India is the second largest country in the world in terms of consumption of smartphones, connected devices, internet and data. An Indian Express news feed* states that it is predicted that, by 2020, at least 1 billion Indians will consume digital devices including latest smartphones, smartphone accessories, connected devices, laptops and Bluetooth wearables. Rural India has embraced digitization beyond our imagination. The fact that many mobile users possess more than one phone, or that urban users frequently ‘upgrade’ their handsets, to adapt - also contributes to the aforementioned figures. The #DigitalRevolution has been throwing crazy numbers at our faces as is evident and this is a time and age, where governments have been endorsing and supporting it with all their might, one tweet at a time.

Digital marketing is highly impacted by the constantly evolving consumer choices and dynamics and need to constantly adapt and optimize their business model.

Digital influences consumerism and consumerism influences digital revolution.Click To Tweet

Let’s look at some of the top most digital revolution trends that can be turned into opportunities.

• Facebook zero. What is it really?
  Facebook recently declared that it shall prioritize the content from friends, family and social circles on one’s contact network, rather than that coming through commercial posts or sponsored posts. This means that, posts which talk about family values, festivities, community and bonding - will be automatically boosted on the newsfeed distribution. Facebook wants to experiment with building social and community bonding through its network in the coming days.

• Twitter character limit
  By increasing the character limit for writing a post on its network, Twitter has found an even more of a fan following encouraging a bigger user database and how! People are feeling the freedom to express more, while maintaining the brevity. No doubt that the essence of the message is still maintained; but come to think of it, there are URLs, #s and handles to be tagged to call for attention. Precise, yet complete.

  

• Store is social and social is store
  Social mediums are fast converting into online shopping channels. People build business communities, business profiles, business pages, categorized buyer-seller groups and showcase their products; they have complete control over B2C (and at times even B2B) transactions through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. These mediums have modified some of their key functions to suit such interactions on their respective channels. Facebook and Instagram allow users to create online ‘stores’ and business pages; Pinterest allows you to build boards to showcase your sellable products with complete description and pricing; LinkedIn has witnessed several successful B2B transactions.
  Stores on the other hand are “digitizing” themselves at the speed of thought - literally. Live feeds of most popular products on social media are displayed by the respective brands inside their stores on digital screens - screaming for attention and at times influencing purchase decisions, thereby getting higher conversion rates from tech savvy and social savvy buyers. Not only that, some digi-savvy stores also have brand-to-brand buyer interactions, within stores, which culminates in smarter purchase decisions - a need of the hour.

  
  

• Email marketing in 2018
  Guess what’s the major challenge in email marketing? Strategy? Publishing? Data? Nope. It’s content. Writing catchy subject lines and snippets, thinking of great creatives and caption copies - phew! That is not everyone’s cup of coffee. The low attention span of readers, information overload, aggressive competition, maintaining relevance - endure, endure, endure. That's the toughest challenge - to generate content that stands out and drives home the key point to your niche audience. There are tools to test subject lines, analyze responses, generate better content ideas in the email marketing industry. It has a high ROI, thanks to the high demand amongst the B2B readership, that consumes at least 10 pieces of content even prior to decision making.

  

• The new news channel: Social media
  How many times have we turned to Twitter or YouTube to find the latest update? How many of us remain glued to TV or newspaper in case of a pot-boiling news? Almost [40-45%] news watchers also hold their mobiles in their hands, tuned into social media to not just get update, but also engage in conversations.
  The buzz is also that social networks double up as PR agencies / networks. Thanks to the humongous connectivity, ‘word’ literally spreads like uncontrolled wildfire!

  

• The new Ad Agency: Social network
  Advertising industry has literally taken a summersault by redefining paid and sponsored ads. In an age dominated by print ads, social media has cut through the race and competition like a double-edged sword, primarily due to the below features:
  - Fast and responsive
  - Ads have penetrated FB / LinkedIn internal messenger
  - Digital / Social Ads are very customized
  - Building a two-way communication between buyer and seller
  - Economical
  - Real-time optimization
  - Freedom to scale pricing and budget
  - Volumetric reach
  - Higher ROI with lesser investment
  

  

• Blogging: The digital ‘magazine’
  Welcome to the world of digital articles, personal stories, tutorials, opinions, feedback, views expressed on a medium called “blogging”. Individuals who enjoy writing and organizations who are hungry for some SEO feed and also feel the need to connect with their audiences, produce blogs that talk largely about their products, services and solutions and at times create topics that start a trend.
  

  There is a blog and there is a ‘Blogger’.Click To Tweet

  Yes, there are these ‘influencers’ who thrive and flourish only through blogging, vlogging (video blogging) and creating oceans of followers.
  - Anyone can create a blog channel and get started
  - Blog marketing is scalable
  - Blogging is budget free and contributes to ROI
  - Blogging has become highly commercial and competent
  - Email newsletter is the most effective form of blog marketing
  

• Video will conquer / rule (the) marketing (roost) in 2018
  YouTube is research. YouTube is leisure. YouTube is education. YouTube is news. YouTube is everything for a research savvy person. A 30 second video speaks for a blog post of a thousand words. Precise and essenceful. Consumption of YouTube videos is reaching crazy numbers and it is also generating influencers. YouTube is also known in some regions to be responsible to build a social connect amongst communities due to the awareness it creates and its reach in volumes.

  

• App-timizing the consumer experience
  On an average, any smartphone user will have at least 10-12 important apps installed and active on their phone at any given time. Life has become so app-oriented, that even to drink water and decide their sleep, wake and exercise hours, people turn to their apps or connected devices. It is literally child’s play to develop a mobile application these days and a majority of these are not ad-free. Digital marketers have a ‘huge space’ through these apps to advertise and connect with consumers.
  Even though, how user ‘friendly’ these ad-based apps are, remains questionable.

• Omni-channel. Go beyond 360 degree.
  Omnichannel means to be connected to your audiences - prospective and potential - by building a robust network around them, evoking emotions, responses, comments, feedback, referrals, repeat purchases / visits. Omnichannel is the evolution of 360 degree marketing; it bridges the so called ‘gap’ between online and offline experience and allows businesses to remain engaged with their customers uninterrupted.

  

Disclaimer: These numbers are only predictions based on analytics from derived data and information. The digital revolution does not end here, it is an ongoing process. From the above conversation, even more predictions can be drawn - sky is not the limit. Stay tuned to our blog for more such interesting topics.

*Indianexpress.