Why Digital Marketing Is A Must-Have

So far, 2020 has been a watershed year for everyone across the world. Since 2012, the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has been around, however – for many –  it remained as a theoretical concept. This year, with the coronavirus pandemic – and the necessity for people to socially distance – the world would have come to a standstill had it not been for technologies – such as the Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices and software – which facilitated communication and thus kept the wheels of the economy turning.

Global citizens turned to IoT not just for business but for leisure as well. Zoom family and friends dinners have become the order of the day and, as people are loathed to frequent busy high street shops and malls, the online retail space is booming.

The Internet Is Where It’s At

One of the foundations of any marketing campaign – be it digital or print – are the 4Ps. These stand for:

• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

What this means is that for your marketing campaign to be successful, you need to market a product in a place that your target market is in, use a type of promotion that appeals to your target customers. This product needs to be at a price that your target market is willing to pay. For example, if you know that your target customers usually frequent cricket matches at a particular stadium, you could look at taking out a billboard advert at this venue.

However now – with large gatherings not being permitted – your target market will not be going to events such as cricket matches and will be preferring to spend time on virtual platforms. The stats back this up as, according to Statista, in July 2020 59% of the world’s population was on the Internet. This is as opposed to the 56% which were online the year before.

As a clever marketer, it is up to you to find out what these platforms are so that you can market on these.

Bricks-And-Mortar Retailers Are Going Online

The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced global business to pivot their operations if they want to survive. Retail businesses, which had an online arm just as a ‘nice-to-have’, now have to look at these previously subsidiary arms of the business as the main money-spinner. As a result of the increasing digital footprint of consumers, businesses are being forced to rethink their marketing strategies and migrate their previous above-the-line spend to digital.

However, this forced migration is not all doom and gloom for retailers. Company owners should be welcoming this change with open arms as digital marketing is cheaper and more effective than traditional marketing is. This is because one can easily and accurately measure the return on investment of the advertisement (ROI) as opposed to the guesswork that is available with other forms of marketing, such as print advertisements. The click here and convert factor is huge with digital marketing.

The world will never be as it was pre-coronavirus. It has forever changed and, to remain relevant, we need to adapt our marketing processes and migrate them to digital so that we can remain relevant in this changing economy.