Writing exclusively for MediaBrief, Ankit Saraf and Snehja Sanganeria, Founders of Meraqi Digital, write about how regional brands can capitalize on digital media to increase audience reach and engagement. They also write about the rise in market share of eCommerce organisations and the increase in the use of digital marketing and social media.
Ankit holds a Masters in Advertising and Design from the University of Leeds, where he also lectured and has more than nine years of experience working with leading marketing agencies in London and International brands.
Snehja, a graduate from the University of Leeds in International Business and Cass Business School in Marketing Strategy. She joined the team at Meraqi Digital in the year 2016 and has worked on more than 70+ brands.
Regional brands or small businesses are generally smaller companies with a smaller number of people and less revenue. Consequently, they also have a less budget for marketing and increasing their audience reach. Digital media has changed this and given these businesses a platform to reach out to a larger audience.
Digital media is cheaper and helps to reach a more targeted audience at a much lower cost. Having accounts on social media platforms is free of cost and one can run ads according to their budget. Digital media helps to experiment with targeting and reach out to audiences beyond the current city.
Businesses have also become more accessible to the audience because of technology. One can reach out and understand more about a business very easily. Small businesses can offer customized services, which are preferred by millennials.
An important aspect is to think long-term and not for immediate results when you start developing a brand for your business as campaigns can only produce very few results in their early stages, but tend to be of more value over time.
The use of the internet, digital media, and various social media applications have had a huge impact on consumer behaviour along with the ways in which companies carry out their business.
The judgment of selecting a platform or a combination of platforms majorly depends on target consumers and the marketing strategy. Several studies have shown that Snapchat while targeting young consumers, is considered as a casual yet dynamic platform for providing information as well as for the purpose of entertainment.
Social media marketing and digital marketing provides outstanding opportunities to organizations by helping them to lower their costs, improve brand awareness, and ultimately to increase sales.
Consumer behaviour has seen a major shift due to technological innovation and the adoption of hand-held devices. This directly affects the method of interaction and decision-making in terms of using social commerce to shop online.
With a rise in the market share of eCommerce organisations and the increase in the use of digital marketing and social media, there has been a positive influence in the attitude of the consumer towards online shopping.
In terms of social media platforms, brands are using numerous applications for social media marketing such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. The decision to use a particular platform is very crucial as it can make or break a brand.
Nowadays brands will need to think outside the box and become as creative as ever to be distinctive and differentiate their messages as the social and digital space has become even more clustered.
The judgment of selecting a platform or a combination of platforms majorly depends on target consumers and the marketing strategy. Several studies have shown that Snapchat while targeting young consumers, is considered as a casual yet dynamic platform for providing information as well as for the purpose of entertainment.
This in turn has seemed to generate a positive attitude and feelings toward the purchase intention of the various brands advertising on the platform.
Online collaborations are another great way of reaching out. Collaborations with influencers is a great way for small businesses to show their product and reach out to a higher audience.
Digital marketing allows one to track results effectively and understand where the maximum results are coming from. This helps to divert marketing strategies in those areas specifically and also make changes to business strategy if required.
Various content formats along with a/b testing can be used to find out which content strategy would work best for the brand. The quality of the content plays an important part in differentiating a product along with keeping the audience more engaged and interested.
Online payment option is another way that makes transactions easier for small businesses. Platforms like Paytm, GPay, and now even WhatsApp have made it very easy to make online payments and regional brands are definitely capitalizing on this.
Nowadays brands will need to think outside the box and become as creative as ever to be distinctive and differentiate their messages as the social and digital space has become even more clustered.
Various content formats along with a/b testing can be used to find out which content strategy would work best for the brand. The quality of the content plays an important part in differentiating a product along with keeping the audience more engaged and interested.
Lastly, audiences are willing to consume lengthier content on social media if it is interesting, worth sharing, and of great quality despite their attention span lasting for just a matter of seconds.