Digital Marketing Expert, Sravan Kumar V, tells us why Digital Marketing is no longer optional for Bahrain businesses.
With the rapid shift in consumer behaviour during the pandemic, and with a beyond substantial internet penetration of 99.5 percent, we have to ask ourselves if Bahrain’s enterprises are geared up for the changing dynamics in consumer behaviour.
Together, we’ll explore why digital marketing is the need of the hour, what differentiates it from traditional marketing, and how enterprises can leverage it.
Change in market dynamics
With over 15.16 percent of the population falling in the age group of 15-24 years and 56.14 percent within 25-54 years, investing in digital marketing warrants colossal growth for businesses in Bahrain. A report published by Sitecore, a global leader in digital experience management software states that 86 percent of the customers in Bahrain have become digital converts since the pandemic.
While the Kingdom is seeing a rapid transition in consumer behaviour towards digital or technology usage, few businesses are proactive when it comes to incorporating digital tactics into their marketing strategy to keep up with this rapidly changing market environment. There are many businesses failing to leverage the full potential for various reasons including a lack of digital marketing expertise, or enforcing traditional marketing tactics into digital.
How different is it from Traditional Marketing?
Though Traditional and Digital marketing have the same objectives of reaching out to the target audience, creating awareness of the brand or product, and in turn generating revenue for the business, the main difference lies in the usage of data and customer insights.
Traditional marketing heavily relies on data shared by third parties like TV channels, Magazines or newspaper subscription numbers and location of billboards. On the other hand, digital marketing is all about how accurately the relevant audience is targeted, developing tactics based on customer insights and understanding online behavior.
Leveraging Digital Marketing
When it comes to digital marketing, most companies fail to leverage it due to the notion that it is all about generating leads using Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads, as most companies fail to acknowledge 360-degree digital marketing tactics.
Multi-directional approach
To leverage digital marketing successfully, enterprises need to have a 360-degree or a multi-directional approach and deep dive into the various insights and analytics from all touchpoints.
360-degree marketing concentrates on websites, landing pages, lead generation, social media marketing, search engine optimization(SEO), blogs, online reputation, online pr, CRM tools, mobile apps and analytics
Tailor marketing campaigns specific to each channel to create an experience for the user
Analyse data and insights generated by each channel and leverage it to optimise the user experience and generate revenue
Why it is ‘’the need of the hour’’?
With millennials and Gen Z being tech-savvy, customer dynamics and consumer behaviour is undergoing a rapid shift in Bahrain. So, it has become paramount for enterprises to reach out to this new age of digital customers while undergoing a digital transformation to cater and sustain business in the long run.
