Digital Marketing Over Traditional Marketing – Scope and Future in 2021
Marketing has always been about meeting your audience at the right time wherever they are. This singular fact is why digital marketing has come to stay. You just have to agree when you realise just how many ‘computers’ are now in your customers’ pockets and at their fingertips. In more ways than one, technological advancement is constantly forcing us to redo the way we do business. Innovations mean new and better methods for doing old things.
As a digital marketer, you want to be on your game moving with the trend. With the ever-increasing scope of digital marketing, it may prove difficult to catch up once you get left behind.
Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
Digital marketing refers to all forms of marketing (of products and services) that uses a digital means. From search engines to social media, websites and emails, digital marketing utilizes electronic and digital means to reach your audience and it just keeps evolving.
On the other hand, traditional marketing is any form of advertising that uses offline means. It includes the use of billboards, magazines, direct mail, newspapers and other printed material to reach your target audience.
Digital Marketing over Traditional Marketing?
Absolutely. It may be a good strategy in the present to combine both traditional marketing and digital marketing strategies. However, digital marketing is the future and as a digital marketing agency, you should be looking to learn how to scale a digital marketing agency because the demand for your services is bound to increase in the nearest foreseeable future and it will hurt your business to not be prepared for that surge.
Scope of Digital Marketing in 2021
Increased audience reach through digital media
Digital marketing makes it possible to stay local while going global. Statista estimates there are about 4.5 billion active users of the internet as of July 2020. That’s a potential 59% of the world population that can be reached through digital marketing and at a time when a pandemic is forcing us to rethink the way we do business, being able to reach people in their homes is definitely a plus.
Embracing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
Digital marketing will tend increasingly towards automation in 2021 and apps, tools and plugins that use AI will lead the way. This will likely make digital marketing more efficient than it already is. Increased use of big data and analytics will also make marketing more targeted and efficient.
Few innovations
Emerging technologies for digital marketing has been few and it’s been suggested that this trend will continue in 2021 although this also means that existing tools will reach maturity in their adoption
Marketing automation
There is going to be more of this going into 2021. Already programmatic marketing uses automation to target audiences and communicates appropriately with them. Adobe’s Thinktank actually predicts that by 2022,” as much as 80% of the advertising and marketing process will be automated.”
Personalization
Ads are already so precise and personal that sometimes it can feel like you’re being monitored. That is what personalization is about. In 2021, More use will be found for big data and analytics as digital marketers seek to understand buyer journeys better and create even greater experiences through predictive modelling and behavioural targeting.
Summary
The marketing landscape is changing with automation, machine learning, analytics, personalization and as a digital marketer, you must be ready to follow the trend and scale up so that the advanced opportunities that will come with the increasing scope will not find you unprepared.