How is the Future of Digital Marketing Bright in India?

With 450 million internet users, 1.18 billion mobile phone users and booming prevalence of Digital India, the future of Digital Marketing in India is heading towards $1 Trillion digital opportunities.

Businesses are opting for the latest Digital Marketing trends to optimize their reach, sales, and conversions.

In the process, digital transformation is also going to be one of the prominent reasons behind great career opportunities.

In simple terms, Digital marketing is a way to market and advertise services and products on the web.

The world of digital marketing has been the fastest growing industry in India.

Digital India was introduced a few years ago, but the importance it holds in everyone’s lives now has made it a popular choice of career for beginners as well as for the market leaders.

As per a study in the year 2018, India comprised 483 million internet users, and this figure is supposed to grow to 666.4 million internet users by the end of 2023.

Hence, the future of digital marketing has increasingly high scope for all those who have a flair for marketing, connecting, socializing, and convincing people to buy various goods and hire services through stores online.

In addition, being aware of the future of digital marketing and the trends is important for those who either want to make a career in Digital Marketing or want to use Digital Marketing to optimize their presence on the web.

In this post, we will cover some of the most important future trends and scopes of Digital Marketing in India that are going to be the game-changer for you all planning to rule in the online world-

Future of Digital Marketing in India

India is a densely populated country and ranks second in the world in this context.

In the context of the future of digital marketing in India, the scope is just going to get brighter in the upcoming years. A mobile phone has become a necessity for everyone.

Some of the key stats from Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India that tell about the scope of Digital Marketing in India-

(a) Internet users – 480+ million

(b) Smartphone users – 298 million devices and 468 million connections

(c) Mobile phone users – 1.18 billion

(d) Social media users – 250 million

(e) Books – 0.7 million books in 70 languages in National Digital Library

(f) Ration cards – 100% digitized

(g) Govt eMarketplace (GEM 3.0) – 263,731 products by 105,889 sellers listed with 22,598 buyer organizations

Everybody wants to market their products and services through the internet as it does not have any geographical barriers. This marketing strategy is more effective and affordable.

Digital India is also letting the cashless industry grow leaps and bounds. Few important statistics about India’s cashless economy are-

(a) Credit cards – 33.87 million

(b) Debit cards – 826.3 million

(c) PoS machines – 2.5 million

The few changes which will turn around the future of digital marketing in India are:

(i) A drastic change in traditional marketing

(ii) Digital is the new avenue for everything

(iii) Our government has come up with a “Digital India” campaign

(iv) Global Markets Capturing

(v) Many colleges in India have started accepting that digital marketing is a proper field and have introduced courses for students interested in it.

(vi) Rural reach is increasing in the digital aspect

(vii) The rates to adapt to digital marketing avenues such as smartphones and internet costs are becoming more affordable.

The conglomeration of diverse channels is the reason for the youth to start accepting this as a legitimate career option. Not only will the acceptance of digital marketing increase, but also the generation of new ideas.

Future of Digital Marketing & Trends that will Shape up your Career 

All experts in their respective fields have to keep themselves updated to the trends, whether it’s fashion, art, technology, science, design, or digital marketing.

Digital marketing trends have to be kept in mind by digital marketers.

They have to formulate, incorporate, and implement strategies based on the trends in the market. This is done so that there is high customer satisfaction and increased site visits.

1. Artificial Intelligence

The spectrum of AI is pretty vast. The application of artificial intelligence, even in digital marketing is essential. In the context of digital marketing, AI is performing a meta-analysis of broad-spectrum data sets. This data is then used to help make its own decisions.

AI is being seen everywhere, even though it is at an infancy stage.

From self-driven cars to AI transactions and recommendations in companies such as Amazon and Netflix, AI is spreading faster. In the future, AI will be used as a benchmark in digital marketing due to its ability to be accurate and create a better and more personalized experience for the customer.

Programmatic Advertising using Artificial Intelligence

Search Engine Marketing, also known as Paid search, is a marketing technique to generate web traffic by purchasing advertisements on search engines. The marketers would either pay when their ad is displayed or every time someone clicks on it.

Traditionally, a company dedicates a team of employees to decide which platform they should invest in to generate revenue and traffic. As opposed to this, programmatic advertising utilizes artificial intelligence. It is a marketing technique that buys advertising space using data to decide the nature of the audience that the ads should target.

Programmatic advertising has gained momentum in the last few years, with an estimated $46 billion being invested in this marketing strategy.

It is also predicted that by 2020, almost 80% of the companies and organizations will be shifting to AI-based marketing techniques as it is more efficient, accurate, and highly cost-effective when it comes to acquiring customers.

2.  Smart Digital Assistants

These assistants, such as Alexa and Google Assistant, are designed in such a way that they help users to stay connected.

They provide personal assistance in day-to-day lives. It is predicted that the market for these assistants will double next year and reach 1.6 billion users by 2020.

The technology of these smart AI-driven assistants will improve over time in areas such as voice recognition, personalized services which are based on the behavior of the user.

3. Influencer Marketing

The concept of influencer marketing includes individuals who with the help of their social media accounts advertise goods and services.

This advertisement can be explicit or implicit. Usually used in terms of a specific context, this form of marketing will become more prominent in a continuous strategy. The marketers who are in the millennial and Gen-Z demographics will consider building relationships with influencers.

This can be done by finding new and fresh talent on different social media such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

4. Conversations with Robots

 Through the application of AI, the field of digital marketing will introduce “chatbots.”

These will enable consumers to have actual communications about the products and services on the sites and understand the company much better.

Not only will it increase sales, but also create a relationship between the consumer and the retailer.

Digital marketing professionals should realize this trend and try and incorporate it as it advances so that they can have it to their advantage.

5. Change in Social Media Function

Social media initially was used by individuals to connect with peers and family members who were probably far away.

However, this is not the case anymore.

It is now being used by startups, budding talents, and known brands to showcase their work and products for a more extensive customer base. Users of social media are looking for more entertainment and new technology.

Personal blogs and websites are becoming less popular. Social media is being used as a platform to display the organization and also collect further customer information.

These digital marketing trends are to be accepted by the managers in the field and adapted as fast as possible before they get old and have to be replaced. Updating to trends takes up a lot of finance. Hence the adaptation should be quick because patterns fly in faster than airplanes from one end of the world to another.

Digital marketing trends help to increase employment because new talents are always required to keep up with all the new changes.

Scope of Digital Marketing for Businesses 

In 2018, the digital marketing field focused on new levels such as customer experience, functionality, and advertising for a highly targeted audience.

These are continuously improved with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Various areas have a vast scope.

The future of digital marketing depends on these facets, which come together to make the experience better for the customers-

1. Use of Voice Search

At least 40% of US adults use voice search once per day.

It is already one a quickly growing facet, and it is only going to keep growing. Through digital marketing, users of smartphones and laptops have started using voice recognition and search feature much more.

As technology improves and the world gets more digitized, people will start talking to their screens more than typing on them.

Voice search and optimization have also gained a considerable amount of popularity with the introduction of voice elements like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.

The users have to speak to the device rather than type a request or manually perform a task. It is suggested that companies who utilize the SEO technique should also adopt the tactic of voice search to recognize voice search.

2. Video

Videos are becoming very popular in the future of digital marketing. It gives a feeling of belonging and being part of the experience being shared by the user.

The picture and sound quality make the people see the activity or watch particular blogs or tutorials. YouTube is already the 2^nd most popular website online. It has a plethora of videos to view. Many other social networking sites such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook have introduced the video feature in their applications.

Making a video nowadays is much more comfortable, and it is reported that most of the traffic in 2021 will be through uploading and viewing videos.

The need for Personalization and Video Content

With the various techniques of digital marketing being developed, content creation always remains as a vital aspect. Creating authentic, fresh, and original content is an essential step in digital marketing. With that being said, personalization of this content has become a necessity.

It has recently been noticed that the amount of traffic generated increases when people tend to relate the personal experiences cited in the content to themselves. Hence, personalization not only helps in attracting an audience, but it also helps in maintaining customer relationships.

Video content has become the most popular form of content. The inclusion of live videos, stories, and Instagram TV has helped companies and businesses to generate more and more traffic and attract a wider audience. It is also being observed that some marketers are making use of personalized video messaging rather than emails and messages to build stronger customer relationships.

3. Quality > Quantity

There is so much content online that people start getting bored and tuning out.

An overload of information or images, videos, etc. does not pose well as an advertising technique. The future of digital marketing is dependent on the fact that there is filtered but accurate content regarding the topics being discussed.

There is scope for digital marketing to improve in this field so that it targets a certain audience.

4. Importance of Customer Reviews

Reviews from the users and viewers have a significant impact on the SEO and sales of a particular organization that utilizes digital marketing as an essential advertising and marketing device.

A user’s review is their recommendation.

The primary aim of improvising digital marketing is for the users. If their opinion is not taken into consideration, the point of improvisation is moot.

The customer is king, and the digital marketers are the ministers trying to make the most of their advice.

5. Improved Ads

 The future of digital marketing is highly dependent on display ads.

The money spent on this form of communication is increasing so that the customer enjoys the experience more.

The people specializing in digital marketing will make display ads more customized and interactive.

Social ads investment will also increase by 2021.

6. Privacy Policies

There have recently been many reports regarding the privacy concerns of many social networking sites.

The scope of digital marketing in this context is to ease these concerns and provide increased knowledge regarding how individuals can protect their information on social networking sites.

Many sites have mirrored various aspects of each other, and hence all of them will have to tighten security regarding the information users provide. They have already begun initializing and notifying users about these privacy policies.

7. Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence and automating various aspects is the future of digital marketing. The fact that robots and machines can do the same or even better work than humans themselves are being taken into consideration. This is eating into the employment levels since 2018.

However, it will continue to be implemented as the work is done more efficiently, without rookie mistakes and quicker.

The scope of digital marketing is vast, and the opportunities are endless. The number of jobs is increasing by the day because the niche issues need to be solved by experts, and this helps fresh graduates explore the field of digital marketing.

The youth in this generation wants constant creativity, imagination, and a full workday as opposed to a sedentary desk job. A career in digital marketing has an unlimited scope.

As we enter the fourth generation of digital marketing (the first one was in 2000), there are numerous things that one can do with their business. The framework of digital marketing initially consisted of social media marketing, email marketing, and campaigning, digital advertisements and, basic blog publishing.

These parts helped in increasing the number of visits to the site but may not improve the efficient communication between the service provider and the service receiver.

The future of digital marketing includes an integrated global marketing program, cohesive marketing technology, and focusing on account-based marketing. This automatically creates a need for employment.

The point of updating the content available is so that accessibility by the customer is more accessible. The customers want to engage and communicate once they have got access to online content. The old phrase “content is king” still holds.

In Conclusion

With the advancement in the field of technology every day; Digital Marketing is also undergoing periodic transition.

Various new techniques and strategies are being implemented by companies to increase the amount of traffic being generated.

So, how much prepared you are for the future of Digital Marketing in India? – Share your views with us in the comments.

And if you want to excel in any particular Digital Marketing field, you can do this by enrolling in a comprehensive Digital Marketing Course. This will let you be well aware of the latest Digital Marketing Trends and associated practices that will optimize your growth.