There’s no doubt about it: we are currently living in the age of fast digital transformation. With billions of people accessing the internet every day and the use of mobiles (and other technology) being a regular part of our daily hustles, online marketing is now considered a top priority by everyone—from small businesses to global corporations.
The numbers show hard proof, too. According to a sample highlighted in the 2019 Global Digital Report by Global Web Index, 90% of shoppers visited an online or retail store and 82% searched online for a product or a service to buy. From the survey, 75% purchased an item over the internet using any device.
With these figures on the rise, businesses are rising to the challenge of staying front and center of their audiences. It is predicted that ad spend globally will hit $605 billion, a 4.2% jump from 2019’s $581 billion figure. From this forecast, 67% is expected to come from social media ads and paid search alone.
Take note that these numbers do not even account for the changes in brand consumption and shopping behavior that the pandemic has brought. With the restrictions on movement still on high alert, businesses are waking up to the reality that they need to focus their attention on the digital sphere if they want to keep themselves from going under.
The Age of New Entrepreneurs
Back when everything is normal, brick-and-mortar locations are still considered important for businesses—there are still some shoppers who feel more confident when they can “touch and feel” a product before buying, and having a physical shop adds to the credibility of a brand. Come the pandemic, however, stores started closing down because of lack of foot traffic, and even the most doubtful of online shopping has no other choice but to pivot to clicking, browsing, and buying.
Not to mention that many small and micro-entrepreneurs have joined the hustle because of how easy it is to start a business with minimal costing. With just the right strategy, branding, and digital positioning, any brand can go from being non-descript to superstar with the right planning and execution.
This, of course, is good news for aspiring business owners with limited resources, though not so much for bigger brands. Back then, being a household name can make or break the game. Nowadays, the giants in retail and other industries are faced with smaller but numerous competition that has the same leveling game as them when it comes to digital success.
A Tough Fight
Of course, strict competition comes with these soaring numbers. Businesses are now fully awake about the impact (and cost) of going digital and everyone is clamoring to have a piece of their precious 15 minutes in the world of e-commerce. The creme de la creme—or businesses with strong digital presence and often thousands of funds for digital spending—may sit comfortably on top of the digital ladder, but smaller brands, or those that have jumped in the WWW bandwagon too late, are definitely facing a more challenging landscape.
In fact, digital giant Hubspot mentioned in one of their studies that only 61% of marketers believe that their strategies work. 40% claim that improving their ROI remains to be one of their top challenges, and yet these companies continue to pour funds into their online offers. Even more surprising, only 22% of businesses claim to be satisfied with their conversion rates.
One of the reasons behind this is because many of these brands lack an optimized system to track their progress. Not having a process that can be used to gauge the effectiveness of strategies can easily flush ad spend down the drain.
The Future of Shopping
The country is considered as one of the most prolific users of social media in the world. Though the Philippines is still behind its neighbors who have shifted to a more digital mindset when it comes to shopping, the country has a promising digital economy and online retail market. The numbers say it all too with the country having 163.7 million mobile subscribers and the fastest growing app market in Southeast Asia according to Trade.gov.
This overwhelming love for the internet has pushed businesses to sell their products and services to give direct and easy access to their consumers especially now that everyone is scared of stepping foot outside of their homes. Thankfully, many marketing companies have risen to the challenge by offering new techniques that focus on powerful shopping platforms like social media, online campaigns, and content marketing.
In fact, Statista.com says that the Digital Advertising market in the country will reach $638 million in 2020 alone. Leading the pack is Search Advertising at $334 million, followed by Classifieds ($86.8 million), and Social Media Advertising at $84.2 million.
Strategy, Execution, Evaluation
With so many businesses going full throttle on their digital marketing efforts right now, it’s a must for entrepreneurs, big or small, to follow a foolproof blueprint to secure their success. The good news is that there is no shortage of online marketing agencies to leaf through at present. The challenge, however, is actually finding the BEST one for a business’ needs and goals.
So what makes a digital agency really good?
1. If it has a good strategy
No amount of planning will save your marketing efforts if you don’t follow an optimized process from start to finish. If you are cooking up a digital campaign, make sure that you start from market research first and follow through with good creation, activation, and evaluation strategies. If you’d rather focus on your business and have a third-party do it for you, then make sure the agency you get has a structure like this. At Eight Media, for example, we follow a tried and tested four-step process to make sure we have everything covered.
2. Find your selling voice
With so many brands peddling their items on the internet now, it’s easy to come across cliché or in-your-face advertising that can make customers wince instead of interested. Make sure that you set-up a strong campaign that is fresh, timely, and can cut through the flood of other digital marketing campaigns. You don’t also need to be limited by doing social ads and paid placements, too. Experienced online marketing agencies can provide you other routes in content marketing and video marketing, for example.
3. Analyse and execute
Digital marketing success is actually all about data. To gauge the success of your campaign, you need to have a solid way of assessing its performance so you can tweak, redirect, or improve it. Using data reports, analytics, and insights, moreover, is something that you can benefit in the long run because you get to know the pulse of your customers.
Online marketing is transforming the world fast. Make sure you don’t get left behind by running along with it. If you want to reduce your workload and move towards digital transformation, you can get in touch with us to be your digital marketing partner.
