Digital  Marketing  Challenges  And  Opporunities

 

ABSTRACT

 Digital marketing is often referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'. The term digital marketing has grown in popularity over time, particularly in certain countries. In the USA online marketing is still prevalent. In Italy, digital marketing is referred to as web marketing. In the UK and worldwide, however, digital marketing has become the most common term, especially after the year 2013. Digital Marketing is the process of marketing a brand using the Internet. The main aim of digital marketing is to make the customers interact with various brands through use of technology on internet. In comparison to traditional marketing everything remain the same, change lies only in the options available to customers. This review article looks at the opportunities and threats to digital marketing in developing countries. In this article we have tried to discuss few problems such as education, awareness, privacy, internet etc faced by digital market in developing countries like India and Nigeria. Keyword: Digital marketing, Developing countries, e-commerce, online marketing.

INTRODUCTION

Today‟s world is a world of digitization and every country wants to digitize their services (Services like:Consumer distribution,subsidies,their education services,etc).Governments of developing countries now creates a deeper understanding of the policies and practices that are involved in digital marketing. Digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media and differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what isn‟t – typically in real time. Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content works and doesn‟t work, etc. The rapid evolution of digital media created new opportunities and avenues for advertising and marketing. Digital marketing is often referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'. The term 'digital marketing' became popular over time, particularly in certain countries. In the USA 'online marketing' is still prevalent, in Italy it is referred to as 'web marketing' but in the UK and worldwide, 'digital marketing' is the common usage. When trading in products or services takes place by using computer networks, such as the Internet, it is known as Electronic commerce( E-commerce or e-Commerce). Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online-transaction,inventory-management-systems processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail.E-marketing includes email, websites and micro sites, search engine advertising, search engine optimization, co-registration, mobile marketing, and other technology-driven tools. The use of digital marketing in the digital era not only allows for brands to market their products and services, but also allows for online customer support through 24/7 services to make customers feel supported and valued. The use of social media interaction allows brands to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers as well as determining what media platforms work well for them. As such, digital marketing has become an increased advantage for brands and businesses. It is now common for consumers to post feedback online through social media sources, blogs and websites on their experience with a product or brand.[20] It has become increasingly popular for businesses to utilise and encourage these conversations through their social media channels to have direct contact with the customers and manage the feedback they receive appropriately. Word of mouth communications and peer-to-peer dialogue often have a greater effect on customers, since they are not sent directly from the company and are therefore not planned. Customers are more likely to trust other customers‟ experiences. It is increasingly advantageous for companies to utilise social media platforms to connect with their customers and create these dialogues and discussions. The potential reach of social media is indicated by the fact that in 2015, each month the Facebook app had more than 126 million average unique users and YouTube had over 97 million average unique users. Digital marketing undertakings include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, and e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, optical disks and games, and any other form of digital media. It also encompasses non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback and on-hold mobile ring tones.

DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL MARKETING

E marketing has universal applicability. It permeates all kinds of business namely, agricultural, industrial, medical tourism, governance, Education and so on. Some of the common applications of e marketing are:Document automation, payment systems, content management, group buying,Online banking, shopping and order tracking, Teleconferencing, Electronic tickets which have become common with large and small businesses alike. The history of e marketing can be traced back to :  1971 or 1972: The ARPANET is used to arrange a sale between students at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the earliest example of e commerce.  1979: Michael Aldrich demonstrates the first online shopping system.  1981: Thomson Holidays UK is first business-to-business online shopping system to be installed.  1996: India MART B2B marketplace established in India.  2007: Flipkart was established in India.India is one of the world‟s fastest growing e-commerce market3. This growth story is the result of increase in the number of internet users. Internet users in India were estimated to be 300 million in 2014.India has an internet user base of about 250.2 million as of June 20144.The penetration of ecommerce is low compared to markets like the United States and the United Kingdom. India's e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009, it went up to $12.6 billion in 2013. In 2013, the e-retail market was worth US$ 2.3 billion. About 70% of India's e-commerce market is travel related. India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30% CAGR vis-à-vis a global growth rate of 8–10%5.

DIGITAL MARKETING CHALLENGES

1. E-Marketing requires customers to use new technologies rather than traditional media.

 2. Low speed internet connections are other barriers. 

3. From the buyers perspective, the inability of shoppers to touch, smell, taste or try on tangible goods before marketing an online purchase can be limiting. However their is an industry standard for e-commerce vendors to reassure customers by having liberal return policies as well as providing in-store pick-up services.

 4. Cyber Crime: many consumers are hesitant to purchase items over the internet because they do not trust that their personal information will remain private. Encryption is the primary method for implementing privacy policies.

 5. Low marketing education: Digital marketing education is still generally low in developing countries. 6. Preferences for foreign Products 

7. Low patronage for Non-essential Products and services

 8. High cost of production: Marketing has suffered dearly in most developing countries because virtually all production techniques are imported from the developed world. The cost of acquiring equipment and other inputs used for production locally to boost marketing is sometimes extremely exhaubitant for the poor developing countries to buy and finance. To worsen matters, the bulk of African‟s production is mainly in agricultural products that contribute less to GNP or Net National income of their various economies. This is because these products are sold at lesser prices in the world market. The income generated from them can only buy little from all that is needed to encourage domestic production, in order to enhance marketing. Where it is possible to import the equipment, the production techniques and skillful manpower requirement is sometimes too expensive to bear, hence the high cost of some local products when compared to the same foreign brands. This reason strengthens consumer‟s preference for imported products and results to low demand for locally made goods. This affects the marketing potentials of the home industries and equally has an adverse effect on macro- marketing of developing countries.

 9. Few competitive opportunities

 10. Over regulations of business by government: Another major problem that has be-deviled the performance of marketing especially in Nigeria has been the issue of government regulations and interferences in the activities of businesses and corporate firms. For instance, the over regulation of the Nigeria economy