“Asha suffered a lot from skin problems. She ran out of her skincare products. She just ordered her skincare products from  ABC Nepal Company. She saw this beautiful post about the products when she was surfing her explore page. She visited the page and found the products to be XYZ influencer’s favorites. Upon googling about the brand, she saw lots of good reviews from the customers. What else she needed as proof for the authenticity and effectiveness of the products. She then made her purchase of 5k worth skincare products, without even moving out from her bed.”

              No doubt, Digital Marketing is making our lives easier.

So, Let’s know about Digital Marketing.

According to Martech Advisor,” Digital Marketing is defined as a Marketing approach that primarily relies on the internet to connect with the target audience through various digital media channels and platforms. Digital Marketing is a crucial strategy for every possible business: travel agency or any clothing line or anything. Digital Marketing’s prime function is to convert visitors into customers, which further leads to creating a stable and strong customer trust and loyalty.

Importance of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing brings higher levels of Engagement with Customers and provides Measurable Results using the Data-Driven approach. Digital Marketing ensures to expand the Target Audience. It’s a fact that 2.8 times higher revenue can be yielded if the proper Digital Marketing strategy is applied.

A Major goal of Digital Marketing is to accentuate brand awareness and brand presence. Setting up the correct brand awareness is a challenge for companies. For them, Digital Marketing becomes their Messiah. Relying on Digital Marketing means conveying your brand’s message to a larger population with a small budget. This will further yield a greater ROI.

Why  Do Businesses Need Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing has become a pro-game-changer for B2B (Business to Business) as well as  B2C (Business to Customer). Every business is putting its best move forward via a strengthened  Digital Marketing strategy. 

Investing money in Digital Marketing has shut some shops which were into printing pamphlets and flyers. If you can go viral and be popular among millions of people with a small investment, why choose pamphlets and encourage deforestation. Moving to digital platforms is less troublesome but more result-oriented.

Brief History of Digital Marketing 

In the 1980s, Digital Marketing got its introduction to the world. Various trends, strategies, and techniques were developed and made in practice. The 2000s introduced  LinkedIn, Facebook, G-mail  Youtube, Twitter, Smartphones, Groupon. It made people connect easily and strengthen their business as well. The following decade gave us  Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest. The evolution and revolution in Digital Marketing have brought quite an improvement and standardization.

Trends in Nepal before 2020

Before 2010, in Nepal, a country doing its best to achieve economic comfortability, most businesses were Traditional-Marketing based. In most of the cases, the businesses are family businesses and led by the older generations. When the new generation, Millennials, and Gen Z, were introduced to smartphones and social media platforms, they saw a greater opportunity to go online. And when older generations made international visits(for travel and work) and got some learning from their younger children, they also saw that going online is not a trend anymore; it’s a necessity. Hence, Digital Marketing in Nepal started taking its pace in Nepali Society. Thus Digital Marketing was used by some businesses back then.

What did 2020 bring in Digital Marketing in Nepal?

The year 2020 was supposed to be ours as Nepal had all its arrangements in physical and digital platforms for the successful completion of VISIT NEPAL 2020. But the COVID-19 pandemic ruined and crushed this dream project. However, entrepreneurs and businesses found a golden opportunity to flourish. Many businesses came to online platforms. But, sustaining on the online platform isn't a piece of cake. These companies needed support and strategies. Thus, the urge to excel in Digital Marketing began to mushroom.

According to Digital Nepal, 10.21 million people used the internet in Nepal in January 2020 (a 3.2% increment to that of 2019). Likewise, a 9.6% increase in the number of social media users was recorded. This shows the increase in reliance on online activities, especially E-commerce, both by a consumer as well as producer of product or service. Annually, Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 3 million is invested by some big brands of Nepal to excel in Digital Marketing.  Not only that, Digital Marketing in Nepal is now helping other small businesses to reach out to larger audiences with comparatively lesser investment.

New Trends in 2021?

In 2021, Focusing on the SEO ranking via quality content, making strategies by using appealing visual mediums (images, video ad, and reviews), having the content and context-based updates on social media pages, ensuring Email Marketing, using the Google Adwords and PPC Ads, collaborating with Influencers and Marketing, and Affiliate Marketing will be the go-to strategies to unlock the next level of ranking and sales by using Digital Marketing in Nepal.

Interests, Job opportunities, and Competitions in Digital Marketing

The success of COVID-19 fathered businesses have inspired entrepreneurs to make maximum use of Digital Marketing strategies. People who have read the success story have seen opportunities in Digital Marketing. Many Digital Marketing agencies are running their internship campaigns and helping interested ones make a stable Digital Marketing career.  Although the starting salary in Nepal is comparatively lesser than in advanced countries, in the coming days, the figures are going to increase.

At present, Many companies in Nepal want to tie-up with international companies. Thus, they ensure their company profiles to be sophisticated. Companies are also getting SEO specialists, and Digital Marketing heads to be really vigilant to the latest trends. Making customized plans for their clients is another top priority of these companies.

Among such companies, Marching Ants is also a leading Data-Driven Digital Marketing and Research Agency that provides secure and brand-specific Digital Marketing solutions. Marching Ants is also providing internship campaigns on Digital Marketing. 

Conclusion

COVID-19 pandemic has made the companies and customers rely heavily on digital platforms for production and consumption respectively. Digital Marketing has taken a faster pace in Nepal to enhance E-commerce. It is a necessity for every business, whether it is a month old or ten years old. Thus, There is no doubt that businesses in Nepal will be digitized in a high number in the coming ten years.