It’s a Friday evening, and you’re scrolling through your Instagram – something intrigues you. It’s an ad for some jewellery and you decide to check it out. Ultimately you end up liking and purchasing their product. Like you, millions of other social media users are engaging with ads and buying products, and where the customers are- the brand is. What was just described, is one facet of digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
In layman terms, local online marketing is advertising delivered through digital means. These can be search engines, websites, social media platforms, apps and emails. When consumers want to know about a product, they are more likely to start their inquiry using a search engine, or visit the website of the brand.The ability to reach hundreds of potential customers, simply through the Internet is the beauty of advertising online.
Relevance of online marketing in current scenario:
In today’s day and age, much of the content consumed is not through written word, but in terms of social media posts, websites, videos and other visual media. Consider an example of the“Gen- Z” and“millennial” generations. They rely on 15-30 second videos (also known as reels)for entertainment, news, and yes, advertising. Therefore, brands have to adapt to these trendy methods to deliver their information.
Traditional means of marketing – billboards, newspaper ads, broadcast etc don’t reach a larger audience, while also being expensive. It is for this reason, that these means are becoming obsolete.
Whereas, posting about your company on social media, is way cheaper and reaches a large mass of users at one go. Because of its relative ease of use and cost effectiveness, small businesses or individuals are also able to compete on par with big corporations.
Since everything is posted on or via the internet, the advertisement is not just limited to local users, but has worldwide reach as well.
The discussions so far show that digital marketing has a more productive outreach than with offline marketing. It is said that the 4 P’s of traditional marketing: price, product, promotion and place have now changed to process, people, platform and performance in the digital age.
