To make a name for a product or service in the online world, digital marketing’s role in branding cannot be questioned. All Brands prefer the route of digital marketing as it simple as well as complex. However, Brand building is a comprehensive exercise that requires diversified tools.
Today’s customers are mostly online. As per the report published by Cisco in February 2020, India is expected to have over 907 million internet users by 2023. This will a jump of close of 400 Million users from 2018.
The report further states that smartphone penetration will be 38 percent of all internet connected gadgets whereas the Smart connected flat-panel televisions will be 255.8 million units. This will be around 12 percent of all network-connected gadgets in India. The numbers are a testimony of how digital and digital marketing is going to play an important role in building brands in India.
The year 2020 was shocking as well as an exciting year for many industries. Those who have built their assets in the digital ecosystem were able to acquire new customers. This year where there was a considerable shift in buying behaviour. Digital advertising and marketing played an important role. It was the only medium to reach out to potential customers locked inside their building while all the way glued to their flat panel screens of TV, Mobile, and Tablets.
As per the Market research agency Statista, the digital advertising revenue in India will be Rs. 540 billion by Financial Year 2024. Whereas Television and print revenues are projected to be Rs. 455 billion and Rs. 276 billion rupees respectively. These numbers indicate that there are certainly going to see digital marketing’s role in branding in this new decade.
DIGITAL MARKETING’S ROLE IN BRANDING – EMERGING TRENDS POST COVID
The statistics as well as the trends suggest that Digital marketing’s role in building brand is going to strike gold in the days to come. It becomes even more important for everyone to jump on this wagon of digital marketing. Post-COVID, the consumers and industries are making a digital-first strategy as part of the overall brand building exercise. A brand can make an impact with a strategy that will delight the modern customers, now available online.
The emphasis will be to create a database of potential customers. The digital analysts will have to skim the data, identify the trigger points. Addressing the trigger points with good creatives. Influence them with execution will help in moving towards adoption. Hyper personalization of the messages will be the new normal. The understanding of customers will involve much greater tools like Artificial Intelligence as well as rationalization. Consumption of content and integration of brands into the story will be the key strategy of every brand. Association of the brand with the long-form or short form of visual stories will be way forward.
With the growth in digital marketing in India, there will be a directly proportional rise in the need for digital marketing professionals. For those looking to make a career in digital marketing, they must have good knowledge of technical skills. Many students will be looking for those institutes which offer the best marketing training course with an internship. Students, professionals will make a beeline to those training institutes offering the best course modules of digital marketing and training. The institutes which offer both specializations in digital marketing training course modules along with internship will be the clear winners.
STEPS TO BUILD A BRAND WITH ONLINE DIGITAL MARKETING
These digital marketing students now professionals as they pass-out from these training institutes, colleges. The market looks up to them with great hopes. The responsibility that they carry on their shoulders of promoting a business into a brand for lead generation, website ranking, and many more. They have to work with multiple stakeholders like designers, offline marketing, product team, social media specialists. All work collectively towards promoting the brand in the digital market space. The torch of Digital marketing’s role in branding will be carried forward by these professionals.
To build a brand through digital marketing marketers need to keep in the mind the following critical aspects of brand building.
Know your customers: Knowing a customer’s purchase behaviour is very important to strike a conversation with him. IF you can know what is your customer’s inherent needs, then you will be able to strike a relationship with him. Continuous engagement with the customer will help you identify the customer inertia generators. Maximizing these inertia generators will be the key to push products and services which he likes.
Optimization of Inertia Generators: Optimising the keywords which beget maximum response from the customers. Identification of these keywords is done by knowing the customer, his needs, his wants. Moreover, we can work on to trigger the organic demand for the brand through effective search engine optimization either through keywords or through search engine marketing. The influence of search results on the Search engine result pages will lead to an increase in traffic to websites. The search engine results either through organic or paid route will help maximize the leads getting converted into customers. These customers when loyal builds trust in the brand.
DIGITAL MARKETING BRAND IMAGERY
Consistency in Imagery: The brand message should be consistent to strike a chord with its customer. The colour palette, font, tone, tenor, and brand’s imagery need to be similar across all mediums. This will help in customers relating to its imagery thus building an emotional connection with the brand. The customers feel that there is a connection with the brand’s persona and himself.
Voice of Customer: Listening to your customers plays an important factor in digital marketing. It will help in ironing out any grievances that a customer has with the brand. It gives how a customer feels about the brand when things go wrong. Identifying those factors which harm the growth of the brand, addressing them will lead to a positive influence on the brand.
Brand Face – Customer Touch Points: Having synergy in the customer touchpoints across all mediums is very crucial. Teams like the 24 * 7 tele support, customer care team both voice and chat, customer-facing executives need to have a single most focus point – delighting the customer.
Maximizing Digital Assets: Website, Social Media Pages, User Generated Content Points for better reach. The presence of the brand across all digital assets will create a likeability factor for the brand. When the customer tries to reach out to the brand if it is not found then the customer is bound to shift to a competitor brand. It is very important to have a presence across all owned and earned digital platforms.
DIGITAL MARKETING A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE
Seamless Multi-Device Experience: Customers need to have a similar kind of experience across various modes be it website, application, or even a virtual store. By integrating the different modes of shopping, a customer can save precious time. Customers should be able to start from the point where they left previously. This will help in providing experience seamlessly. The trust that a customer puts on the brand will increase when he starts interacting with the executives, trying to be sure of his or her decision to buy products or services.
BUILDING A DIGITAL BRAND
Brand building is a long-term process. It needs continuous efforts. It is unlike not a lottery ticket where chance plays a role. An exercise akin to a cricket test match, where you need to be patient. You have a play-it session by session and win every session to build the brand.
The key to a strong brand is to build a relationship with the customer which lasts a long. It is a win-win for both customers and the brand. Digital Marketing does play a key role. It is the power of digital marketing in which you know the entire buying process. You can have reams of data to study, understand the behaviour of the customer. You can reach out to him if he mid-way changes his mind.
The role of the digital marketer is to enhance brand value. Along with that, he has to generate leads or influence potential customers to take note of the brand. It is how you create that experience influences the brand-building in digital sphere.
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