Digital Marketing: The Future of Consumerism
“Business has only two functions: marketing and innovation.” — Milan Kundera.
Business and marketing go hand in hand. The success of a product or service depends on the reception it receives from the consumers. However, to let people know about your services, you need to advertise them.
Most people consider marketing as a method for advertising and selling a product. However, marketing covers even more, including market research, promotion, advertisement, and selling.
Printing posters and advertisements in newspapers and magazines were some old forms of marketing. Thanks to modern technology, marketing ways have changed exceptionally in the past decades, leading to the rise of digital marketing.
Digital marketing is a marketing strategy used by businesses to promote their brands, products, and services using the internet and other digital platforms. Now, apart from traditional marketing forms, most business owners opt for digital marketing since it is a more convenient, economical, and effective way of marketing.
Digital Marketing in Egypt
The pandemic had a positive effect on technology globally, and Egypt is no exception. People had to rely on digital platforms for education, healthcare, shopping, and business. Brands with an offline marketing strategy had to shift to digital marketing to sell their products better, boosting the demand for e-commerce platforms.
Surveys show that over 72% of the people in Egypt took on the digital way of life, with more than 40% using online shopping applications on a daily or monthly basis.
This raised the bar for traditional offline sellers and service providers, driving them to change their marketing strategies, thus resulting in the increased demand for marketing research companies in Egypt. Consequently, more people started seeking the help of sales and marketing solution providers to improve their marketing techniques.
Compared to other economically developed countries, Egypt still has a long way to go in the digital marketing sector. However, the number of people relying on digital marketing services and e-commerce platforms has improved radically in the past two years, and business entities and entrepreneurs use social media platforms to promote their services.
Many digital marketing agencies offer attractive packages claiming to boost your sales and visibility in a short period. But, most of them fail to provide the expected outcome.
Here is where the importance of accurate market data comes in. Updated and precise information is crucial to understand ongoing market trends and consumer needs, adopting suitable sales and marketing solutions, and predicting the success rate of your product. So, choose your data service providers wisely.
Influence of Digital Marketing
Every successful business has a unique marketing strategy. A handy product or service is useless if people have no knowledge about it. And, digital marketing has helped people to know more about various products and services more accurately and instantly.
So, businesses are now using the power of the internet and technology to promote their services globally. Some of the methods through which companies do product promotion include:
- Blogs and online posts
- Online articles and newsletters
- Text messages
- Digital ads
- Social Media ( Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
Adapting an effective business strategy can boost your firm’s reputation and help you generate more profit. In the current scenario, it is pretty much mandatory to have a website or social media presence to promote your business. It helps you connect with your customers online, which is where they spend most of their time.
Some of the many ways digital marketing influences customers include:
Product Research
Most customers surf the internet for better knowledge of a product or service before purchasing it. They always want the best information and outcomes. They also compare similar products before making a purchase.
An active and efficient online presence can help you reach out more to your customers, answer their queries and deliver a personalised consumer experience.
Product Review
Before making a purchase, customers usually check the reviews of the product they intend to buy. E-commerce giants give a lot of importance to product reviews since they can make or break their business reputation.
Higher the positive reviews on a product, the higher the chances of it being purchased. Good reviews help you earn your customer’s trust and increase the credibility of your brand.
Faster Response Rate
Customers have a low patience level while waiting for an inquiry response. Slow and irregular replies can result in loss of valuable buyers. You can avoid this by utilising the power of chatbots and emails.
Digital marketing helps create personalised shopping experiences for your customers, empowering them to make the right purchase decisions and helps you build dynamic and transparent business relations.
An experienced digital marketer knows where to invest more time and money to attract their target audience. Be careful while trusting a marketing agency or a marketer to improve your business sales and performance.
Types of Digital Marketing
The entire concept of using technology for marketing comes with a wide range of methods such as:
Content Marketing
Content marketing focuses on creating, publishing, and distributing content through blogs, articles, newsletters, and other media for brand awareness and promotions. Many established business organisations like Microsoft and Apple use blogs to promote their products.
Content marketing is economical and proven effective in generating quality leads and improving sales and customer engagement.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO focuses on generating quality unpaid website traffic by optimising it to rank top in the search results in Google, Bing, and other search engines. Increased visibility of your website can attract more valuable customers to your business. The amount of traffic acquired depends on content quality, keyword research, website speed, and crawlability.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social Media Marketing focuses on using social media platforms for promotion and advertisement. It is the most widely used marketing strategy by small businesses and entrepreneurs since it has more conversion rates, impacting customer behaviour and buying decisions.
Influencer marketing is a form of SMM where businesses work with social media personalities having a large following who are experts in the field for promoting their products.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
PPC or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of paid advertising. It allows businesses to place ads on websites and social media platforms. The advertiser pays the website host every time someone clicks on their ads, hence the name pay-per-click.
SEM helps businesses to increase their visibility among the targeted audience and generate more leads.
Video Marketing
Video marketing refers to using video to create brand awareness and customer engagement. It is the second most popular marketing idea on social media platforms. Studies show that more than 80% of smartphone users consume video content than any other type. Shorter and quicker videos attract more consumer attention than texts. It is a great way to promote and build customer trust, helping to boost SEO, conversion rates, and sales.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the most underestimated form, but statistics show it has high ROI rates. It improves customers’ knowledge about new products, offers, discounts, and services via email. It aids the effective promotion of your products and services, luring traffic to your page and improving customer engagement. It helps to build loyalty, trust, and brand awareness among customers.
Audio Marketing
Audio marketing is one of the oldest forms of product marketing. It uses radio, podcasts, voice searches, and audiobooks for advertisement and promotions. Smart home assistants like Alexa and audio streaming channels like Spotify allows advertisers to insert their product ads in between audio and podcast streams, creating brand awareness while audiences enjoy the content they love.
Audio advertisements have a wider reach, consumers pay more attention to audio content, and screenless periods are increasing in households.
Conclusion
There is no debate about the fact that technology has changed the marketing sector in Egypt for good. As more and more innovative technologies emerge and market trends change, so do marketing strategies.
Experts advise investing in sales and marketing solutions since the trend of online marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon. Businesses should be prepared to take advantage of the technology and launch their services in cyberspace.
Experts predict that the future of digital marketing is full of possibilities and opportunities, businesses will be involved in more market research in the future, and they will rely on social media for promotions and advertisements.
However, never undermine the importance of providing accurate data online regarding your product. It is easy to find whether a business is giving false promises and information about its products or services. So be mindful while promoting your business online and stay honest and devoted to providing the best services for your customers.
Read the ultimate digital marketing guide here
