. You may like to read our article on how to include content and market your startup or business free of cost.
Also, you need to customize your content for different platforms. For example, the content for mobile phones should be crisp and short.
Remember, an effective strategy will engage your readers and leave them interested in more information from you. Good content is shared and is the best way for branding your business.
d) Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social Media Marketing or SMM is an offshoot of your SEM efforts. It involves driving traffic to your sites or business through social sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.
As we mentioned above, good content is shared and liked. So create and customize content for different social media platforms. Remember to be prolific and original; you need to engage with users on a daily basis, at least four to five times a day. Your SMM efforts can be especially helpful for branding and driving sales.
e) Digital Display Advertising
This again is a subset of your SEM efforts. You may use a variety of display advertising formats to target potential audience - be it text, image, banner, rich-media, interactive or video ads.
You can customize your message based on interests, content topics, or the position of the customer in the buying cycle.
However, note that Digital Display Advertising is relatively costly. You need experts to drive good ROI for your business.
f) Retargeting and Remarketing
Essentially, Retargeting or Remarketing is a strategy to target customers who have already visited your website. It is based on cookie technology.
Retargeting has emerged as a preferred strategy as you target customers who have already shown interest in your business; and hence the conversion rate is high.
You may engage in Retargeting on your site, or on social network or on the mobile. Visualize your strategies based on the customers' buying cycle.
g) Mobile Marketing
The website, apps and content is being customized for mobile devices. The mobile users are growing day by day and it is the most effective way of marketing.
h) Interactive Marketing
Make sure your advertising strategy engages the potential customer in a conversation.
According to a survey by ExpoTV.com, 55 percent respondents preferred to have ongoing communications with the companies they buy from; and 89 percent felt more loyal to the companies if they were invited to provide feedback.
Use tools like widgets and opt-in features to make your website interactive, solicit feedback and track user behaviour.
Engage with the customers actively and customize offers based on their preferences and browsing activities.
i) Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing is a strategy where a unique content spreads exponentially online, because the content is appreciated, shared and liked immensely.
This is a great way to brand and drive traffic to your website. The content can take any format; all you need is to be creative.
j) Email Marketing
When you send a commercial message through email to a list of potential customers, the strategy is called Email Marketing.
With an effective email marketing software, you can maintain email lists that are segregated based on several factors, including customers‟ likes and dislikes, and spending habits. Remember to send personalized emails; this helps to develop trust.
However, note that Email Marketing may also be considered as spamming and there are laws against it in some countries.
k) Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is a performance-based marketing program, where you pay publishers who bring you customers. The performance may be based on conversions - promotions, leads or simply sales. You may like to be part of the affiliate programs of different publishers. Essentially, the publishers will give you space in their pages to advertise your business and help you drive conversions; and you will pay them based on the compensation model. You may avail the help from an Affiliate Network, which will give you a large base of publishers, and other benefits like tracking and reporting technology. Affiliate Marketing is especially useful for startups, as it will bring in more traffic to their business through high-traffic sites. In essence, Affiliate Marketing is a win-win situation for both the merchants and publishers. Sites like Amazon, eBay, LinkShare and Flipkart run Affiliate Programs. In fact, most online businesses with appreciable traffic have their own affiliate programs.
l) Digital Media Planning and Buying
When a media agency researches and makes a comprehensive strategy framework, we call it Digital Media Planning. Be it in driving sales or conversions, launching a new brand or promoting an established brand, or changing customer behaviour, the media agency plans different platforms and formats to reach the desired audience. It studies reach and frequency of different web-based and mobile applications. The agency works with different partners and buys relevant space and ideas. This is called Media Buying. In essence, Media Buying and Planning entails all the strategies that we have discussed above.
m) Web Analytics
Perhaps, the most important aspect of your Digital Marketing is Web Analytics. Essentially, Web Analytics helps you to collect, measure, understand, analyze, plan, report and predict the web activities for your business. Web Analytics should not be confused with Web Statistics. As opposed to simple reporting, Web Analytics gives you analyses and different angles to ponder vis-à-vis your business. Some of the important Web Analytics tools are Google Analytics, Spring Metrics, Woopra, Clicky, Mint and Chartbeat.
It goes without saying that every advertiser should use Web Analytics to understand his business and improve the ROI and conversions.
The figure below shows the most effective tactics used in a digital marketing plan.
Fig. Most Effective tactics used in a digital marketing plan
2.1 Changing Trends
The figure shown below is showing the growth of the retail ecommerce sales. This shows that Internet users are rising rapidly in India. With this rise the scope of digital marketing is also rising.
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Fig. Digital Marketing Commercial Impact Source : http://www.smartinsights.com/
The above statistics shows that various digital marketing activities with the greatest commercial impact in 2016. The Marketing Automation having the highest impact on the business of the company.
Following is the Statistics of Year 2015 and 2016
Fig. Digital Growth in Comparison to other factors
The above figure shows the Digital AD Spending to grow the fastest in 2016. Ad spending in India will grow 15.5% in 2016 to Rs 5,486 crore with digital advertising expanding with the fastest pace of 4.5% media agency GroupM said in its . 2015 and 2016 report. Digital advertising accounted for 12.7% of all ad spending in 2016, the agency estimated up from 9.9% in 2015.Television and radio will see slower growth that in 2015.
Again while all other industries are struggling hard to reach 5% to 10% growth rate digital marketing industry is booming tall with 40% growth rate, portable handy mobile device contributed more growth in web connectivity than computers that‟s because of affordability data plans and these initiate growth forecast that over next 5 years: mobile advertising revenues growth rate will tend to increase 27% with an excess of $27 billion revenue in 2017. With the increasing in digital marketing share – reports predict that it shares will reach to $185.4 billion by 2017.
Digital marketing main growth comes from social media, people nowadays spend their time on social media and that is a plus point for marketing, there are more than 82 million monthly active users for Facebook and in India it is expected that the nation will have the world‟s largest Facebook population by 2017.
2.2. Major factors affecting the Digital Marketing
a) India's literacy rate is at 74.04%.Kerala is the most literate state in India, with 93.91% literacy. Six Indian states account for about 70% of all illiterates in India: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Thus increasing literacy positively effecting the digital marketing growth in India .
b) Expensive technology: The mobile and internet rates are very competitive and now it is in reach of a common man also.
c) Cost of advertising: The cost of advertising is very low. One can have its own website in just Rs. 5000 in India. One can promote his product on Google with Google AdSense with just Rs.1000 a month.
d) Inherited limitation of Technology: In India the youth is very adaptable towards technology but still large population is not so friendly with the electronic gadgets.
e) Unavailability of Infrastructure facilities in India : The internet connectivity is still not available in Indian rural areas.
f) Believe in Traditional business practices : The small businessman having running its business in a small area and quite focused on that area only then he prefers Traditional ways of Promotion as it he finds it is more visible to the people around.
g) Lack of Online Business Experience: Lack of awareness about the digital marketing is also a major limitations in the growth of the digital market.
III. FUTURE OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN INDIA
Day by day growing Digital Market in India is an evident that the Digitization is taking place with a high speed. E-commerce website are providing all the goods and services through online portals online today. The increasing number of ecommerce websites.
WARC Survey shows that 35% of advertisers would increase their mobile advertising spend by 50% or more by 2020 in India.
According to the GroupM report, consumer product makers will remain the most dominant sector in terms of ad spending with a 28% share of the total expenditure. Many advertisers will increase their ad spending to spur demand, helped by the buffer provided by low commodity prices, which have reduced their input costs.
Thus, all reports and surveys conducted around the globe are showing that the digital marketing will grow more in coming years. Youth of India is very much technology friendly. By 2017, mobile devices are expected to reach around 3 billion units worldwide. So as more people use smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, the potential of mobile market continues to grow.
IV. CONCLUSION
As we all are experience a radical change in India towards the digitalization. The consumer are looking and searching more on internet to find the best deal form the sellers around India. Digital marketing such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, e-commerce marketing, campaign marketing, and social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, optical disks and games, are becoming more and more common in our advancing technology. Today we all are connected through whats app and facebook and the increasing use of social media is creating new opportunities for digital marketers to attract the customers through digital platform. Digital marketing is cost effective and having a great commercial impact on the business.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Web Resources
[1.] www.egapsawebmarketing.in/gro
[3.] yourstory.com/2014/12/digital-
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