Traditional advertising like TV ads or banners are expensive and run the risk of targeting a much wider range of audience than a company’s interest group. This means that ads are owned only by large companies with the budget to purchase TV ad space or banners. It also implies a lower ROI on the marketing budget because of the wide-audience capture. These drawbacks are essentially what digital platforms eliminate. Irrespective of a company’s budget and target group, digital marketing allows anybody to get started and scale efficiently.
While the digital platforms continue to give brands an easy and cost-effective way to get in front of their target group of customers, it comes at the price of user data privacy. Blue-chip companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft came under the radar in 2019 for data privacy violations of their users. The situation escalated especially after proof of online tools being used for false political propaganda surfaced.
As much as most of these companies’ revenue comes from advertisers, they are now required to pull back on tracking and monitoring as international laws for data protection are being drafted and expected to become laws in the next few years.
Marketing strategies for the new normal
So, what does all of this mean for brands and digital marketers? Will digital spaces become accessible only for budget-heavy brands that can afford to target a wider group of audience? Will it eliminate the edges that smaller companies enjoyed with digital marketing? Just like TV ads and banner spaces?
The implications of these laws will certainly limit the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. We can expect companies to spend more money for a conversion in niche markets. However, FMCGs and other B2Cs like clothing and apparel will have fewer challenges.
Marketers will have to come up with innovative strategies that appeal to a larger audience and use other analytical tools to ensure success. This includes AI and machine learning tools that are currently being developed to understand behavioural tendencies instead of data monitoring to predict purchases. Newer tools like these will be developed in conjunction with user-friendly websites and social media presence to reach a marketing objective.
Apart from the tools and analytics, a brand can also always rely on engaging and interactive organic posts. In fact, successful brands often put out engaging content to connect with their audience and stay relevant. This also helps with improving credibility and coming across as the go-to brand for your particular sector.
Succeeding in digital marketing is hard – and it just became harder. The landscape is constantly changing and marketers are required to adapt marketing strategies very often to