With evolution of technology, everything is changing
and changing so fast that we are unable to keep pace with it. Old traditional ways
are taking the news ways to solve its problem through digital technology. ‘Excel
is what we breathe in corporate life’ as told by seniors who are placed and working in big companies. Finance is handled by Financial Models and Excel
is the best tool for it. HR uses HR Matrices and HR Analytics. I wondered what
Marketing would be using? What is the future of Marketing? With a keen interest
I started finding it. Luckily after many days of research I found the answers
in Digital Marketing Summit 2015 at T-Hub, Hyderabad. So I would now attempt to try to explain what
Digital Marketing is all about.
I recently read in a newspaper that, out of total budget of marketing expenditure 60% is allotted to Digital Marketing. I was amazed as there are plenty of
companies in India and if it’s the future of Marketing, those who invest time
and money here, will all going to be millionaires. In summit a person with
amazing voice said something I never heard before. Mr. Nabeel took the topic of
Principles of Digital Strategy. Digital strategy?? Is it Facebook, Youtube,
Mobile Apps or Pinterest or Website making? These all thoughts invaded my mind.
As told by Nabeel, it is not what you see. Let me put in simple words, “A plan
to accomplish something with digital tools is Digital Strategy”. Wow, Simple
yet powerful. All tools used for Digital Strategy must focus on these areas,
Branding, Social Media, Content marketing, Video Production, Email Marketing,
Website, Advertising and SEO. What about
principles? So here we go.
First principle as told by Nabeel was, “#1 Know
Thyself”. The person must measure Brand’s social footprint that tells us its “presence”.
We must also check “influence”- branded message adoption, “Perception”-
Measuring emotional reactions, “virality”- People organically participating in
conversation through blogs and other mediums and last “Resonance”. If you check
on those focus points I think you know yourself.
Second principle “#2 Put your best foot forward”.
This focus mostly on Defining voice & tone of the brand, Coming up with a
compelling content strategy and Creation of targeted content. Content can be either
curated or created.
Third principle “#3 Know your customer”. We really
think we know our customer and it would too easy but this is the most crucial
area to focus upon. Can you think of first customer who will buy your products
and services? If you can name it, I think you are on the way. It becomes nowadays
very important which need of your customer you are addressing. Brainstorming,
market research and different tools will enable you to know who your customer
is.
Forth principle “# 4 Actively Engage”. Engaging must
done with dialogues and not monologues. Nabeel gave very good examples for
this. Recently a post went viral that said Mr. Narendra Modi replied to a him on
twitter. The guy expressed his excitement of getting the reply from PM of
India. Another Engaging strategy would be story telling format. Best and
effective tool as it creates an emotional bonding. But one must always focus ‘sort
of emotions should story evoke’. Lastly ‘Story must incite some action’.
After listening to him I thought it was fascinating to
work in a Digital Marketing firm. But all new technologies comes with
challenges too. First challenge that one would face is there is “abundant
choice” in the marketing. You need to gear up and give your best shot. Big
players won’t give you much time to correct it, so doing it correctly the first
time itself is the challenge. Second Challenge faced by people working in
digital marketing is “scarce attention”. “As a marketing guy you need to be
heard”, once our faculty told us in lecture. Hence getting attention in the
vast pool of internet is itself a challenge.
Really this is the future. Future of Marketing.
There will be a time when you will see that every person in the world will be
going digital. Every Person in the world has his/her own website. The world would
be on a very different note to what we see today!
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