What is Digital Marketing? How can you make a career in Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is a term we use to relate to all the online activities & efforts by companies to connect, communicate or engage with their audiences having internet access.

Resources like Search Engine, Social Media, Websites, and Emails are all used by marketers to connect with current and potential customers.

With the advent of advanced internet in the 1990s, people began to spend more time online than offline. In the 2000s, with mobile phones and laptops, more people got access to the internet and the accessibility helped marketers to find an effective way to attract, engage, and convert their target audience anywhere in the world.

The Evolution of Digital Marketing and Demand Generation in The ...

With internet penetration of more than 59% in the world out of which over 60% is through mobile phones, it has become very important for the brands to have their presence online.

What all is included in Digital Marketing?

Anything and everything that can promote your product or service to its right customer(s) online is a Digital Marketing tool.

Some very common and generally accepted tools are:

1. Website

It is a group of web pages with multimedia content and is generally used for creating primary online presence.

2. Blog Posts

It is a personal journal of an individual who shares his thoughts and ideas with like-minded subscribers on a frequent basis.

3. Email Marketing

Sending promotional mailers to a small or large number of people who have subscribed to your list.

4. Ebooks and White papers

Digital version of a book. It is generally used by marketers to attract leads for a product/service.

5. Social Media Marketing 

Promoting your brand through different social media platforms for engagement, brand awareness or attracting site visitors.

6. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Optimizing your website to rank higher on different search engine result pages, therefore increasing organic traffic.

7. Search Engine Marketing (Most common, Google Adwords)

Promoting or advertising your content on search engines such as Google using PPC (Pay-per-click) methodology.

8. Influencer Marketing

Using influential people to promote your brand online. Most common platforms for influencer marketing are Instagram and YouTube.

9. Online PR 

To get featured in digital publications, blogs, and other content websites. SImply, Offline PR using digital medium.

10. Content Marketing

Leveraging content  online in any form to drive action from your current or potential customers.

Why is Digital Marketing so important?

Accessibility

Your brand can engage with their current and potential customers in Real-time.

Reach

Your brand can communicate anywhere, anytime and with anyone with less than the fraction of offline marketing costs.

Customization

You can create different messages for different customers based on their preferences and personality.

What are the main ingredients to an amazing digital campaign?

It has to be an integration of 

Good Design

Worthwhile Experience

Knowledgeable Content, and

Latest Technology

How can you make a career in Digital Marketing?

Career in Digital Marketing Social 101

To become a successful Digital Marketer you need to follow these steps:

1. Think

Yes, the very first thing you need to do is to understand your passion and goals. What is it that excites you the most and kicks you out of your bed (or that NETFLIX marathon) everyday.

If the answer to that question is to create stories, imagine the impossible, influence people towards an idea, give a human voice to digital communications or as simple as sharing ideas/opinions on Social Media, you’re ready to jump in.

2. Be Online

Create a strong online presence by engaging in relevant conversations, discussions and arguments. Create and share original content online to create a fan-base and understand the dynamics of Online Media.

3. Feed your Creative Juices

Read Blogs, browse good design on Pinterest & Behance, watch youtube videos & podcasts, follow content-rich pages on Facebook & Instagram, and go through the top winning designs on Awwwards.

4. Learn through Online Courses (Opt for a Certification) &

Read Books

There are plenty of courses available (few of them for free) that you can avail at Hubspot, Udemy, EdX, and Coursera. My personal favourite is Hubspot Inbound Marketing & Complete Digital Marketing Course at Udemy. You can also buy books from Amazon to learn basic or advanced Digital Marketing, for a beginner ‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR’ by David Meerman Scott is a must-read. Also follow his informative blog here.

5. Network

Meet like-minded people in your college or LinkedIn or Alumni Association. Discuss your ideas with them and ask for reviews, you will get an unbiased opinion of how good/bad your ideas are. Don’t get demotivated by criticism, take it in a constructive manner.

6. Work, work, work

There’s no alternative to work experience. Look out for internships using LinkedIn, Internshala or LetsIntern. If you want to freelance, find your clients at Freelancer. If you don’t like both the options, start working on Dummy Projects (you dad’s business or your friend’s startup, anything) to build an amazing portfolio.

7. Say ‘Yes’ to anything

Don’t carry your pride while looking out for work, it won’t get you anywhere. Be ready to do every kind of work because there is no such thing as bad work experience.

8. Build your personal brand

Share your thoughts and ideas on online forums or through comments section in Blogs or Social Media. Become a LinkedIn pro by forming strong connection and engaging is frequent conversations. Publish and share your blog with everyone in your circle and offer free advice.

9. Form new ideas

It’s a good thing to get inspiration from others’ ideas and build your own around them but the world acknowledges only those ideas that are new & fresh. Try out new concepts, you have got nothing to lose.

10. Just f**king START

To make it possible you need to Start. Not tomorrow, not next week but today. You can always make time for things you love so don’t give me that bullshit. If you really want to be a Digital Marketer, start with a small step, but start Today!

If you want personal advice for your career or you want a Digital Marketing Agency who can do the hard work for you, I would love to meet and know you.

The Emerging New Trend – Augmented Reality Marketing

The digital world is growing fast around us and the competition in the market is soaring high. With an increase in customer demands, technology is picking up its pace.

Ordering products online and getting them delivered to your doorstep made life easier. One didn’t have to waste their time browsing stores throughout their evening.

However, that didn’t seem enough. Most customers were dissatisfied with the orders delivered to their homes. The outfits didn’t fit them right, or they didn’t feel ‘awesome’ wearing those sunglasses.

The tech world always finds an answer to our problems. And soon, we entered into a world of augmented reality marketing. This involves converting the unreal environments into realistic experiences for the customers.

In other words, it allows the customers to engage with the product before they purchase it. This experience satisfies their needs and increases re-visits to your website.

Why Should You Develop AR?

This new and upcoming trend is yet to be adopted by various brands in India.

So, yours could be one which could stand out well in comparison to your competitors. Including AR in your brand’s shopping experience will definitely attract more customers and increase your revenue.

With this new digital technique, you can interact with your customers outside the shop. It is a known fact that they would like to try out some products before they buy them.

Now, you can give your customers a visual appearance of themselves dressed in new clothes. It would only require them to use their phone cameras. Then, they could try on clothes, sunglasses, or even makeup, without ever visiting your store!

Marketing your products using AR will contribute greatly to building your reputation. Your brand name will become popular on the streets and customers will flock to your website.

You won’t have to worry about maintaining inventory anymore. It will be a win-win situation for both the customers and your brand.

Who Has Done It Before?

Before you second-guess the success capabilities of AR marketing, let’s see some examples.

Brands who have implemented this technique have gone over the top with their sales records. Let’s check them out.

Lenskart

The popular eyewear brand took the internet by storm when it introduced its new marketing campaign. It allows the customer to try on their products online by recording a video of their face.

The home page on their website urges customers to try on the new feature. Users are usually compelled to give in a few minutes of their time for a unique experience.

So once the video has been recorded from all angles, the website will display a list of products based on their face shape.

They also provide great recommendations on which frames would suit one best. A customer would not tend to leave their website without an order booked to be delivered.

Melzo

This is a fast-growing internet company in Surat creating Virtual Reality videos for various brands.

It covers many sectors like tourism, showrooms, interiors, industries, and even real estate. This company was developed to save the customers’ time otherwise wasted in visiting places around the world.

Melzo gives an opportunity to businesses, allowing them to convert 3D spaces into 360° views using their smartphones. This allows the customer to see a house by swiping on their phone as they view every detail. The ceiling, the floor, the walls, or the balcony – all can be seen as one relaxes in their chair.

Similarly, travel enthusiasts can visit the seven wonders of the world through a 360° breathtaking view from their laptop. Customers can even enter virtual car showrooms before they visit the store.

It’s quick and easy to set up a panoramic view of your store with help from Melzo. When customers will visit your store in the virtual world, they’ll be compelled to visit the real one too.

BlinkLink Solutions

This company based in Surat uses virtual reality to transform construction designs into 360° views.

It allows the clients to see buildings and their interiors before it is constructed. This eases out their decision-making process before purchasing a property.

It is also advantageous for designers who can make improvements to the interiors by viewing it from all angles.

The company offers VR walkthrough videos where one can see the building in detail. The colors and the tiles can be rearranged and tried out in diverse combinations before finalizing the look.

This feature has proven valuable to many companies looking for a new marketing campaign. Thereafter, they tend to choose BlinkLink Solutions for the best experience they could rarely get elsewhere.

The World is Changing

Marketing hasn’t been the same as before. Earlier, it was a need to buy essential products. Today, this need has evolved into a demand involving luxurious satisfaction.

Nowadays, you can allow your customers to interact with your brand easily and efficiently. Be it visiting your store or trying on your products, AR has it covered as the customer relaxes at home.

You can bring your large scale products into the meeting rooms as virtual models. Discuss and resolve those errors which will otherwise waste your money and time. You can develop better designs aimed to please the customer.

Then, it also allow them to customize their product online according to their wishes. Colors, patterns, and shapes can be altered with a simple click on their phone. With this information, you can improve your customer services and please their requests without much hassle.

Business cards and brochures are also gradually entering this new world of marketing. A simple QR code on your business card can be scanned by customers to gain more information about your brand.

After scanning the code, they could be led to your website, fulfilling their curious requirements.

Brochures, too, can be scanned to see videos, elaborating on the information about your brand and its products. Your designer lehengas can be brought to life as a video captures a woman showing off its styles.

Empty buildings on the brochure can also be made more interesting through these breakthroughs in VR.

Your explorations will be never-ending with augmented reality marketing. There will always be something innovative around the corner waiting to be discovered.

The sky is not the limit, it is just the beginning!