Rejuvenate the Digital Marketing Strategies

Rejuvenate the Digital Marketing Strategies

Dr. Subrahmanian Muthuraman
Faculty of Business Studies, Arab Open University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.7669

Received: 09 May 2023; Revised: 01 June 2023; Accepted: 05 June 2023; Published: 07 July 2023

ABSTRACT

Digital marketing has grown rapidly in the past few years as more and more businesses are realizing the importance of a good online presence. The use of digital technologies during and after post-Covid-19 becomes an integral part of the modern marketing strategy, which allows for the optimization of the costs of organizations and initiates the reengineering of existing business processes by maximizing digitalization. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and deliberate the strategies in digital marketing in the post covid era.  The paper is built on the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature which enables to describe the phenomenon of digital marketing and its strategies in the post covid era and what is happening in the business world. The interpretation and analysis of the results allow for the identification of the main digital marketing strategies and techniques to improve the business. Marketing approaches become more valuable when they strategically incorporate digital success factors. The corporate companies opened their eyes by using new and advanced technologies in order to raise their standing as it is seeking out decentralized decision-making to increase its productivity. Post Covid-19 teaches the customer a behaviour change, the digital marketing companies need to understand the current situation while developing for the digital marketing strategies. Digital ecosystems could account for more than $60 trillion in revenue by 2025. But still there are firms who are not fully converted into digital they still prefer traditional marketing methods in order to launch their products and reach their audience.  Effective use of the Digital Marketing strategy will attract many customers. Digital Marketing provides us all solutions, for us to choose and find our own solutions to reach out and make them make purchasing decisions. Companies need to take advantage of opportunities in this crisis and offer better product and services that delight the customer in the Post Covid-19 with various digital marketing strategies.

Keywords: Digital Marketing, Covid-19, Strategies, Digital Technology, Business Growth

INTRODUCTION

Marketing is a restless, changing, and dynamic business activity. The role of marketing itself has changed dramatically due to Covid-19.  Such changes, including the internet, have forced today’s marketing executive to become more market driven in their strategic decision making, requiring a formalized means of acquiring accurate and timely information about customers, products and the marketplace and the overall environment. Internet marketing involves the usage of the Internet to market and sell goods or services. Internet marketing utilizes the power of electronic commerce to sell and market products.  With growth in internet, it is not just selling products alone, but in addition to this, information about products, advertising space, software programs, auctions, stock trading and matchmaking. A few companies have revolutionized the way; internet can be used for marketing (Bala & Verma, 2018). Out of all modern marketing tools, digital marketing channels and social media becomes the most whispered, interactive, and essential. Any effective marketing campaign will include them in its strategy (Mandal & Joshi, 2017).

LITERATURE REVIEW

1990s was the year when digital marketing was first introduced. This was the time when internet was introduced, and development of Web 1.0 was under process. Web 1.0 use to allow users to find the information they are looking for, but it didn’t allow them to share that information over the web. As at that point of time the use of internet was not that much popular as people were still unaware of this term and considering this the marketers were still unsure of the use of digital platform. The digital era started in the year 1993, In the year 1996 when World Wide Web came into existence on the very first year Yahoo received about 1 million hits. Looking at this company’s state to optimize their websites as they see a lot of change in the digital market space and to increase their search engine rankings. It was the year 1998 when Google was launched. To compete in the digital market Microsoft launched the MSN search engine and Yahoo come up with Yahoo web search. After the launch of all these two years down the line all the small search engines were wiped out or left behind and all the control was taken by these big companies.  Web 2.0 was introduced which allows the people to interact with other users as well as other businesses, people were becoming active users and started to contribute to the digital platform. The Internet was also known as ‘super information highway’ by this information volume also increased and use of digital marketing also increased, and internet advertising also increased. (Dwivedi & Nath, 2020).

The Internet is providing companies to new channels of communication and interaction. It can create closer and yet more cost-effective relationships with customers in sales, marketing, and customer support. Companies can use the internet to provide ongoing information, service, and support. It also creates positive interaction with customers that can serve as the foundation for long term relationships and encourage repeat purchases (Mandal & Joshi, 2017). Internet marketing has been described simply as ‘achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies.

Digital marketing is an act of promoting products and services with the help of digital devices or technology. Digital marketing is often referred to as online marketing, internet marketing or web marketing (Cherukur& Priya, 2020).  Digital marketing can be termed as an approach, a strategy, or a branding and marketing exercise, using digital platforms, as the name suggests. Digital Marketing is the development of brands, product, or service online. Digital marketing has grown rapidly in the past few years as more and more businesses are realizing the importance of a good online presence. (Mandal & Joshi, 2017). Digital marketing is based on ever-growing and rapidly changing technologies (Al-Ababneh, 2020).

Digital marketing is the use of technologies to help marketing activities in order to improve customer knowledge by matching their needs (Chaffey, 2013). In the developed world, companies have realized the importance of digital marketing. For businesses to be successful they will have to merge online with traditional methods for meeting the needs of customers more precisely. For digital marketing to deliver result for businesses, digital content such as accessibility, navigation and speed are defined as the key characteristics for marketing (Koiso-Kanttila, 2004).Digital marketing is reaching the marketing objectives through digital technologies and media includes managing the presence of the business online, such as company website and social media. Digital marketing is an approach, terms, or strategy of branding used by digital platforms to achieve marketing objectives (Putri, 2021).

The power of the traditional marketing tools and communication is diminishing, and technology is changing the context of and practice of marketing: marketers are increasingly forced to operate in a complex and changing world (Bala & Verma, 2018).Now we have learnt a lot on how to adapt to a new reality and way of working (and life, given reduced lock-in constraints) by means of online meetings with colleagues and researchers, and obviously also by means of online teaching. The massive and profound upheaval of the Covid 19 pandemic would have a multiple impact on marketing discipline (Alshaketheep, et al, 2020).After Covid-19, customers, communities, and organizations will undoubtedly reassess these ideologies and goals critically (Anwar & El-Bassiouny, 2020). Can a pandemic provide marketing directors and researchers with ample shock to challenge their businesses and their own core strategies and underlying ideologies? (Alshaketheep, et al, 2020).

In the digital world, the evolution of uses should lead to the appearance of new practices in marketing; there is a strong interweaving between technologies, use and marketing. This interweaving is relatively complex but demonstrates the dominance of technology on marketing. Indeed, it is above all the increasing speed technological evolutions linked to the “Internet” ecosystem which influences user’s behavior, and, thus, allows or forces business to evolve and implement new practices in their marketing (Adnani & Hamou, 2020). As we see in the current scenario digital marketing has shown more growth opportunities which can help the business to grow. As we see now a day’s more than 180 million people have smartphones and have access to internet are all are active on social media platform therefore it’s a huge task for the digital marketers to understand the behavior of their customers (Dwivedi & Nath, 2020).Digital Marketing strategies areuseful when are implemented as a mean of obtaining user’s information. The analysis ofuser’s data that they leave in digital environments. This information provides insights about how to draft digital marketing strategies successfully (Polanco-Diges & Debasa, 2020).

PURPOSE

Marketing is becoming increasingly digital and continuous technological developments present marketers with new challenges and opportunities (Bala & Verma, 2018). The Covid-19 has forced businesses to advance for the ultra-rapid development of digital technology, and it has an enormous challenge to keep track of those developments and to use them advantageously during this crisis. Kingsnorth (2017) shared that digital marketing and business strategy are concepts that should be integrated and grow together. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and deliberate the strategies in digital marketing in the Post Covid era.

METHODOLOGY

The paper is built on the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature which enables to describe the phenomenon of digital marketing and its strategies in the post covid era and what is happening in the business world. According to Creswell & Creswell (2017), search methods determine how the researcher will collect, analyze, and understand the data of a specific study. Secondary analysis is a systematic process with procedural and evaluative steps to develop the research objective, then the identification of the dataset, and thorough evaluation the dataset (Johnston, 2017).This study was based on a secondary data analysis of various strategies in digital marketing. A random selection of academic journals, articles and research publications were selected from various sources. The selection of professional publications was thoroughly reviewed.

DISCUSSION

Covid-19 has created many problems for humans, one such problem is economic downturn.  Many corporate companies were affected and lost business across the globe.  Pre-Covid, marketers are driven to maximize their customer interest effectively and efficiently by means of consumer loyalty, market / customer share, and customer equity. The global economy has been seriously affected. Covid 19 initiatives have diminished the impact of austerity programs, shut down entire markets, forced companies to migrate almost completely online and dramatically changed the essence of consumer spending. The Covid 19 crisis seems to have massively exacerbated the changes, and the planet after the pandemic is going to experience several wounds that heal needless scarves (Alshaketheep, et al, 2020).

The corporate companies opened their eyes by using new and advanced technologies in order to raise their standing as it is seeking out decentralized decision-making to increase its productivity. In these times, all companies should make this change as quickly and as effective as possible as this can greatly affect customer and industry behaviour (Theep, 2021).  The development and emergence of new innovative tools that significantly optimize work and increase efficiency are characterized by a high level of interest among top management of organizations in connection with the need to achieve strategic goals and strengthen competitive positions in the market. In the innovations of our time, digital technologies are highlighted, are widely used in various types of economic activities and act as a driver of intensive development (Al-Ababneh, 2020).

The digital environment provides organizations with the use of several strategies so that they may reach their objectives, concerning both sales increase and brand promotion (Crescitelli & Freundt, 2013). The use of digital technologies in business not only expands the possibilities of communication with the target audience, but also increases the level of conversion in general. The high level of competition in global markets determines the top management of organizations to search for the optimal combination of various digital tools for maximum results (Al-Ababneh, 2020). Since it deals with something dynamic, digital marketing enables the choice of the strategic action to be changed in real time, and it can change the actions’ direction in order to adapt to the target audience’s engagement concerning the campaigns performed (Wymbs, 2011). Digital marketing aims to change the modification of communication activities (Al-Ababneh, 2020). However, more important than understanding the target audience’s behavior is to make the right choice concerning the strategy to be used and understand whether the message that is sent out is reaching the consumer the way the organizations expect it to (Felix, et al, 2017).

During this time of crisis digital technologies is helping companies to generate more revenues and to run their business with the help of digital marketing. Digital marketing tools to be used by companies in order to boost their marketing, it also helps and supports other marketing activities of the companies and helps to reach the right customer at the right time and at right place. Companies can earn more revenues via digital medium (website, social media). But still there are firms who are not fully converted into digital they still prefer traditional marketing methods in order to launch their products and reach their audience (Dwivedi & Nath, 2020).To attract and retain customers, companies in modern conditions use both traditional marketing strategies and digital marketing tools (Al-Ababneh, 2020).

The mind set of people in using digital platform during pre-Covid-19 is entirely different from the current situation. People don’t necessarily want to be cut off from the internet. They just want a better relationship with it. So, consumers are actively rebalancing their digital lives to protect their wellbeing. With openness around mental health driving conversations around emotional wellbeing, self-care is having a moment. And, within this narrative, technology, in particular social has been reframed as public enemy number one. In the face of always-on notification fatigue, there’s a sense that our everyday overuse feels unhealthy.  As people grow increasingly fatigued with having to perform online, the open feed feels less important than ever. People are using closed communities as safe spaces. It’s long been accepted that people are put off by lengthy content online. (Muthuraman, 2020).

In the postCovid-19 era, every business wanted to grow again quickly, but at this time it is difficult for customers to recognize and care about their products. And this is when every company needs digital marketing, so company can partly confirm that this is a great opportunity for the field of digital marketing to thrive. Catching up with the new trend of the market as well as customer psychology, many businesses have developed interactive marketing campaigns on the internet digital marketing.(Tien, et al, 2020).Post Covid-19 teaches the customer a behaviour change, the digital marketing companies need to understand the current situation while developing for the digital marketing strategies.

The key elements of digital strategy involve revisiting and aligning the main thrust of the marketing strategy in an online context. Companies should think about the digital marketing mix, how to provide differential value to customers through varying the 4Ps online through Product, Price, Promotion and Place and how can you add value through service. The best digital strategies can fail if the execution is poor search, social and email marketing and creating a persuasive web design are classic examples of this we see daily (Chaffey, 2013).Marketing approaches become more valuable when they strategically incorporate digital success factors (Muthuraman, 2020).

CONCLUSION

The whole world is going digital, there is no contestation, the most powerful companies are deeply digital.  Digital ecosystems could account for more than $60 trillion in revenue by 2025 (Muthuraman, 2020). Effective use of the Digital Marketing strategy will attract many customers. Digital Marketing provides us all solutions, for us to choose and find our own solutions to reach out and make them make purchasing decisions (Tien, et al, 2020). Digital marketing is a helpful tool for the companies during and post Covid-19 pandemic. Using digital marketing to sell products and services, for improving brand image, and helping companies to generate revenues through digital channels. Companies need to take advantage of opportunities in this crisis and offer better product and services that delight the customer in the Post Covid-19 with various digital marketing strategies. There is a necessity to build a digital transformation strategy to achieve company global objective in Post Covid-19 era.

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