By Rishikumar A/L Selvadurai, Senior Lecturer, School of Business
One of the benefits of the Internet is that business owners, regardless of the size and nature of the business, can now reach a large group of potential customers almost instantly, at little to no cost. As technology started to evolve and the use of the Internet started to be neatly engraved into practically all everyday activities, a new era of digital marketing began surfacing. In today’s world, being online takes more than merely setting up a website or posting on social media platforms. There are business goals to consider, strategies to create, customer purchasing behaviour to gauge, and that can easily be overwhelming if not confusing. Nevertheless, building an online presence is crucial, and it is worth bearing in mind that digital marketing is here to stay.
For the past year, while the world has been suffering losses due to COVID-19, digital marketing was dominating. People and companies have turned to digital marketing to survive the sudden economic standstill. Where COVID-19 has brought bad days to physical marketing, it has widened the doors of digital marketing; people are more dependent on digital marketing than ever before. People who can’t shop at stores as usual because of the lockdown and movement restriction orders are choosing to stay home and shop virtually. This has been keeping companies running even in the pandemic. (Mckinsey, 2021)
Digital marketing has made it easier to target the right group of audiences. Now more than ever, it has become easier to improve targeting precision since many digital platforms allow handlers to customize their target pool. Companies that have mastered digital marketing traits have tools to analyze online purchasing behaviours and gain access to customer demographic information. Digital marketers can use this data to offer specific products or services customized to a buyer’s interest. For example, if a user clicks on a brand display ad, either on social media or any search engine, the brand is enabled to target that particular user with subsequent and related ads. (Marr, 2021) If the ad or content is based on the user’s interest, it creates positive reinforcement and raises the purchasing probability, thus, benefiting the brand while making the shopping experience more satisfying for the customer. This is one of the many ways digital marketing has made life easier for both companies and consumers.