The COVID -19 pandemic has seen more and more businesses shift from operating in brick and mortar locations to an online & digital world most especially in countries like Uganda where the Government has put in place strict guidelines for business operations. Over the last few months, the marketing landscape has changed drastically due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world. Now more than ever, we see digital marketing communications as a much more needed aspect to any business’ marketing tools.
Today, Digital marketing Communications has seen more types of digital interaction, whether it’s multimedia content marketing via blogs, videos, engaging in direct selling via webinars, online chat or interacting with apps.
Globally, numerous governments have imposed local down which has seen the increase in the usage of Internet, smartphones, social and digital media. Close to half the world’s population (3.03 billion people) are on some type of social media hence an urgent call for strong investment into Digital Marketing Communications by businesses.
What does this mean for Digital Marketing Communications?
The opportunities for consumers to interact with brands and for businesses to reach and learn about their customers are endless. There has been an ongoing trend of businesses operating online, and for this to happen, business owners need to think of new and innovative ways to maintain their existing customers while at the same time capturing new leads through continuous interaction on digital platforms including social media. However, it’s not all roses capturing smart phones users’ attention to your brand as most users are not easily convinced. For example, 57% of all mobile users will not recommend a business if their mobile website is poorly designed or unresponsive according to Omnicore.
With Digital Marketing Communications, we see tools in the marketing mix being brought together digitally. Such tools are not limited to display ads, pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, Digital PR, affiliate marketing, opt-in email marketing and social media advertising. There are business prospects that come with the current pandemic, People appreciating the need to jump on the Digital era to have their lives simplified and the need to tell their clients about it creates more space for Digital Marketing Communications. A business owner can easily have his products and services listed online and his customers do not have to worry about finding him online. A simple Facebook advert showing his catalog of products goes a long way in getting him customers without shouting at the top of his voice manually searching for customers. It is at this expense that more and more businesses ought to embrace digital marketing communications.
More so, unlike most offline marketing efforts, digital marketing allows marketers to see accurate results in real time with a clearly defined ROI. Campaigns are easily monitored and cheaply measured to the extent that it fits a budget as low as 1 dollar a day if properly managed by a competent and specialized digital marketing manager.
The simplicity of Digital Marketing Communications makes it relevant in practice, Ideally, all a manager does is communicate with prospects using the online company presence such as company websites, mobile apps, and social media company pages. The value also comes with the ability to collect audience profiles and its interactions with businesses, in relation to SOPs of a particular country. Engaging one’s audiences is also a plus especially when the manager not only focusses on paid but as well, earned media.
Regardless of whether you have a B2C OR B2B business model where content marketing is a top priority after brand building and social media engagement, digital marketing communications is relevant for any business to thrive in the next 5 years. The other beauty about Digital Marketing Communications is that your digital marketing efforts are geared towards what goals your company would like to accomplish, whether it’s creating awareness, lead generation, or making sales so it’s easy to track the buyers’ journey. For that reason, you only pay for what you desire. Beyond that, you’ll probably ask for a refund. (It’s possible with this online free world). This is where we are now, embracing the simplicity in digital marketing communications.