The scope remained largely regional and the scale modest and hence acted as a serious constraint for growth. But no more! The advent of the Internet and the digital revolution that it unleashed, changed all that. Now it is the digital mode of functioning that dominates the business landscape. 

There was a time when there industrialization was the focus globally. ‘ Industrialize or perish ‘ was the guiding principle. Now it is ‘ digitalize or perish ‘. Investing in creating a digital ecosystem is a sine qua non for business sustainability and growth in the contemporary business context. Since growth is premised on the business’s outreach to its targeted audience. It is all about building a base and ensuring visibility. It is also about building brand awareness, scaling up and sustaining it in the digital domain. The advent of social media platforms has opened up almost limitless opportunities for doing this. Whether it is your humble grocer’s at the street corner, a professional in his downtown office or a large corporation, they have all woken up to the boundless potential of digital marketing.

Digital marketing, through the Internet-enabled social media platforms, enables a business entity to reach its target audience with ease. According to a study an average Internet user is active on a minimum of seven social media platforms. It is said that an average individual spends around two hours a day on social media while teenagers average around eight hours. These, of course, are global averages that will take some adjustment to be relevant to the Indian condition. Studies have also revealed that the majority of those on social media are what might be called a ‘click-happy’, lot, that is, they love to buy things they are exposed to there.

Digital marketing is also a boon to the small, fledgling business entities in that it shields them against the competition, often unfair, from large, established players, by creating a level playing field for all. We have seen it too often how the decks are set against the small units up pitched against the power of scale and reach of the large players. 

We have seen this happening with Reliance Jio wiping out the smaller units of the telecommunication ecosystem. We have also been witness to something similar happening on-line arena, following the arrival of Amazon. Digital marketing comes to the rescue by exposing the resource constrained small units to a much wider audience.

A very potent tool of digital marketing, for fine-tuning and targeting one’s marketing efforts, is the ability to dissect huge demographics and break them down into very targeted groups and consequently, the firm is able to reach a much larger number of intending buyers and thereby get much larger value for their marketing money.