It is not a new fact that, Internet or Online Marketing has helped many companies tackle the current marketing challenges as well as the challenges foreseen in the future. From 2015 to 2018, Internet Marketing has evolved at a massive speed. It is merely not just a presence of a brand online by the means of a website but also using each and every component of the Internet Marketing to reach the target segment in order to communicate the brand message or promote products or enhance the sales. In a country like UAE where the percentage of internet users was 76.6 in 2015 and is projected to go to 80.2% in 2019 ( as per Statistics Portal) , Internet Marketing is not just a need of the hour but it has become a crucial part of the Marketing budget of all the growing companies.
As the region has such great internet penetration, it is very easy for business to achieve online audience, communicate with them and build a sense of trust in them for them to stay loyal to the brand. Once you have a loyal audience then the brand is sure to flourish and make profit.
As mentioned above, it is also about exploiting every component of Online Marketing to the fullest but the one which suits the business model the best. Considering Dubai with such a huge percentage of mobile/ smartphone penetration Social media advertising, Search engine optimization and Online ads are a few of the key components, which the brands should be focusing on.
As per an article, Emirati population spends approx. 3 hours a day on social media making it a greater part of internet usage. Facebook remains the most popular or active social media platform, closely followed by YouTube and then Instagram and Twitter. With the reduced prices or smartphones and evolving technology, the smartphone users are rapidly increasing leading to more scope of customer- interaction, online. There is so much more brands can do using the Internet Marketing by using Social Media Marketing which is an amazing component of Online Marketing. “Reach” is something which has overcome the barriers of location and Brands are communicating from all parts of the world using the power of Social Media.
E-Commerce sector is also at its boom in Dubai, a considerable percentage of population has started to buy online and with the giants like Souq and Noon coming in, substantial growth in that percentage of the population is anticipated in 2019 as well.
In the current scenario, it is all about customer engagement and Online Marketing enables companies to reach out to the desired demographics and keep them engaged through different digital strategies.
Apart from Customer interaction, engagement and sales, Internet Marketing is a great way of doing research and analyzing the performance of the business, in some cases enables to drive more traffic to your business. Personalization is an incredible feature of Online Marketing which helps in creating targeted offers and promotions for the audience depending upon their past purchases and preferences that can promise future sales. Personalization is a key for any business when it comes to staying relevant. At the end of the day, it is about giving customers what they want.
On top of all the benefits of Online/ Internet Marketing, cost is a brownie point, its costs less than marketing in a physical retail store as no cost for buying and maintenance of a property is required.
It is quite evident that people are no longer fascinated with the traditional ways of Marketing, it is the Online space where most of the customers. Its better that Business use this medium in the best possible ways to get the maximum value of ROI.