Over the past few months, as physical mobility has been impacted, brands have looked online for two important needs:

• Getting products/services to consumers
• Getting brand messages to consumers

For many companies, large and small, a strong sales team was the solution to getting products on shop shelves, and communication to the shop walls.

Now as the offline world is restricted, companies and brands are looking for more efficient and effective ways to reach their distribution channels and their consumers.

Digital Marketing and E-commerce platforms therefore are becoming very critical components of day to day business. Companies are growing their online presence, both in terms of content as well as simplifying purchase.

However, once question we are now being asked is: If everyone is doing Digital Marketing, should we also do this? Why will we succeed? Is it not waste of money?

Our answer, and this is based on many many companies that have succeeded online is a big fat YES! The world is changing, and those who are adapting to the digital first world, are winning.

So the real risk is, what happens if we choose not to go online.

Everyone goes to school, so should I also?

Sometimes, everyone does something only to get to a level playing field. Where the minimum qualifications are very important simply to sustain oneself. This is the same reality brands are facing: competition is heading online, because customers are now available online. We need to understand how to succeed there, not to avoid it altogether.

The cost-effective form of marketing:

The good news is that digital marketing does not require huge investments. Small businesses can start find channels that work and can learn on the go, through small spends. Small experiments. There is no need to create heavy advertisement spends. And this allows each company to create a learning process for itself which can progress at a pace suited to it.

Understand how consumers interact with you:

What is good to see on Digital Marketing is how the entire consumer funnel works and flows. How people react to content.

- What type of content is bringing consumers to your webpage, i.e. efficient TARGETING

- From there, what content keeps them staying on the page and what is causing a heavy bounce rate.

- What content motivates the customer to actually make a purchase.

- Beyond that, which customers are coming back to repurchase. How frequently do they do this? What’s their lifetime value.

- What is therefore the cost of acquisition for your business.

Experiment with data and campaigns:

A successful digital marketing strategy gives conversions from interest to purchase. By bringing in the highest quality customers (who generate the most value over their life with your brand) and the lowest cost of acquisition, your marketing ROI is continuously enhanced.

The speed at which experiments can be made, data received and iterations made, allows for very fast progress on the ROI scale.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is no longer an option. In a world where data is so freely available and access to data is everywhere, where e-commerce and Direct To Home delivery have changed the entire notion of shopping, digital marketing brings your brands closer to your customers.

Consumers are no longer heading to malls, cinemas and shops in big numbers. They are in front of screens, and mostly in front of small screens feeding on a range of entertainment options. Digital marketing helps you find your audience, engage with them and learn quickly.

It’s not a spend. It’s an investment. It’s not about whether you should do it or not. It’s about how soon. Your competitor is surely thinking the same thing.