Need for effective digital marketing strategies for businesses in 2023

Are you aware that digital marketing has become essential for budding marketing professionals and businesses, irrespective of their size and industry sector?

Read on! to get to know the various aspects that led digital marketing to make an impact socially and economically in recent times and the forthcoming trends. 

Digital marketing has taken-the-world-by-storm with new strategies introduced every other day. It’s increasingly hard to traverse the web or you-tube videos without noticing ad pop-ups. Technological transformation altered the medium through which users gain information/knowledge about specific products or services. Changing consumer dynamics and increasing social media channels have forced businesses and brands to employ digital mediums to maximise their reach and achieve sales conversions. 

Digital marketing today has become a crucial element of marketing for all businesses. With the digital medium grabbing everyone’s attention irrespective of age, business houses strengthen their in-house digital marketing team or partner with digital marketing agencies to improve their digital presence. 

Businesses with a robust digital presence and effective digital marketing strategies experience tangible results generating more leads and achieving sales conversions, triggering both product and service-based companies to rework their digital marketing budget. The digital marketing industry is rapidly transforming, becoming the preferred option, unlocking more opportunities for digital marketers, and taking priority over other forms of marketing.

Why digital marketing is essential in the current scenario?

Digital marketing is becoming critical for businesses to achieve their goals and succeed in the hyper-competitive landscape.

People’s internet usage statistics reports by digital marketing research institutes are surprising, with teenagers topping the list for internet usage specifically on social media platforms. Businesses can choose appropriate channels to promote their product among relevant target groups. 

Customers surf the internet for desired products or services before making a purchase. Influencers and product/service reviews heavily influence purchase decisions. Hence it’s essential for brands to have a positive digital presence to influence the audience to become customers and improve their ROI.

The three most inherent components that play a crucial role in digital marketing:

Consumers – Irrespective of business size and industry, consumers take precedence over other aspects.

Content – Content needs to be designed appropriately with visual elements based on the channel and audience segment to attract users, influence them and ensure they buy your product. 

Social Media Channels – You can promote your product/service using your website or diverse social media platforms. Devising effective and result-driven strategies integrating different channels to communicate about your business depending on your product/service and your target audience will help you build a powerful brand.

Significance of digital marketing for contemporary businesses:

1) Cost-effective strategy for budget-conscious enterprises:

Most businesses could not indulge in traditional marketing due to high pricing. HubSpot studies state that the Cost Per Lead (CPL) with inbound marketing is 61% less than other marketing channels. Digital marketing enables small businesses to promote their brand at varying budgets, increasing Return On Investment (ROI). Standard features of digital marketing tools and certain activities like email marketing, blogs, articles, and social media conversations require zero investment which is viable for small and medium businesses to effectively create a brand presence and position themselves in the market. 

Digital marketing is a time-saving and cost-effective strategy which helps you improve your bottom line with minimal effort. The introduction of various digital marketing automation tools helps eliminate repetitive tasks like sending emails, and devise tailored social media campaigns and content, improving your performance efficiency.

2) Enables businesses to determine target audiences with ease:

Digital marketing tools help businesses effectively identify, evaluate and segment their audience based on different metrics like demographics, purchase patterns, buyer preferences, etc., with precision enabling them to focus on specific groups and budget allocation and achieve high ROI in the shortest duration. Google Trends, Alexa, Google Insights, Facebook Audience manager, etc., enable you to identify your niche customer segment. What’s more, it facilitates surveys, immediate feedback and competitor analysis which assists in fine-tuning your digital marketing strategies. 

3) Facilitates quick conversions: 

The conversion rate is the percentage of the audience who enter your sales funnel, which includes subscribers, leads, sales conversions, etc. Digital marketing enhances the visibility of your brand driving sales conversions. Employing Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) tools like EBooks, Chatbots, Pop-ups, and A/B testing helps you to streamline the process. 

Exit pop-ups and A/B testing are popular and effective, creating quick conversions. Exit pop-ups ask for user data to provide relevant information about the products/services offered. A/B testing, which is accurate with minimal ambiguity, is about creating several iterations of a page on your website suitable for different audience segments.

4) Engage mobile users with ease:

The 2018 ICUBE report states that 40% of Indians surf the internet daily, with 97% of the users connected with their mobile gadgets, increasing the opportunities for mobile marketing. Mobile usage has increased with digital advancements, streamlined internet access with smartphones enhancing user experience, facilitating businesses to reach their potential and existing customers anytime.

5) Enhances your brand visibility:

Positioning your brand on major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., and on digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., creates awareness, enhancing brand visibility. Devising effective digital marketing strategies can help you construct a positive brand image, and pay-per-click and paid promotions enable you to generate more leads for your business.

6) Experience tangible results:

With digital marketing, you can measure the success of each campaign with various tools and metrics and make appropriate changes to your campaign strategies. Analysing results and metrics is essential to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and stand out among your competitors.

Effect of digital marketing for B2B and B2C marketers:

The maximum number of internet users learn about businesses, and their products/services using social media platforms, with Facebook stating that close to 10 million businesses use the platform to promote their products and engage with customers. Enterprises employ social media for Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer marketing.

B2B Marketing: Digital marketing offers immense opportunities for B2B marketing. B2B marketers use search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, attractive landing pages and platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to build communities to network and engage with their audience.

B2C Marketing: B2C marketers use social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., to increase brand visibility, attract the audience to their website or influence them to buy their products/services.

Businesses, in addition to using social media channels for posting ads and content, use the following digital marketing strategies to reach potential buyers and sustain brand awareness:

How Digital Marketing helps Freshers and Professionals?

More companies nowadays opt for internet marketing due to its tangible benefits opening up opportunities for digital marketing professionals.

Based on Naukri.com, the average annual salary of entry-level digital marketing executives ranges between INR 2,00,000 to INR 6,00,000. SMM specialists, PPC experts, digital marketing consultants, and search engine optimisation analysts are a few other roles that offer competitive pay.

With the scope to explore wide-ranging roles, sound knowledge of digital marketing strategies will help you stay competitive and succeed in a hyper-competitive environment in 2023.

Let’s look at some of the factors why it’s worthwhile to pursue a career in digital marketing:

Provides job safety: Demand for digital marketers is increasing by-the-day since companies need skilled professionals to handle their digital marketing requirements. Unlike traditional marketing, the market scenario is bright, with jobs not affected by recession or pandemic situations.

Lucrative income opportunity: While there is a constant need for professionals with digital marketing expertise compared to the number of skilled professionals, companies offer competitive salaries to retain their resources.

Enables you to stay updated: Professionals need to stay updated on the latest trends and best practices to stay competitive and distinguish themselves from other competing professionals in the field. Innumerable free resources are available in the market, enabling students and professionals to enhance their skills and expertise and stay at the forefront.

Explore entrepreneurial opportunities: Digital marketing is a versatile skill helping students and professionals become all-rounders opening them to entrepreneurial or wide-ranging freelance opportunities. 

Digital marketing trends you need to be equipped for to remain competitive in 2023:

Digital marketing trends are rapidly evolving, with new players entering the market and technological transitions, let’s look at a few trends that will help you stay competitive in the market:

1) Analytics integration:

Once you have posted visual elements or content, you can employ various analytics tools and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign. With digital marketing’s real-time analytics tools, you can assess, gain insights and take immediate decisions, customising content and visual elements to suit even the minority audience preferences and respond rapidly.

2) Collaborating with social media influencers:

Digital marketers from different industries are collaborating with influencers to promote and complement their brands since it helps build trust as consumers connect with their counterparts than companies. Brand-influencer partnerships are expected to increase in future compared to brand-celebrity partnerships to drive brand awareness and sales.

3) Video content to dominate compared to other forms:

With users’ preference for online videos due to short attention spans, video content is expected to dominate in content marketing compared to other forms of content and linking brands and consumers. Nearly all social media platforms contain provisions to host and share videos; adding relevant keywords to image and video titles and including alt text in image descriptions facilitates potential buyers to discover your products/services comfortably.

4) Deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI): 

Integrating AI helps digital marketers understand and evaluate consumer behaviour to offer a more personalised experience. AI enhances user experience by providing personalised assistance at each stage of the buying process. Programmatic advertising helps businesses achieve this with automated ads to target audiences and is expected to be the next big thing as it allows digital marketers to have control over the audience, bidding strategy, budget, assets and placement.

5) Augmented and Virtual Reality campaigns:

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality marketing campaigns help brands build awareness, and connect with their audience, enhancing customer experience.

6) Omnichannel marketing for seamless user experience:

Consumers use different platforms to get to know about your brand and products/services. Ensuring a consistent brand presence integrating multiple channels like websites, apps, social media, and email, in addition to offline channels to offer a seamless user experience. Omnichannel marketing strategies are popular with healthcare, retail, finance, technology, and many more.

7) Using interactive content:

Interactive content increases the amount of time potential buyers engage with your brand allowing the brand to gain more insights into consumer purchase patterns and preferences to optimise their digital marketing strategies. Examples of interactive content include contests, polls, surveys, games, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1) What is the need for digital marketing in the existing scenario?

Digital marketing is essential because it enables businesses to target specific audience segments with a worldwide reach. It is data-driven with measurable metrics and provision for optimising strategies, unlike traditional marketing, bringing in high ROI with minimal investments.

2) What is the importance of digital marketing in the manufacturing industry? 

Digital marketing helps businesses understand consumer preferences ensuring quick conversions, and offer personalised services to enhance consumer delight. It plays a significant role in helping businesses in the tourism sector optimise their strategies to identify and target specific buyer segments. 

3) Why are digital marketing strategies essential for enterprises? 

Modern businesses need effective digital marketing strategies to guide them in a particular direction, which starts with setting clear business and marketing objectives. Business objectives across the sales funnel can include increased brand awareness, clicks to the website, conversions ratio, consumer loyalty, etc.

4) How much does an entry-level digital marketing executive earn in India?

According to Naukri.com, the average annual salary of entry-level digital marketing executives ranges between INR 2,00,000 to INR 6,00000, while mid-level executives earn up to INR 8,00,000 per annum.

5) What is the future of digital marketing in the contemporary world?

With transitioning digital landscape worldwide, nearly 77% of enterprises worldwide have embraced the digital medium with effective content marketing strategies to position themselves. The demand for innovative and talented digital marketers is soaring, with an upward growth trend.

Key Takeaways:

Modern businesses need effective digital marketing and content strategies to advance and flourish in the current scenario. Budding students and professionals eager to make a career in digital marketing should enhance their skills and expertise to become competitive and stand out from the crowd to succeed.