Abhijit Panda

The shutdowns and lockdowns caused by COVID-19 pandemic compelled many businesses to switch from conventional marketing campaigns to digital marketing activities to meet the changing consumer behavior. In 2020, the growth of digital marketing industry is often attributed to the disruptions caused by COVID-19. But the digital marketing industry in India will continue to grow steadily in the post-pandemic age.

According to Statista,

“The digital advertising industry across India had a market size of around 160 billion Indian rupees in the financial year 2019, up from just 47 billion Indian rupees in financial year 2015. This was projected to go up to around 539 billion rupees by financial year 2024, indicating a big growth in the industry segment.”

Likewise, an article posted on The National TV suggests,

“Digital advertising spends are set to reach Rs 25,000 crore in India by 2021, at a growth rate of more than 10.5%. This is going to lead to a situation where lakhs of jobs will be available in the digital marketing sector which includes social media marketing, content creation, and online retailing, online advertising.”

The market research studies conducted by several agencies and companies suggest that the digital marketing industry will grow consistently in the near future. But the digital marketing trends change frequently. Also, emerging trends keep transforming the digital marketing industry regularly. Hence, the growth of digital marketing in India will be driven by a slew of factors during and beyond 2021.

What Will Drive Digital Marketing Growth in India in the Near Future?

Increase in the Number of Digital Consumers

According to Analytics Insight,

“India is set to reach 1 billion internet users by the year 2025. As of 2020 YTD, there are over 687.6 million internet users in India.” 

The increase in the internet user base will increase the number of digital consumers will increase consistently. More and more consumers will use the internet to conduct pre-purchase research and purchase products/services. Also, the increase will create many new business opportunities for enterprises from various sectors. Many businesses will invest in digital marketing campaigns to influence the buying decisions of the digital consumer.

Changes in Consumer Behavior

The disruptions created by COVID-19 pandemic made many people spend more digital time on accessing social networks and mobile apps. Many consumers even started buying products from online stores and retailers to remain safe. The changes in consumer behaviour will contribute immensely to the growth of digital marketing in India. Indian consumers will continue to use the internet to collect information and place orders. Hence, businesses can leverage the opportunities only by carrying out digital marketing activities.

The emergence of Personal Commerce

Most enterprises these days personalize both advertising and commerce by leveraging the customer data collected from diverse sources. The customer data enable businesses to recommend what to buy and when to buy. Many consumers these days prefer brands that meet their precise needs and preferences at the right time. The digital marketing campaigns help businesses to influence the purchase decisions of customers by sending highly targeted and personalized content according to their current position in the sales journey.

Virtual Events instead of In-Person Events

Many businesses and organizations organized virtual events in 2020 to combat the travel and visa related to COVID-19. In addition to keeping participants safe, virtual events help businesses to curtail cost and overheads. Also, virtual events can be attended by a larger number of participants than in-person events. The new-age communication solutions facilitated bidirectional communication during live events or virtual events. In 2021, the businesses will make virtual events more successful by launching large-scale digital marketing campaigns.

Better Engage Target Audience

According to the Times of India,

“Time spent by Indians on smartphones increased by 24% to 4.3 hours per day in March driven primarily by the lockdown, according to data from analytics firm App Annie of android phones. This is a significant spike as compared to 3.5 hours a day on average.”

The increase in the time spent with mobile devices creates opportunities for businesses in India to keep customers and prospect engaged by through personalized experience and communication. The businesses can launch targeted digital marketing campaigns to interact and engage with customers in the most native environment.

Experiment with Content and Communication Channels

While planning and launching digital marketing campaigns, a business can reach out to targeted customers through various communication channels – emails, text messages, in-app messages, and social networks. It can further lunch integrated marketing campaigns to connect and communicate with customers through their preferred communication channels. At the same time, marketers can evaluate and fine-tune the content used in digital marketing by performing A/B testing. The Indian businesses will lunch integrated digital marketing campaigns in 2021 to send personalized messages through the right communication channel.

Compete with Large and Established Businesses

Traditional marketing is more cost-intensive and resource-intensive than digital marketing. The large and established businesses have the budget to drive sales through traditional marketing. But the small businesses and startups launch digital marketing campaigns to overcome constraints related to cost and resources. Many startups in India already run digital marketing campaigns to create brand awareness and expand the customer base. In 2021, many small businesses and startups will launch digital marketing campaigns to increase revenue and curtail cost.

Measure and Improve Campaign Performance

The businesses often lack the option to monitor and measure the performance of traditional marketing campaigns. But they can measure and monitor the performance of digital marketing campaigns based on real-time data using a variety of analytics solutions. The advanced analytics help decision-makers to measure the effectiveness of every digital ad in driving sales and generate revenue. The decision-makers can further differentiate the high-performing ads from the low-performing ads. They can finetune the low-performing ads based on the actionable insights collected using analytics to drive sales.

Several market research studies suggest that the digital marketing industry in India will grow steadily in the near future. But the Indian digital marketing industry will be transformed by both current and emerging trends. Hence, digital marketing growth in India will be driven by a slew of factors and trends in 2021 and beyond.