Importance of Digital Marketing & its Advantages

By: Tanvi Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Shivam Autozone (India)

Having completed her BSc in Life Science from St. Xavier’s College, Tanvi is a seasoned marketing professional with over two decades of experience across different industries. She has been associated with Shivam Autozone for over a decade now, prior to which she held the roles of Manager - Marketing & Promotions and Marketing Manager at The Yash Birla Wellness Group and Treasure, respectively.

Women Entrepreneur recently got a chance to interact with Tanvi about digital marketing, its advantages and many other aspects. Below are the excerpts from the exclusive interview –

What is the future scope of digital marketing? Tell us about its role in a company’s business strategy.

Digital marketing no doubt has a very bright future in the days to come, wherein there will be rapid growth in online marketing over the future years. The last few years have witnessed a significant digital shift happening amongst the customers due to the increased awareness and exponentially growing usage of digital platforms such as, social media, video channels, networking sites and now AI technology. Whoever were still hesitant about embracing digitization were forced to go digital due to the covid pandemic. This was one of the major turning points for people –on boarding the digital way on a massive scale.

There is a tremendous shift in consumer behavior, where they are now habituated to do extensive research online prior to making a purchase or even opting for any service.

Digital marketing has also enabled consumers to be able to see the product videos from the comfort of their home with just  a few clicks. This has now empowered brands to have a hassle-free connect with their target customers and even market themselves in multiple ways & video formats. Also, with AI being integrated into digital marketing recently, the market is sure to exhibit a hockey stick growth in the days to come. Thus, it is now imperative for business to embrace all these latest technologies and trends to stay ahead of their competition.

In your opinion, will AI integration into marketing be a boon or a bane for businesses?

If a business is planning to implement very advanced segments of AI, it definitely has to stay aware of certain drawbacks and look into prohibitions & laws restricting the final output. However, the regular AI implementation would definitely be one of the most beneficial decisions the business might have ever made. This is mainly because of the massive benefits that the technology offers such as enhanced process efficiency, cost optimization, reduced human interference and many others.

What are the benefits digital marketing offers over traditional marketing techniques?

Digital marketing enables businesses to reach a much wider audience and doesn’t have any limitations pertaining a particular area, region or demography. Thus, your marketing can be kept global instead of just local. At the same time, digital marketing also enables brands to specifically target a particular user segment based on their search history and preferences, thus cutting-down on unnecessary marketing efforts and costs. Lastly, the biggest advantage digital marketing offers is that it enables businesses to precisely measure the output of their marketing campaigns across a wide range of metrics and fine-tune them accordingly making it more cost-effective. Having said that , I also feel that today’s business landscape demands for an omnichannel approach to marketing as it gives incremental sales along with customer satisfaction and loyalty due to brand recall.

Do you think telemarketing has the potential to replace sales staff?

This depends a lot on what your product & services are. For instance, if you are selling a laptop or a mobile phone, it can be easily done through telemarketing. However, if you are trying to sell semi-precious jewelry or a car, a sales person will definitely do it quicker  and in a better way than telemarketing. Although telemarketing enables you to reach a larger audience in a shorter span of time, there is always the risk of  reaching a customer when he isn’t free or interested in  taking your call. On the other hand, a sales person can take an appointment and pitch to the customer at his preferred time.

What is the importance of marketing strategy for startups? Tell us a few measures every startup must undertake while devising a marketing campaign.

Having a proper marketing strategy is very important for every organization irrespective of its growth phase or size. This is because it gives your business a framework to reach  target customers and achieve your goals by enhancing the  conversion rates significantly. From a startup standpoint, it is very much necessary to have a clear goal about what they want to achieve, along with a clear vision about the USP & value proposition they want to offer to their customers. Also, it is cardinal for a startup to do a thorough market research about their target audience and competition prior to devising any marketing strategy or campaign. Lastly & most importantly, they must choose the right marketing channel for each of their marketing campaigns.

As a women leader, how do you manage your work-life balance? Also, what are your strategies to overcome any gender-specific hurdles in the business world?

During the initial phase of the career, everyone is eager to take-up as much responsibilities as possible. But once they become leaders, they feel the necessity of having a balanced professional & personal life. This aspect is most often learnt naturally by successful leaders along with other leadership skills. It is very important for a leader to draw boundaries and say ‘no’ whenever necessary. Few things I do to manage work-life balance are take consistent breaks from work, delegate & empower others to do good work and consciously spend quality time with family.

Gender-specific barriers do exist and the simplest measures to work your way  around them would be to stay confident, network with other women leaders, and follow a mentor who will keep you inspired & motivated. Try and work in an organization which respects women. And, lastly do your bit by educating & training people on gender-stereotypes and unconscious bias.