Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

Each marketer faces different challenges. Despite the fact that they regularly share comparable goals, a few teams are stuck on hiring top talent, while others are experiencing difficulty finding the right technology for their needs. 
 
Whatever the case might be, there's dependably no less than one area that you can get to your feet and improve. Inquisitive about what sorts of obstacles other marketers are up against? 
 Here are the 3 problems <keyword id="2643131" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="DIGITAL-MARKETERS">digital marketers</keyword> confronted in 2016 
 
Consumer expectations 
 
Meeting the expectations of a consumer base that is continually associated is their main challenge. Consumer-produced content can travel faster than at any other time, and it's additionally profoundly influential in consumer basic leadership. It's not just about comprehending what consumers want, as, or need right now — it's about envisioning trends and demands with the goal that you can time your campaign flawlessly-- to make a viral sensation. 
 
Data collection 
 
Data-driven marketing is the business standard. Regardless, we're stuck in idle, concentrating on data collection. Most marketers are simply figuring out how to creep with regards to making data actionable at scale; and 2016 didn't see much improvement in that direction. 
 
Abundance of tools 
 
The greatest challenge confronting digital marketers nowadays is abundance. Marketers have never had more tools at their fingertips to make, oversee, advance, and promote digital content. Be that as it may, with greater accessibility comes greater responsibility. Marketers are currently expected to administer huge volumes of content over various platforms, make unified experiences that turn visitors into fans, followers, and leads, and at the same time measuring the performance of everything with a specific end goal to settle on more informed marketing decisions. It's hard to keep up and stay ahead of the curve.

3 problems digital marketers
faced in 2016

<ul><li>If an industry can flourish during a global pandemic and one of the worst economic crises we had to face, it can survive through any challenges that come in its way.</li><li>Digital media has proven time and again how integral it is to the advertising industry’s survival and growth.</li><li>However, every year brings with it a set of challenges different from the previous one. So, in our second year-ender, we look at digital marketing, its growth trajectory and look at what lies ahead.</li><li>Experts are optimistic that 2022 will be a game-changer that will help them redefine a lot of rules in advertising, with smarter marketing techniques.</li></ul>The digital marketing industry in India not only managed to weather the pandemic’s impact but also flourished gracefully in 2020. It accelerated at an unbelievable speed, exceeding all predictions and expectations. Brands were quick to adapt, pivoting aggressively from traditional mediums to invest in digital. Digital media became one of the most effective mediums to reach out to people locked inside their houses and stuck to their phone and tablet screens. This trend of increased smartphone consumption is only expected to amplify as more people, especially in Tier II and III cities, engage more digitally and make purchase decisions through websites, apps, social media platforms. Apps have undoubtedly become the most popular destination for consumers and marketers are capitalizing on this trend to engage with them. As per GroupM’s TYNY report, global digital advertising should account for 64.4% of total advertising in 2021, up from 60.5% in 2020 and 52.1% in 2019. Zenith also estimates that global adspend will reach $705 billion in 2021, up from $634 billion in 2019, and will rise to $873 billion by 2024. Digital marketing in India is also at the cusp of a massive revolution as brands explore options beyond <keyword id="640850" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media-marketing" source="Orion">social media marketing</keyword> within the digital ecosystem and look to expand their presence across regional markets. RedSeer predicts that India’s digital ad expenditure will grow 10 times over the next decade and will likely account for 70-85% of the total ad market, which currently stands at 33%. It is expected to touch $25-35 billion by 2030 from $3 billion in 2020. So, without a doubt, digital marketing is the future of advertising and the only way brands can grow is by harnessing various digital tools. From buying medicine to groceries or shopping for a wedding, many consumers who would otherwise prefer to browse and purchase in person, have moved to online shopping due to the limitations that the pandemic threw at them. This quick change in consumer behaviour, accelerated by the pandemic, gave a push to e-commerce, performance marketing, augmented reality, mobile marketing, digital animation, video content, voice search, audio advertising and influencer marketing. In this last year, Instagram has also moved beyond just a discovery platform and influencer-led commerce has arrived earlier than expected. According to WARC, Instagram grew to become the largest social media platform globally in 2021 after overtaking the core Facebook platform for the first time. Instagram is forecast to grow to control over a third of the global social media market in 2023. Apart from social commerce, Instagram’s parent company’s Metaverse was the hot topic and trailblazer of 2021. In 2022, more brands will prepare for the next phase of the internet, include Metaverse in their marketing strategy and experiment with AR and VR. As we enter a new year and it brings a new set of challenges, different from the previous one, we speak to digital marketing experts, discuss the industry’s growth trajectory and look at what lies ahead. Here’s what experts had to say about digital marketing’s future in India: Neena Dasgupta, CEO and Director, Zirca Digital Solutions: The dominant trend that seems imminent and set to grow is the cross media measurement. The customer connect is critical given the significant shift in consumption patterns. Understanding the impact of the mediums and planning connect basis that is an inevitability. This would require customer segmentation by cohorts, enablement of linking these cohorts between brand and publisher (any medium) and tracking response and measuring attribution using data integration at a CRM level. The entire system is data and tech driven supported by psychometric tools for the purpose of cohort creation and mapping. All in real time. Single source panel is the need of the hour. And there are multiple measurement organisations working together on this. More importantly it’s critical that a brand understands trading needs to be made more efficient by enabling customer segmentation in real time that can be activated using programmatic means, also in real time. The data pool and nodes will take some time to build as in any data led ML, and eventually it’s data science and creativity at work to engage prospects. Harshil Karia, Co-founder and Managing Director, Schbang: I think two big trends will dominate marketing: 1) More and more brands using a combination of technology to enrich what they do at last mile conversion, data management, and using the marketing data as signals to business and sales teams more effectively. Expect more martech being deployed. And expect more people to learn martech and it's capabilities and the ability to learn and unlearn the same. 2) The use of automation will start to affect creativity. One ad can be delivered in a 100 ways using video Ai and voice. One copy can be written in many ways customised to context. The writers to can work well with an Ai and make it their friend will do well. An Ai works as well as the instructional data it recieves. The factor that will help drive this is increased demands from CEOs to integrate the marketing function into large scale business processes and have the vision to see the value it can unlock - a push but also some patience. The automation allows marketing to now affect at scale far more parts of the organisation than they already have. Marketers and creators will do well to be curious and have a learn it all attitude while knowing and deepening their craft on copy and design." Prashant Puri, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, AdLift: We’re entering the organic first age where prioritizing organic search becomes paramount. We see content playing a vital role here, be it optimizing for voice search or improving user experience via engaging content across all brand touchpoint. We estimate influencer marketing spends to catapult to $150 to $225 in 2022 with brands doubling down on influencer led marketing campaigns across nano, micro and macro influencers - capturing 7 to 9% of overall digital marketing spends in India. Chandni Shah, Founder and COO, Kinnect: The one trend I see dominating 2022 is Social Commerce. The e-commerce industry experienced accelerated growth with the pandemic, and social commerce emerged as the 'flavour of the year'. Social media platforms too joined the bandwagon and introduced features and tools to enhance the consumer journey - from product discovery to purchasing them on/through the platform itself. Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 contributed significantly to the new era of online social retail. In 2020, Facebook introduced Instagram shops, integrating e-commerce and the world's most popular social media platform. In the Covid-19 pandemic, the worldwide social commerce market is anticipated to increase at a whopping <a href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5140143/social-commerce-global-market-trajectory-and?utm_source=GNOM&amp;utm_medium=PressRelease&amp;utm_code=rm7g2f&amp;utm_campaign=1434938+-+Global+Social+Commerce+Market+Worth+%24604.5+Billion+by+2027+-+COVID-19+Updated&amp;utm_exec=joca220prd" target="_blank">31.4</a>%. By 2021, social commerce will continue to expand as consumers stick to digital habits, whilst e-commerce and conventional retailers adjust to the post-Covid-19 reality. Combining e-commerce with social media can be highly valuable; it allows consumers to look for brands via social media platforms and search for products they wouldn't usually look for on an e-commerce website. Brand hunt, influencers, and mobile payments are examples of social commerce in action. Thanks to AI, marketers can now gather real-time data on consumers and transform it into actionable insights. The upcoming year will see more users turn into buyers and make purchases through social commerce. Brands that haven't explored the opportunity yet will be quick to jump onto this trend. To sum this up, the shorter the buyers' journey will be, the lesser chance of them abandoning products in their cart. Hareesh Tibrewala Joint CEO of Mirum India: Covid has taught us that every business, big or small, B2B or B2C, irrespective of the category -- needs to have a way of reaching out to the consumers online, be able to showcase ones products and services, collect payment and make delivery. We will see e-commerce driving investments in the area of technology, content creation and media. We will see continued expansion of market places as well as emergence of D2C brands. Within ecommerce we will see movement towards voice-based ordering as well as conversational commerce Harsh Shah, EVP, Business- North and West, Dentsu Webchutney: 2022 is going to be the year of alternate digital realities. Yes, the metaverse! That moment in time where our digital life seamlessly co-exists with our physical life. That year, where our virtual possessions are of as much worth as our real-life possessions. Bank accounts and crypto wallets. Art works and NFTs. One of the key outlooks for brands should be to see how they can use 2022 to prep themselves to be not only present in the metaverse but also for immersive storytelling. With growing interest in the concept and it being part of popular culture, will accelerate adoption. It will outgrow the internet in adoption. Also, with 5G hitting the market, it can act as a great platform to drive that initial burst of growth. Shradha Agarwal, COO and Strategy Head- Grapes: In my opinion, AI will play a crucial role in the digital marketing ecosphere. We have witnessed that from data collection to geo-fencing, AI has been helping businesses grow extensively. The technology comes with such a great combination that it has been used widely in certain aspects such as content creation, chatbots and search engines. Sectors like retail, e-commerce, banking, healthcare, gaming and others are already backed upon on artificial intelligence as it helps them recognize consumer behaviour, search patterns and it also helps businesses understand how customers find their products and services. In the coming time, we would see many others sectors trying their hands on the tool marketers want good sales and better ROI through their marketing strategy. Therefore, AI applications can predict what customers are likely to buy in the future based on their past purchases and browsing history. With this approach, it becomes easier for them to target their users. Also, AI use is becoming of utmost importance for those companies whose business depends on smartphones and drive sales through social media. Hence, AI as a market will grow exponentially. Raman Mittal, CMO and Co-Founder, TO THE NEW: I believe the dominant trend of 2022 will be Contextual Targeting. Contextual targeting isn’t something new, but for a while it was in the shadows because it’s performance was lower than Behavioral Targeting that used cookies. But in this cookie-less world, the modes of serving personalized ads to the audience have shrunk and marketers are moving back to contextual targeting. Whether it is category, keyword, or semantic contextual targeting, it will be exciting to see future developments in this arena. Mohit Gyanchandani, Head, media planning and growth, DCMN India: For several years, the marketing industry has witnessed an ongoing contest between performance and brand marketing in terms of budget, resources and impact. But in 2022, we predict that the old dichotomy between the two will become increasingly blurred. This is in part due to the impact of COVID on businesses. After a volatile 18 months, many organisations are re-evaluating their goals and moulding themselves to survive and thrive in this new economy. Above all, companies know that to succeed, they need to build brand salience. We’re already seeing that for many of our clients, it’s not simply about brand versus performance anymore: the two need to work in tandem. That means bringing both sides of marketing even closer together and building fully integrated, 360 degree campaigns that power growth and build brand recognition across online and offline channels. Marketers will also start looking at results more holistically. Instead of just looking at one specific channel and its impact on direct KPIs, they will look at results through a broader lens: for example, the impact that a TV campaign might have on digital channels like search or retargeting. This doesn’t mean that pure performance-driven campaigns are going away completely. The best approach for a brand will always depend on the company’s stage of growth and their overall marketing goals. But for companies looking to scale, taking a fully integrated approach will be key to achieving cut-through in an increasingly competitive industry." Ankur Gattani, VP - Growth and Marketing, WebEngage around MarTech: Majority of Indian organizations have been using a mix bag of first-party (1P) and third-party (3P) data for marketing and advertising. However, the usage and impact of 1P data are expected to amplify in 2022 in a big way. This trend will dominantly be driven by the legal framework that will prohibit the usage of 3P data and force the adoption for 1P. Organisations like Amazon and Netflix have spoilt the customers with their personalisation mechanisms. What this means is that customers expect personalisation from the websites and apps that they visit. Marketeers will have to make optimal use of data and analytics to bring that level of experience for their customers. Reports suggest that over 80% of marketeers see benefits in leveraging consumer data for marketing. At WebEngage, we work 100% on 1P customer data and we believe this trend will not only help our clients engage with consumers in a meaningful manner but also improve their business ROI. Shivani Kamdar - Associate Creative Director, SoCheers: 2020 &amp; 2021 showed us how content is still the centrepiece of every marketing communication and how brands went the extra mile to establish a better connection with their audience. The coming year is going to be no different, in fact "Localisation of Content" is the need of the hour. A marketing technique for product promotion leveraging the local culture of the target areas by studying their preference, likes, dislikes. The customer begins to relate with the content at a subconscious level which in turn not only helps aid their purchase decision but in the long run, also helps forge a better recall for the brand. One of the key factors that will help drive this trend home is ground research - an intense focus on understanding the consumer intent by renewing SEO efforts. The other is the medium of communication. Building the right story is not enough; finding the most compelling way to sell it will do just the right thing. Will that copy be more relatable as a video or will adding audio to this help enhance the user experience? Consumers are craving interactive, consumable, entertaining content be it on mobile or across social channels; question is, will you give it to them? Dia Kirpalani, VP, Head of Strategy, Blink Digital: As we move into 2022 and beyond, we believe that both marketers and consumers will increasingly seek a clearly demonstrable line to value. To achieve this, marketers will need to harness the ability of end-to-end measurement, with an eye on their north star metric. India is moving online more than ever. With everything from shoppable content on social media, to conversational commerce bringing India's smaller towns further into the fold, this measurement is progressively important to assess where and how to communicate. Meanwhile, consumers will seek value and authenticity from their brands. Brands that win consumers' hearts will meet consumers where they are with content that has real relevance, whether they access it through voice, video or vernacular. Brands will need to also provide consumers an exceedingly easy content consumption or shopping experience through hiccup-free, friendly interfaces. Importantly, content will also need to authentically reflect evolving consumer values, and this will help determine what brands should communicate. For brands looking to scale up further, this combination of multiple elements is what will ultimately drive value. Rahul Nanwani, Co-founder &amp; CEO of ImageKit: It is predicted that globally, 82% of consumer web traffic in 2022 would be from videos. With India’s video market set to touch $18 billion by 2026, it will soon play a dominant role in digital marketing as well. Short-form videos have already attracted the attention of many Indians and the market is predicted to reach 650 million users by 2025. Thus, if brands need to reach a wider audience in the coming year, they need to utilize tools that will maximize their outreach through videos. Video optimization and media management tools help improve internal collaboration for teams creating the videos and then ensure that those high-quality videos can load quickly on a user's device. With several advancements being made in this field, brands will be able to provide better customer experiences and ensure their messaging reaches them through videos.

Metaverse, social commerce and personalisation in a cookie-less world: Here’s how digital marketers are preparing for the future

Digital Marketing Strategies

<ul><li>It’s critical for marketers to look beyond the current situation and gain a long-term view of the picture before pausing their <keyword id="618493" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">digital marketing</keyword> efforts. </li><li><keyword id="2812929" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Raman-Mittal">Raman Mittal</keyword>, CMO, and Co-founder, <keyword id="1583789" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="To-The-New">TO THE NEW</keyword> shares a few strategies you might find helpful for your digital marketing initiatives. </li></ul>As the internet became a part of our daily lives, digital marketing has proved to be imperative for brands. Considering 4.5 Billion internet subscribers globally, more &amp; more businesses now focus on creating an online brand image because that’s where their customers are! However, in the past few weeks, the outbreak of <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> has impacted our lives and multiple businesses across the world in unprecedented ways; marketing spends and activities of many brands have been paused, including various digital marketing initiatives. Today, it’s critical for marketers to look beyond this situation and gain a long-term view of the picture before pausing their digital marketing efforts. People are spending more time online now more than ever. In fact, as the coronavirus pandemic places a quarter of the world’s population under lockdown, internet hits have surged by 50-70%, according to Forbes. So, brands need to carefully define their digital marketing strategy and find newer &amp; sensitive ways to communicate during this time. Here are a few strategies you might find helpful for your digital marketing initiatives: Go for Responsible Marketing: Set the right tone of your content to communicate in these difficult times. At present, it is important for brands to establish an emotional connect with consumers, and therefore the messaging should be chosen carefully. Create engaging paid and organic content which is meaningful and relevant in these times; for ex: many brands are changing &amp; twisting their logos to indicate social distancing. Your brand messaging can also highlight the importance of social distancing, staying at home to keep everybody safe, sharing helpful insights on work from home or important business tips in this crisis. Get your brand in front of your target audience: With COVID-19, all traditional marketing efforts are almost entirely out of the picture. As millions of people across the world continue to surge and increase their time spent on the internet, brands need to understand that it’s important to be in front of their target audience, always. Not all customers have stopped making purchase decisions, so you want your business to be ready when your audience searches on the internet. Also, when this situation ends and all businesses resume, your marketing efforts will help to create brand recall and keep your business relevant in front of your target audience. Keep your audience engaged with email marketing: It’s critical that brands keep their audience engaged but they need to avoid using bulk and automated communication at this time and position themselves strategically. If you're sending out emails to customers explaining how your business is addressing the crisis, then make sure the information is relevant and use the opportunity to differentiate yourself. Ensure your customers know that you are open for business, how you’re navigating the issues and the situation won’t impact any critical deliveries. Reach out to your customers individually by sending them personalized emails, newsletters, etc. Messaging at this time will undoubtedly play a crucial role in defining your relationship with your customers going forward. Track the changing consumer behaviour: Keep a close watch on how your customer behaviour is evolving during these times. Indeed, when the world bids adieu to the COVID-19, the customer buying behaviour might have transformed – their interest in products or services, their needs and expectations from brands, spending patterns, etc. It is essential for brands to delve deep into these changes and work on their digital media strategy accordingly. Make the smart move, avoid any product launches: Even if it’s absolutely essential, it is advisable not to release new products amidst these turbulent times. It doesn’t matter if you’re launching the products / services through digital marketing, your efforts might not lead to favourable results and might hamper the brand image. Schedule it for the future, when the market reopens and the energy supersedes. Businesses need to understand that this situation is not going to last forever and their business isn’t closing. They need to retain their brand presence as it may be harder to recover later after losing the momentum; that’s how digital marketing works! So stay positive and use this time to redefine your digital marketing strategies, strengthen your existing connections &amp; build long-term trust with your audience and set yourself up for success post this crisis. So start planning your comeback! - Raman Mittal, CMO, and Co-founder, TO THE NEW

Digital marketing in COVID-19 outbreak: Why brands must rely on digital marketing now, more than ever?

<ul><li>Every leg of a customer’s journey with a brand adds to the firm's sales funnel. </li><li><keyword id="9732721" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="amitek-sinha">Amitek Sinha</keyword>, COO, <keyword id="9732720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="et-medialabs">ET Medialabs</keyword> writes how this is the right time to create deep funnels using <keyword id="618493" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">digital marketing</keyword>.</li></ul>Today there are more people online than ever before. In India, there are over 500 million people who use smartphones. This number is larger than the population of the United States. Of these millions of smartphone users, virtually everyone spends time online. They spend hours on social media, video streaming, and gaming sites. While spending time on these sites, they interact with dozens of brands. With such interaction, they partake in what marketers call <keyword id="9838915" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="customer-journeys">customer journeys</keyword>. Every leg of a customer’s journey with a brand adds to the firm's sales funnel. Businesses that have the most significant <keyword id="9838914" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="sales-funnels">sales funnels</keyword> have the most leads. Customers may or may not buy from a brand; however, the longer a customer’s journey with a brand, the higher the likelihood they will make a purchase. Why digital marketing funnels Since the pandemic, more people than ever before are spending time online. Even many who never spent much time on the internet, like baby boomers, are spending hours online. For many businesses, this is the right time to create deep funnels using digital marketing. This is a rare moment in history were online engagement has peaked. Globally 2.6 billion people use Facebook every month. This number is growing by 11% year over year. Also, YouTube has never been more popular. Today 1.3 billion people use YouTube. Every day nearly 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube. The video streaming site gets 30 million visitors daily. Google, the biggest search engine in the world, processes 3.5 billion searches each day. These numbers are mind bogging, and for marketers, they provide an exciting opportunity. Using digital marketing, a business can hone in on their target audience with a laser-like focus. An apparel brand whose target segment is between the ages of 18 and 24 can attract these consumers by advertising on channels where these consumers spend the most time. What makes digital marketing so useful is that it can be focussed on a narrow audience. For instance, a brand that sells apparel that is likely to appeal to Bob Marley fans can display its ads to those who enjoy listening to the artist. Brands can precisely target consumers having an endless variety of tastes. Those who love cooking can be persuaded to buy different ingredients or utensils. Grandparents can be shown investment plans that contribute to their grandchildren’s education. Understanding digital marketing funnels Digital marketing creates a funnel. A digital marketing funnel consists of prospecting, nurturing, and buying. Prospecting happens at the top of the funnel, nurturing at the middle, and buying at the lower part of the funnel. Like any sales funnel, a digital marketing funnel is wide at the top and gradually narrows towards the bottom. In the prospecting stage, potential consumers may see a brand’s products on popular social media sites like Facebook and Youtube. In this stage, a consumer is unlikely to make a purchase. That’s because they don’t know the brand well enough. Once they understand what problem a brand will solve, they are likely to become more interested. Some consumers will move downward in the funnel to the nurturing stage. At the nurturing stage, consumers recognise they have a problem and are looking more closely at a brand that presents a solution. During this stage, a brand should interact with consumers using Facebook, SEO, search ads, email, and influencers. To sell to consumers, a brand should use search ads and SEO. A sales funnel doesn’t end when someone makes a purchase. Once a person buys from a brand, he or she becomes a customer who must be engaged in a manner that makes them loyal to the company. Such a customer may be targeted with re-marketing, and they should be asked to subscribe to the brand's social media handle on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. They must also be engaged with attractive and crisp emails. How to improve digital marketing funnels The more people at the top of a sales funnel, the larger the number likely to make a purchase. Re-targeting can improve a sales funnel. Re-targeting prevents leakage of the funnel: using retargeting a brand keeps customers engaged. Engaged customers’ who have enjoyable customer journeys are more likely to display brand loyalty. A digital marketing funnel can also be improved by targeting audiences who have preferences similar to those of existing consumers. The precision of digital marketing makes it possible for a brand to reach a broad audience that is likely to want its products or services. There are other ways to improve a digital marketing funnel. Customers at different levels of a sales funnel should be engaged differently. Great content goes a long way in engaging consumers who are in the middle of a sales funnel. In contrast, those at the very top of a sales funnel may be attracted by edgy ads. Social media plays a vital role in customer journeys. A vibrant social media handle serves to attract many other consumers to a brand. A brand that is prominent on social media enjoys wide circulation making it easier to build a more massive funnel.

Creating deep funnels using digital marketing

<ul><li>One of the biggest trends presently is Internet of Things (IoT). </li><li>By 2025, the economic impact of IoT could be between $4 to $11 trillion per year. </li><li> KumKumRaj Swamynathan, VP, Product Engineering, Epsilon India pens down the reasons why marketers should care about IoT and how it could help them understand the customer behavior from start to finish, and can give a clear picture of where the customer is in their buying journey.</li></ul>Marketers love technology and when it comes to customer acquisition and engagement, they are among the first to experiment with cutting-edge technology. One of the biggest trends presently and the most promising is Internet of Things (IoT). It brings connectivity of internet to all aspects of our lives. It has the potential to turn every device that we interact with into a smart device. A device that can connect with other devices over the internet and share data about location, usage patterns among other things, that Marketers can harvest and turn into rich insights to strengthen their campaigns. The concept of connected devices has been around for some time, but the so-called smart devices with local computing and AI capabilities, controlled through smartphones, has taken off in the last few years. According to industry data on IoT, <ul><li>Companies would invest up to $15 trillion in IoT by 2025</li><li>Economic impact of IoT could be between $4 and $11 trillion per year by 2025</li><li>Home IoT market is expected to grow to $53.45 billion by 2022</li><li>Approximately 44 zettabytes of data will be generated by IoT devices by 2020</li></ul>As you read this article, there are well over 50 billion connected devices that translate to 7 times as many devices able to interact with each other as people on this planet. Impact of this is far reaching and has the potential to transform the way we live. This treasure trove of data is what Marketers want to go after. Technology platforms such as public cloud and machine learning have evolved to process the IoT data at scale. With 2.7 billion smartphones in use, mobile apps have become the interface of choice to engage with the IoT devices. Why should marketers care about IoT? Smart devices such as the smartphones, smart TVs, smart home appliances and wearable devices use sensors and actuators to collect and exchange data with other devices through the internet. Sensors gather information, upload it to the internet, and share it with each other. Now let us look at the connected car IoT use case. All modern cars these days are equipped with GPS and come with smart navigation features. Based on the fuel level, it can track the distance to the nearest fuel station and prompt you to stop for refueling. It can suggest preferred points-of-interest based on prior data. It knows the time of the day; based on weather and real-time traffic it can recommend the nearest restaurant of your choice to stop for food. Such use cases - where IoT devices are not just exchanging information but also helping make real-time decisions - leave behind rich data that the Marketers can go after, which is very important in this digital era. It helps Marketers get better at making insightful assessments and create more accurate strategies to acquire and engage with the customers. With the help of IoT, marketers can learn more about their customers and make better and faster decisions. They get to know what customers expect from their brands, how to improve their product quality, help forecast the demand for the products and plan for new features. Simply put, it helps them understand the customer behavior from start to finish, and gives a clear picture of where the customer is in their buying journey. Weaving the IoT data insights into the marketing campaigns, help marketers analyze the needs of the customer, purchase patterns, location, payment mode and other customer preferences. It helps to engage with the customers in the most effective way. Enable deeper customer analysis, more accurately predict customer decisions and allow Marketers to promote the right products. IoT data can help track product consumption, predict the timing of sales and efficiently manage the product inventory. Marketing is about engaging with the right customer at the right time on the right channel and help them make the right purchase decision. Simply put, it is about personalization and connect with the customers real-time. IoT helps to target the audience accurately, drive effective marketing campaigns, and serve ads that are more relevant. There are several ideas that marketers have already put into action to take IoT to the next level in digital marketing. Some have naturally evolved with the convergence of social media and the mobile-first customer engagement behaviors. This has turned digital marketing into smart marketing that interlinks social media data with smart devices. Think of a marketer linking their vending machine to its Twitter account. Every time someone buys the product, a message is posted on Twitter letting others know who is buying this product. Extending this idea further can enable products to self-advertise. With a low cost embedded chip on a bottle of soda, enables users to directly post comments on the brand’s social media platform right from the bottle. Several smart watch and wearable devices are already doing this to post their activity records on social media essentially advocating for the product. Customer engagement and relationship management is another area that can benefit from IoT. Based on the data gathered, Marketers can uncover insights on the customer journey and can modify the campaigns real-time to effectively nudge the customers to convert. With IoT smart home devices, marketers can move towards a single-touch attribution. Think of a scenario for instance, when a smart home lightbulb stops functioning or a daily consumable is running low, the IoT network can record and send a digital coupon to your smartphone. The user can order the consumable online. Thus making campaigns more relevant, actionable and more cost-effective and eliminating ineffective ad serving. Conclusion IoT for marketing is truly about thinking outside the box and leveraging technology in the right way to engage with real customers in the most real way. Thus far, it has lived up to its promise in enabling Marketers to think of digital campaigns in the most real way in engaging with their customers. As the IoT technology gets simpler with seamless interfacing and data assimilation over the internet on to public cloud, the tech savvy Marketers will be able integrate IoT into the fabric of digital marketing and transform the way they engage with their customers. - KumKumRaj Swamynathan, VP, Product Engineering, Epsilon India

Digital Marketing in the age of IoT

<ul><li><keyword id="8626530" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="raj-shamani">Raj Shamani</keyword>, Founder of <keyword id="10598902" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="shamani-industries">Shamani Industries</keyword> writes how <keyword id="618493" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">digital marketing</keyword> will revolutionise FMCG this year. </li><li>He pens down a few trends that would dominate the FMCG market and shares how digital marketing enables the marketeers to show personalised ads to their right audience, grab their attention and hit the bullseye.</li></ul><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="1. Digital marketing will make ‘MORE’ the new normal" text="1. Digital marketing will make ‘MORE’ the new normal">1. Digital marketing will make ‘MORE’ the new normal</cmsannotation> Digital Marketing stands for more. More information, more options, more problems, more solutions. People can explore more options before buying something, find out more information about the company, match the price with its direct competitors, figure out more ways to get a simple product which was earlier bought from a small store near one’s house. In this world of more, customers want something more than just the product, because that’s one of the oldest and the best ways where Product A beats product B, by simply offering more. In the digital space, brands need to offer more than just the product like: free samples with the product or other kind of freebies or mini versions of products, discounts on birthdays/anniversaries, exclusive offers for regular buyers, a free product on the purchase of a particular amount , enhancing the user experience or gamifying the entire process of buying / interacting with the brand. Until one offers more, one is going to have a hard time winning the FMCG game in the digital age, because MORE is the new normal. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="2. Digital Marketing will revolutionize Lead generation:" text="2. Digital Marketing will revolutionize Lead generation:">2. Digital Marketing will revolutionize Lead generation:</cmsannotation> Gone are the days when an individual had to travel to a different city or a town, enter a physical market to inquire, find and meet potential business distributors and take days of back and forth to finalize and finally start distribution of the products in the new city. The given pandemic has coerced everybody to realise that change is the only constant and in order to survive; the current age marketeers need to be “adept to adapt”. The novel Covid-19 virus has exponentially accelerated the trends of ordering food, apparel as well as banking online. The current work from home scenario only adds cherry to the cake. With the world being an “internet-village’, it is imperative for the new-age marketers to get away with the traditional theories of marketing and drink the elixir of today’s marketing era- Digital Marketing has the potential to revolutionize lead generation, introduce transparency, target the right audience at the right time and at the right time. Fortunately, people have started finding ways through digital platforms to hit the right people; eliminate the clutter and organize leads systematically. Lead generation through digital marketing is a blessing in disguise for small businesses who were not deeply pocketed because with just an ad on Facebook or Google with few thousand rupees; anyone can set up calls with hundreds of interested partners even from the remotest villages across the nation just by sitting at one place. Lead generation through digital is already transforming other industries, Moreover, it’s just a matter of time that it is going to revolutionize FMCG as well. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="3. Digital marketing will make ‘ATTENTION’ the essential A:" text="3. Digital marketing will make ‘ATTENTION’ the essential A:">3. Digital marketing will make ‘ATTENTION’ the essential A:</cmsannotation> Till now B-schools, C level executives in the FMCG sector and other industry stalwarts have been vouching and betting heavily on three golden A’s of FMCG business: Availability, Awareness and Access. However, with the changing times and penetration of internet in our lives, ATTENTION is the new A and most importantly, a brand needs to comprehend that if one has the attention of a modern customer, one has won half the battle already. Because with the rise of global awareness, competition and available options, customers possess the attention of a butterfly and are adept to find their fit from the clutter of brands. Connecting with customers on a personal level, understanding their real as well as secret needs and providing a customer delight is the only way, a brand can stand out and create customer stickiness. Retaining a customer is always cheaper than acquiring a new one. Brands, retailers, marketers need to understand the real and the opportunity cost of losing a customer. One wrong move and your customer is using your competitor’s product. Effective digital marketing enables the marketeers to show personalised ads to their right audience, grab their attention and hit the bullseye!

How digital marketing will revolutionise FMCG brands in 2021

Digital Marketing for E-Commerce

<ul><li>LinkedIn’s report on The Long and Short of ROI revealed that 50% of digital marketers rely on inaccurate metrics</li><li>Marketers, with a lead generation objective, claim to use cost-per-click as their ROI metric, which does not show impact-per-advertising dollar spent. </li><li>The report shows 64% of Indian marketers needed to show ROI numbers to justify spend and get approval for future budget asks, as opposed to 58% globally. </li></ul><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedin/">LinkedIn</a>’s ‘<a href="https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-news/2019/the-long-and-short-of-roi">The Long and Short of ROI’ report</a> reveals that 50% of digital marketers rely on inaccurate metrics. Marketers, with a lead generation objective, claim to use cost-per-click as their ROI metric, which does not show impact-per-advertising dollar spent. The objective of the research study in India to identify how digital marketers measure ROI (Return on Investment). The survey was conducted amongst 4,000 marketing professionals across 19 countries, including India, and reveals how measuring ROI over the length of the sales cycle can lead to more accurate reporting, greater marketer confidence, and improved campaign management. The findings of the report also highlight that digital marketers deliver tremendous value to their businesses but struggle to highlight their impact or true ROI when reporting on performance. The metrics are either reported too soon or wrongly chosen to deliver quick results in order to meet business pressures. In fact, 78% digital marketers in India claim to be measuring digital ROI long before a sales cycle has concluded. In India, only 3% of digital marketers are measuring ROI over a 6-month period or longer -- one of the lowest amongst all regions, lower than the global average of 4%. This means that many marketers are likely not measuring ROI at all. “The Indian digital marketing industry is incredibly competitive today. As marketing campaigns become more dynamic, real-time, and data-driven, measurement is going to be a key discussion in boardrooms going forward. The LinkedIn report highlights how Indian marketers are struggling to measure the true impact of performance; they are thinking short-term and are measuring KPIs, instead of ROI. Measuring too quickly can have a poor impact on campaigns, specifically in industries such as higher education and real estate where it can take months of consideration before sale,” says Virginia Sharma, Director, Marketing Solutions - India, LinkedIn. Here are the common behaviours of digital marketers in India, when it comes to ROI and measurement, and best practices for marketers to consider: <ul><li>78% Indian marketers measure ROI too soon: 78% of Indian marketers measure ROI within the first 30 days of the campaign, which results in an inaccurate reflection of the actual return, considering that sales cycles are 60-90 days or longer. In fact, only 3% of Indian marketers are measuring ROI over a six-month period or longer – one of the lowest among all regions (lower than the global average of 4%).</li><li>50% digital marketers rely on inaccurate metrics: 81% of Indian digital marketers claim to measure ROI today, which strongly reinforces India’s data-driven stature. However, another finding shows that 50% digital marketers - with a lead generation objective - claim to use cost-per-click as their ROI metric, which does not show impact-per-advertising dollar spent. Ideally, cost-per-lead is a better measurement metric here. This is the highest percentage among all countries, clearly indicating that Indian marketers are measuring short-term impact in the form of KPIs, which is not an accurate reflection of ROI.</li><li>64% Indian marketers face pressure to prove ROI: As opposed to 58% globally, 64% Indian marketers acknowledged that they needed to show ROI numbers to justify spend and get approval for future budget asks. This clearly shows how pressured Indian digital marketers are internally, hence rushing to measure and prove ROI. </li><li>60% of Indian marketers have to consider revising budgets: 60% of Indian marketers who measure ROI in the short term end up having budget reallocation discussions within a month, often unprepared and hence under confident. In fact, 47% of Indian digital marketers don’t feel confident about their ROI measurements today. </li></ul>

50% digital marketers rely on inaccurate metrics: LinkedIn Report

<ul><li>Millennials are using online training courses as a tool to build digital skills — turning towards Digital Marketing and related areas such as advertising, brand campaigning and <keyword id="640850" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media-marketing">social media marketing</keyword>. </li><li>For employers, digital marketing, artificial intelligence and design thinking are the most sought after skills, according to a recent survey by online learning platform Great Learning. </li><li>The future will demand professionals to re-skill themselves every 3-4 years so as to evolve in a competitive working environment, according to Zairus Master, CEO, Shine Learning.</li></ul>With the advancement in digital technologies, millennials are using online training courses as a tool to build digital skills — turning towards Digital Marketing and related areas such as advertising, brand campaigning and social media marketing. The demand for digital marketers is also growing in the industry. According to Burning Glass Technologies, a job market analysis company, digital marketing is an essential skill for four out of 10 marketing jobs. In fact, six of the top 25 jobs listed by Glassdoor in terms of work-life balance were related to digital marketing. For employers, digital marketing, artificial intelligence and design thinking are the most sought after skills, according to a recent survey by online learning platform Great Learning. Freshers aside, the flexibility to learn different skills via digital platforms attracted experienced professionals as well. According to Zairus Master, CEO, Shine Learning, the future will demand professionals to re-skill themselves every 3-4 years so as to evolve in a competitive working environment. While you can learn the basic skills with free courses, core skills such as PPC (Pay Per Click) specialist, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specialist, and social media marketing specialist can be learnt through online trainings imparting core skills. Here are the most in-demand skills and platforms to learn them. Paid Search Analysis (Pay Per Click) Based on the keywords that are put in, the top results you see on a search engine are primarily paid ads. That brings in the need for a Paid Search Analyst — who sets up these paid ads to fetch traffic within a defined budget. Online platforms like Simplilearn, Coursera and Internshala offer training courses in specialised fields including paid search, social media and search engine optimisation. SEO With over 3.5 billion searches everyday, businesses in the online space want to perform and rank higher on search engines. An SEO analyst ensures the use of the most relevant keywords and phrases that will potentially show up on Google. They are responsible for building strategies to rank content higher on the search engines. Social Media Marketing Social media emerged as one of the most important tools for advertising. The social media professionals engage with the user base across platforms to curate and deliver relevant content. They also analyse the potential market for a brand. Online social media courses teach ways to draw in online traffic, execution strategies and analysing data for social media campaigns. Data Analysis Data analysis includes extensive research to understand a set target audience. It includes data collation and analysis for business purposes. This includes studying online transactions and search queries using various tools and collating relevant multiple data points to draw conclusions and predict future action. This can help companies create marketing strategies, and aid growth.

Learn these 4 skills to become a top notch digital marketing expert

<ul><li>In this new year, we want to crystal gaze into what the year has in store for the industry.</li><li>With the <keyword id="169310" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-advertising">digital advertising</keyword> industry changing at a rapid pace, throwing a new set of challenges every day, experts are optimistic that 2021 will be a game-changer that will help them redefine a lot of rules in advertising, with smarter marketing techniques. </li><li>We spoke to a few industry experts to identify opportunities that 2021 will bring forth for the industry as we move forward and here is what they had to say. </li></ul>Over the past few years, the world has increasingly been moving towards digital and 2020 became the year when the digital ecosystem acquired many new users, thereby making digital advertising perhaps one of the most effective mediums to reach out to people locked inside their houses and stuck to their phone and tablet screens. It was an interesting year for digital marketers as the nation-wide lockdown gave a push to augmented reality, mobile marketing, digital animation, video content, voice search and influencer marketing. Despite the initial setbacks during the lockdown, consumers opened up to experimenting with digital formats, trading brand loyalties for availability of stock and performance marketing came into the picture. Digital eventually became a dominant medium as marketers pivoted their monies from OOH, print and event marketing to virtual platforms. India is now at the cusp of a massive revolution with digital making inroads and brands looking to go beyond urban markets. While we saw <keyword id="618493" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">digital marketing</keyword> taking the center stage, the economic slowdown and uncertainty affected market sentiment, and naturally, the industry. However, during this volatile period, the industry tried to throw out the inefficiencies to make themselves more productive. According to Statista, ad spending in the Digital Advertising market is projected to reach US$398,762m in 2021 and the market's largest segment is Search Advertising with a projected market volume of US$171,641m in 2021. In FY2020, the revenue generated by digital advertising across India was valued at around Rs 199 billion. In India, the digital ad revenue in the country will be worth almost Rs 540 billion by fiscal year 2024, while the television and print ad revenues were projected to reach about Rs 455 billion and Rs 276 billion rupees respectively. These numbers clearly show that India is heading towards a digital advertising future. We reached out to experts to find out how 2020 disrupted the digital ecosystem and understand their expectations from 2021. Here is what they said: <h3 style="line-height:1.3846153846153844;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:14pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 4pt 0pt;">Unny Radhakrishnan, CEO, Digitas India:</h3><div type="image" title="Unny Radhakrishnan, CEO, Digitas India." msid="80216690" hostid="261"></div> One thing I see is that Brand Building and Creating Loyalty will become far more tougher and marketers will find themselves in trying to juggle multiple things. The reason I feel so is that the factors that influence consumer choices are getting wider and complex. First, there is this vast sea of online media – with regular cluttered media, platforms as sharply targeted media, e-com channels as media, and influencers (democratised media); second, the availability of vast amounts of information, product reviews &amp; feedback; third, the customer/user experience at all touch points (online &amp; offline); and fourth, the availability of products on various channels, irrespective of your geography (from e-com to the neighbourhood store on Whatsapp). Then, finally at a larger level, there is also a blurring of line between categories which are vying for the same share of wallet. So, there is so much 'to-do' in a marketer’s plate to ensure awareness, availability and great experience. The underlying marketing operations will be complex and will need breadth and depth of skill sets and the ability to string it together. Prasad Shejale, Founder &amp; CEO, Logicserve Digital: <div type="image" title="Prasad, Logicserve, Horizontal" msid="80216730" hostid="261"></div> Integrated Digital Marketing approach will be a game changer for brands rather than being just a nice-to-have strategy. While the post-COVID world has leapfrogged the digital growth across industries and consumers are making digital a first choice now, brands need to evolve further and implement truly integrated methods for catering to customers’ needs at every touchpoint of the customer journey. This involves a holistic strategy across Media, Creative, Data &amp; Insights as well as Technology. That is how brands can make an impact and continue to delight the new-age customers. Harshil Karia, Founder, Schbang: <div type="image" title="Harshil Karia Schbang" msid="80216747" hostid="261"></div> A big trend that will take shape in 2021 is the process of centralization of data and the creation of database. The digital departments will move beyond marketing to create centralized business data with the know-how, skills, and associations they possess. With good quality creative execution, the smart digital business professionals will pave the way to move the business table and deliver further with greater efficiency. Chetan Asher, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, Tonic Worldwide: <div type="image" title="Chetan Asher" msid="80216769" hostid="261"></div> 2020 has been a year of pivots for the digital industry. Consumer habits and digital platforms are disrupting rapidly. Hence 2021 will be the year of customer experience reinvention. Traditional fulfilment channels are moving to digital, social media is a serious e-commerce platform now with platforms like Instagram moving beyond just discovery platforms, Influencer led commerce has also evolved. Hyper-personalisation both pre and post purchase journeys will become norm. The biggest trend we will see is how all these parts come together for reinvention of the customer experience and push the industry to evolve. For businesses that are adapting to digital and the ones that have matured in their digital journey, both will have to shift their lens to prepare themselves in how their consumers interact across multiple touchpoints. Amyn Ghadiali, Vice President- Business &amp; Strategy, Gozoop: <div type="image" title="Amyn Gozoop" msid="80216799" hostid="261"></div> You know while there are many trends like voice search, local SEO, data science, social, etc., and each one will be a great driver for the industry – I believe that the one trend which will drive all the above trends is that brands &amp; clients will be asking a lot more from their agencies, digital in specific. The pandemic has made brands realize, even those that didn’t believe in it first - the power of digital marketing. This power is not appreciated because it was through digital that we connected in 2020; it is appreciated because it proved it can be a serious driver for business. This innate and interconnected ability of the space has got many CEOs/CFOs/CMOs interested to understand it more, and eventually harness what it has to offer. This also means that integrated solutions under one roof would be preferred, and most brands would, thus, turn to their digital agencies for support to make it happen. This trend, or rather a behavior shift, I believe, would be a great driver for the digital industry, creativity, and business in every way. Prashant Puri, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, AdLift: <div type="image" title="Prashant Puri, adlift" msid="80216817" hostid="261"></div> A couple of digital marketing trends that will increase and/or take shape in 2021. More than half of smartphone users are engaging in voice search – we see that number further growing in the next year with an emphasis on visuals (within ecommerce segment) will make SEO even more important. Google Lens is carving the path here. Influencer marketing will grow to about 15% of overall digital media budgets. 68% of consumers (based on a survey) have said that they’d like to learn about new products via short video. With video consumption is surging – we foresee advertisers (both big and small) investing in thumb stopping videos to marketing to their customer base via Instagram, Roposo, FB and YouTube. All in all, the creation of content (and content marketing) – whether long form text or video is going to become the cornerstone of all digital marketing campaign.

Digital Advertising: The trends to watch out for in 2021

<ul><li>When making a <keyword id="10413977" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="purchase-decision">purchase decision</keyword>, <keyword id="10413978" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="consumer-stories">consumer stories</keyword> can deliver important information, influencing the decision and overall brand experience. </li><li>The immensely popular social media platforms have made stories a more powerful tool for shaping cognitive processing, <keyword id="17402" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="brand-value">brand value</keyword>, and choice, writes <keyword id="10413976" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="raghav-kansal">Raghav Kansal</keyword>, Founder &amp; CEO, <keyword id="9732720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="et-medialabs">ET Medialabs</keyword>.</li></ul>Conjuring up memories and experiences are an essential form of <keyword id="2806849" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-communication">human communication</keyword> and often among the first messengers of cultural values and norms. What makes stories so important and effective is the fact that the human brain likes to encode, store, and recover information in narrative form. When making a purchase decision, consumer stories can deliver important information, influencing the decision and overall brand experience. The immensely popular social media platforms have made stories a more powerful tool for shaping cognitive processing, brand value, and choice. Consumer Stories as a Part of Digital <keyword id="6354839" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing">Marketing</keyword> Strategy Relatively little is known about the power of stories and how the process works in digital marketing. Consumer stories are simply when customers share their own take on a brand or a product or post anything related to it on social media. These stories can add genuineness and authenticity that brands need to directly connect with their target audience and make them notice their brand. It can be a testimonial, a social media post, or their perception about the brand. Stories significantly increase consumers’ engagement with websites and indeed, brands that are not offering experiences that leverage consumer input in brand-oriented narratives are missing out chances to connect with potential buyers. According to a study by MIT, consumer-based <keyword id="282281" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Storytelling">storytelling</keyword> can increase purchase consideration by 32% on average. By making consumer stories a permanent part of digital marketing strategy, brands can improve brand awareness, achieve a broader reach, humanize themselves on social media, and improve customer loyalty. Tips to Leverage the Power of Consumer Stories 1. Track Brand Mentions To make the most out of consumer stories, you need to know where your target audience is. If the majority of your customers are on Twitter, but your brand uses Instagram primarily, then you might miss out on what your customers are saying about you. Start tracking your brand’s mentions in real-time on all the major social media platforms for anything worthy of a good consumer storytelling moment. 2. Customer Suggestions and Constructive Criticism The great part about social media is that you get to see what your customers think about your products and services in real-time. Not only can you resolve customer queries quickly and improve customer satisfaction, but you can also take suggestions and constructive criticisms to refine your products. 3. Video Testimonials Video testimonials are a great way to build trust among prospective customers, especially for SaaS and B2B companies. They can humanize your brand by showcasing how your services and products are directly helping end customers. It also gives a clear idea about what your customers think about your company as a whole. 4. User Generated Content While your marketing team might be working hard to create engaging content and visually aesthetic graphics, the best way to increase engagement is by encouraging and resharing user generated content. Through UGC, you can let your followers know how they can tag your brand in a post and what hashtags they should use. Then, your team can monitor the hashtags and share the best posts. By resharing the content created by your followers, you can share more posts with only half the effort. Moreover, it increases the virality of your brand’s hashtags without any expensive paid campaigns. How are Brands Boosting their Storytelling? Data driven storytelling i.e. using the huge amounts of data available to create highly engaging, visual, and targeted stories have proven incredibly potent for brands. By creating visually stunning stories, brands are grabbing attention and cutting through the raft of noise online. With the increasing need for companies to consider fresh and innovative ways to connect with consumers, mini ads are gaining immense popularity. This is because people have become content weary and attention spans are getting shorter. From Facebook's six second ads to Youtube's 'six-second story challenge', mini ads are spawning a host of incredibly inventive results. Further, immersive storytelling through VR is increasingly becoming an interesting tool for brands to convey their message. By immersing an individual in a sensory experience that forms the focus of your brand's story, you stand to forge a meaningful connection like never before. Immersive storytelling as of now is in its infancy but has a huge amount of scope to become a significant form of brand communication. Summing It All Up Reframing your digital marketing strategy and incorporating consumer to consumer storytelling can help you create more targeted campaigns which connect and resonate with your target audience on a more personal level. With so many platforms to share your brand's story and customer experiences, there has never been a better time to connect with your target audience through an emotionally stimulating and focused brand narrative. - This column has been authored by Raghav Kansal, Founder &amp; CEO, ET Medialabs

The power of consumer stories in digital marketing

<ul><li>We bring to you a series of columns from industry experts, looking back at the last 10 years. </li><li>The columns will explore how the media, marketing and advertising industry has transformed in the last decade. </li><li>Amaresh Godbole, CEO, Digitas India walks us through his personal journey from 2010 to 2020 as well as the different stages of evolution that the digital industry went through in the last decade.</li></ul>The year was 2009. I was trying to convince my boss to accept my resignation. He couldn’t fathom why I would leave a fast-track career in an established network agency to join an unknown digital shop. I couldn’t blame him. Everyone I knew in the agency world felt that it was hara-kiri. There was a tsunami coming and the MarComm industry at the time was in collective denial about it. In the decade since, I have witnessed the industry get from there to acceptance in classic stages. 2009-2010 – Denial This was the era of flash banners, microsites and entrepreneur led digital shops. Some got as far as animated ‘viral’ videos, typically depicting popular Bollywood characters or mythology to support the ‘real’ campaign. All of it was at best considered cute. CMOs and CCOs had no time for digital work and usually the junior brand manager that drew a short straw was put in charge of it. Some industry luminaries were even dismissing digital as a passing trend. With barely 60 million users online, no one bothered to argue. Of course, the fees reflected the sentiment, and seemed like a cruel joke when compared to the soon to perish 15% commission model. 2011-2012 – Anger A new reality emerged. Smartphones + Mobile Data + Social Media = Consumer voice at scale. Brands and agencies alike plunged in, trying to understand how to play this game. The ones who didn’t soon realized that it was akin to not attending your own trial where the consumer was judge, jury and executioner. I recall, embarrassingly so in hindsight, that we had an entire brainstorm to understand how hashtags worked. Facebook applications, paid followers, trending mechanics, always-on content calendars et all emerged in this period. Amidst this the word ‘disruption’ and the consequent need for ‘transformation’ started gaining momentum. A lot of people across industries were angry. Many had spent decades learning the ropes of their business, and suddenly there was a new set of rules. But they weren’t set rules, the only thing you could be certain of is that things would keep changing. 2013-2016 – Bargaining Okay, we need digital… “But there’s no reach” “But print is more credible” “But we can solve the problem by hiring 1-2 millennials in house” To illustrate the sentiment of this period, a couple of us from our agency’s leadership featured in a leading publication’s ‘most admired agency leaders’ list alongside traditionally well-known faces. And instead of calls from other leaders congratulating us, we were asked in genuinely confused tones whether we had paid to be on it, so they could rationalize it. The ‘buts’ didn’t stop the advent of digital. HTML 5 made engaging interfaces available at scale across devices. Budgets grew and demand for digital talent skyrocketed. It became a 24*7 struggle to keep up with real-time marketing, constantly evolving platform algorithms and the mobile app ecosystem. Recognizing their gaps, holding companies got into M&amp;A mode and independent digital agencies around the world were quickly bought up. 2017-2018 – Depression Realization dawned that we were up against Google and Facebook as frenemies, as well as consultancies and tech companies like Accenture as competitors. It really sunk in when we saw a change of guard at many celebrated agencies, with revered talent making way for others if they hadn’t adapted. For individuals in the business, it was a wake-up call - upskill or soon be redundant. Marketers had smelt the coffee much earlier and had been training their teams for years. These well trained clients too were putting pressure on their agency partners to speak the language of modern marketing. The final punch in the gut was when a leading holding company merged two of their greatest legacy agency networks into digital brands, changing the face of the industry forever. 2019 – Acceptance This year was truly the coming of age for modern marketing practices. Creativity powered by technology was celebrated on the world’s biggest stages. OTT players and devices like the Amazon Firestick blurred the line between when that LED on your wall is a TV and when it is a screen. The reach argument in India was dealt a defining blow as the country crossed 500Mn people online. Many of them, who have difficulty interacting with screens and text, are using voice as their first interface. Others are driving up the demand for vernacular content. Fittingly, this year digital agencies such as ours grew to a scale comparable to many legacy agencies. And it is increasingly dawning on leaders in the industry that the time for distinction between digital and traditional capabilities has passed. Strategy and creative skills are still crucial. But they need to be coupled with data and technology to deliver the demands of marketing today and tomorrow. 2020 and beyond Voice, video and vernacular will scale as drivers of consumer engagement. Machine Learning algorithms fed by data will transform how things work internally for companies, as well as how they interact with their customers. Emerging technologies like blockchain will change the norms of transaction. New jobs like Data Security Specialists will be in demand. Many people have barely wrapped their heads around the digital disruption so far and feel exhausted thinking about another upskilling exercise. But continuous learning is the key to survival. For us, it could mean focusing on cracking a great idea and letting the machine take care of dynamic creative personalization. Formulating a brilliant media strategy and letting ML take care of optimum automated bidding and blockchain powered safe transactions. My belief is that to succeed in the 2020s, it won’t be about People Vs Machines, but rather how we best play together as People AND Machines. - By Amaresh Godbole, CEO, Digitas India

Digital marketing: A decade to acceptance

<ul><li>Indian marketing professionals are getting more tech savvy with the evolution of digital technologies. </li><li>In an interview with Business Insider, Mayank Kumar, Founder &amp; MD of upGrad said that the requirement for 'experienced marketers' is getting replaced by the demand for 'data-driven marketers’ now. </li><li>According to LinkedIn, digital marketing specialist is one of the top 15 emerging job roles in India — with Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi attracting most talent. </li><li>As per the data shared by upGrad, average salary hike for a digital marketing stood at 42% while the highest package was recorded as ₹68 lakhs.</li></ul>Indian marketing professionals are getting tech savvy in order to tailor-make ads and campaigns. And, this has given rise to the demand for digital marketers across verticals. In an interview with Business Insider, Mayank Kumar, Founder &amp; MD of upGrad told how digital literacy is becoming a buzzword in the ecosystem. “The requirement for experienced marketers is getting replaced by the demand for data-driven marketers.” In fact, Kumar says that professionals with 10+ years of experience in traditional marketing or sales are feeling “the palpable need to upskill and do so, really fast.” Those who are seeking to enhance their digital skills are enrolling in digital courses like data science and digital marketing. According to Kumar, data science, blockchain, full stack development, digital marketing and <keyword id="294572" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="20" keywordseo="machine-learning">machine learning</keyword> are the most sought after courses among professionals. And the completion rate for such courses is as high as 85%. As per LinkedIn, digital marketing specialist is one of the top 15 emerging job roles in India — with Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi attracting the most talent. However, it is no longer confined to traditional aspects of social media or content marketing. They would have to acquire skills with regards to Google Ads, Social Media Optimization, <keyword id="1107152" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-Analytics">Google Analytics</keyword> and <keyword id="1885978" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="search-engine-optimization">Search Engine Optimization</keyword> (SEO). Nearly doubled salaries As per upGrad, learners with nearly eight years of experience, who took online courses on digital technologies saw a windfall. Their salaries nearly doubled after acquiring the skills. The average salary hike for a digital marketer stood at 42% while the highest package recorded was ₹68 lakhs. They earn as much as data scientists and other techies who work for full stack development — which is one the best paying software roles. “The top 20% of the transitioned learners graduated with an average hike of 177%, which is way above any industry benchmark. Those who were previously in profiles like software testing, software development, traditional marketing, sales and operations are now working with leading companies like HDFC Life, Facebook, IBM, Uber, Zomato, and Microsoft,” upGrad said in a statement. “Two learners from digital marketing and data science programs have bagged ₹68 lakhs and a ₹72 lakhs job packages, respectively. The former transitioned from a renowned consumer-goods sector to now into one of the largest multinational footwear manufacturers whereas, the latter is now a part of a global finance leader after serving fruitful years in a top financial-software company,” Kumar told. upGrad provides an industry connect for professionals who want to transition from their existing job roles. “We started our in-house placement support team which provides holistic placement services like resume building, interview preparation support and salary negotiation tips. As of today, we have over 300 corporates hiring from upGrad’s talent pool and we plan to add 50 new companies every quarter.” The online tutoring platform was also featured in LinkedIn’s list of top 25 startups in India. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/upgrad-has-almost-half-of-its-online-learner-base-in-tier-2-and-tier-3-cities/articleshow/72036958.cms">This Indian startup gains as students from Tier 2 and 3 cities opt for online digital courses</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/this-is-why-engineering-students-are-looking-for-extra-digital-courses/articleshow/73131749.cms">This is why engineering students are looking for ‘extra’ digital courses</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/data-scientists-with-3-years-experience-can-earn-20-lacs-per-annum/articleshow/73148955.cms">Data scientists with 3 years experience can earn ₹20 lacs per annum</a>

Here's why digital marketing is as lucrative a career as data science and machine learning

<ul><li>In January 2021, there were 624 million internet users and 448 million social media users in India and the number is growing with every passing day. </li><li>More than 32.3% of the entire population in the country uses social media. </li><li>To not engage in <keyword id="618493" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="digital-marketing" source="Orion">digital marketing</keyword> today is to lose out on potential customers and revenues. </li><li> <keyword id="236532" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="arjun-nair" source="Orion">Arjun Nair</keyword>, Co-founder, <keyword id="6559242" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="great-learning" source="Orion">Great Learning</keyword> shares a few marketing tips for SMEs. </li></ul>Affordable internet and smartphones thanks to the ‘Jio’ revolution, followed by the pandemic-induced lockdown have led to unprecedented digital adoption in India. The biggest winners have been the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn which have become our virtual spaces for meeting friends, sharing opinions and developing our worldview. Social media has not only enabled people to stay in touch but has also opened new avenues for marketers to target their potential customers. Considering the amount of time we all spend on social media, tools like Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Twitter Ads understand our basic info, usage pattern, likes and dislikes extremely well and offer enormous capabilities to marketers to find and deliver the right messages to their target audiences. While large corporations have been leveraging these tools for years, it is time that SMEs up their game and learn how to market online. What makes digital marketing potent is its ability to target the right customers in cost-effective ways using deep analytics; something that SMEs with smaller markets can immensely benefit from. Digital Marketing provides them with an opportunity to launch personalized campaigns and tweak them at every stage based on the performance and insights, thus, making the effort meaningful and result-oriented. Here are a few digital marketing tips that can help SMEs make the most of their digital presence and accelerate business growth. Chalk out a digital marketing plan A well-defined digital marketing plan works towards fulfilling an organization’s marketing goals, provides a certain degree of protection and ensures efficient use of resources. In order to come up with compelling campaigns, it is imperative to build robust, data-rich digital marketing strategies based on specific marketing data points in reference to the target customer behavior. Personalization and automation can further fuel a campaign to make it impactful and effective to deliver the right messages to the right audience. Make the most of social media platforms <keyword id="6375845" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="small-and-medium-enterprises" source="Orion">Small and Medium Enterprises</keyword> have suffered a huge blow since the inception of the pandemic last year. In order to boost recovery with limited resources, many businesses have opted to go for social media marketing. Social media platforms not only help brands to advertise and promote their products but have also proven to be one of the best ways to build a good rapport with the target audience and create an organic community. It is essential to have a fair sense of one’s growth patterns, trends, and insights to post relevant content on social media. One has to keep a track of all ongoing social media activities as well and participate in trends in line with business ethos. Interactive and engaging content goes a long way in catching the user's eye on social media platforms. Implement SEO The foremost step to leverage digital marketing as a tool for any business is in-depth knowledge and integration of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. It deals with encompassing the keywords that will drive the business’ website higher in the search results of leading search engines like Google, Bing and more. SEO enhances the online visibility of your business and accumulates quality traffic for your business. Content is the king Content plays a key role in all forms of marketing, and digital marketing is no different. Hence, businesses must mark their presence on multiple digital platforms through creative and engaging content to interact with their existing customers and to get new customers interested in them. Sincere and continuous efforts must be put into creating content that showcases the values of the business in a creative, convincing and fun way keeping the TG in mind. Irrespective of the format, it is essential that the content businesses put out carries a clear message to their audience. Creativity and design should not overpower the primary goal of the post. Seek regular customer feedback and testimonials Customer feedback is as valuable as the customer itself. It not only helps in improving market position but also builds business ratings. Constructive feedback helps businesses in keeping a tab on their product flaws and work towards providing better quality services. Also, potential clients often look for credibility when it comes to engaging with a small business's offerings. This is where testimonials play a big role as they offer new customers a sense of security and proof of your expertise. In January 2021, there were 624 million internet users and 448 million social media users in India and the number is growing with every passing day. More than 32.3% of the entire population in the country uses social media. To not engage in digital marketing today is to lose out on potential customers and revenues. Using the right digital marketing techniques, tools and strategies, there is great potential for SMEs to grow their businesses to the next orbit. So go out and give it a try!

Great Learning's Co-founder shares top digital marketing tips for small and medium enterprises

<ul><li>The largest public sector bank <keyword id="6354731" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="state-bank-of-india">State Bank of India</keyword> (SBI) is inviting applications for the post of Specialist <keyword id="2437755" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="cadre-officers">Cadre Officers</keyword>. </li><li>With this, the bank plans on hiring over 400 people via recruitment examinations. </li><li>The <keyword id="9461357" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="current-openings">current openings</keyword> are for the roles of SME Credit Analyst, product managers, data analyst, <keyword id="2643131" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="DIGITAL-MARKETERS">digital marketers</keyword>, banking supervisory and chief managers. </li><li>The registration process started on June 23 and the last date to apply is July 13, 2020.</li></ul>The largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) is inviting applications for the post of Specialist Cadre Officers. With this, the bank plans on hiring over 400 people via recruitment examinations. The registration process started on June 23 and the <a href="https://www.sbi.co.in/web/careers/current-openings">last date to apply is July 13, 2020</a>. The interested candidates can apply for the positions at sbi.co.in/careers. The candidates will be shortlisted on the basis of the final interview. The current openings are for the roles of SME Credit Analyst, product managers, data analyst, digital marketers, banking supervisory and chief managers. As many as 326 vacancies are for executive and senior executives in social banking, financial inclusion and micro maret (FI &amp; MM). Of this, 137 openings are for the general category. <keyword id="618493" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">Digital marketing</keyword> and analytics Those <a href="https://www.sbi.co.in/documents/77530/400725/220620-21-11Det+Ad+%28Eng%29+-+Sr+Ex+%283%29+-+Lotus.pdf/3386b2a8-a807-e82f-e36c-996e6c4ddc2a?t=1592833158418">applying for digital marketing and analytics roles</a> will be responsible for providing marketing support, increasing income via digital banking. The selected hire for the role of analyst will be responsible for analysing data and identifying patterns. While a digital marketer will provide customer insights and create propositions through online marketing and social media campaigns. The salary will range from ₹12 lakh to ₹20 lakh, annually — along with an annual increment of 10%. The minimum educational qualification of a candidate applying for the post of analytics executive and digital marketing executives is a bachelor’s degree in technology with at least 60% marks or a certification in either digital marketing or data science and big data technologies. Here’s how to apply for the role: <ul><li>Visit the official website sbi.co.in.</li><li>Click on the careers tab to view all the current openings. </li><li>To apply, fill the application form and upload the scanned copy of documents.</li><li>Make the payment and submit the application form.</li><li>Download the copy for future reference.</li></ul>

You Searched For "digital marketing" and got 16 results

3 problems digital marketers faced in 2016

Gaurav Sangwani

Metaverse, social commerce and personalisation in a cookie-less world: Here’s how digital marketers are preparing for the future

Karuna Sharma

Digital Marketing Strategies

Digital marketing in COVID-19 outbreak: Why brands must rely on digital marketing now, more than ever?

Guest Author

Creating deep funnels using digital marketing

Guest Author

Digital Marketing in the age of IoT

Guest Author

How digital marketing will revolutionise FMCG brands in 2021

Guest Author

Digital Marketing for E-Commerce

50% digital marketers rely on inaccurate metrics: LinkedIn Report

BI India Partner

Learn these 4 skills to become a top notch digital marketing expert

Prerna Sindwani

Digital Advertising: The trends to watch out for in 2021

Karuna Sharma

The power of consumer stories in digital marketing

Guest Author

Digital marketing: A decade to acceptance

Guest Author

Here's why digital marketing is as lucrative a career as data science and machine learning

Prerna Sindwani

Great Learning's Co-founder shares top digital marketing tips for small and medium enterprises

Guest Author

SBI has over 400 job vacancies and it’s hiring product managers, data analyst, digital marketers

Prerna Sindwani

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides