Marketing strategies for the new normal – Insights from DLS 2020

The Digital Leadership Summit 2020 by Social Beat was conducted online due to the pandemic. The agenda was to discuss the current and future trends of digital marketing. The whole country has gone digital these past few months and the discussion enlightened the road ahead. The program commenced with the National Anthem after which the audience was briefed on the agenda.

There were 17 experts from various fields and organisations covering important topics such as hyperscaling, vernacular marketing, consumer journey automation, building a culture for innovation, etc among many other insightful topics. 

Building foundational skills with digital media:

Dr.Pramath Sinha, Founder & Chairman of Harappa Foundation, believes that the combination of liberal arts combined with technology has a bright future. Digital marketing in education, and digitising education, in general, itself helps in targeting students better due to their constant online presence. Digital mediums help students experience one-on-one conversations which enhances their learning experience.

Driving growth during the pandemic with Google:

Ms.Meenakshi Singh, Agency Business Manager, Google tells us that consumers have started adapting to the pandemic. Users are spending more time on small screens. She said that going digital is the new store-front. Consumers are expecting brands to use their digital assets for personalising their experience. Convenience is a key factor that drives consumers to opt for online shopping over in-store shopping.  Brands that establish their presence online, actively work on their website and mobile user experience, clearly inform consumers about delays and stock availability are the brands that have a higher chance of succeeding digitally. 

Driving growth during the pandemic with Facebook:

Ms.Ruchi Kohli, Agency Business Lead, Facebook enlightened that brands need to embrace new media habits. There is a spike in the dependence of digital media which may even cause demand surges. Brands need to create virtual experiences, vernacular content, and develop content for every part of the business funnel, especially on Facebook. Digital spending concerning mobile wallets and net banking has also been on the rise. Users will also shop more during sales and offers offered by brands on digital platforms. 

Marketing is not just about branding: 

Mr.Amit Verma, Head of Growth & Marketing, Rapido said Digital marketing is a cross-functional tool that has a multitude of benefits.  He advises start-ups and brands to focus on a full-funnel approach. Look for channels that bring you the most distribution. Marketing vernacularly impacts conversion by understanding customer preferences. Focus on what you want out of your marketing strategies. 

Tips for high metrics:

Mr.Damandeep Singh Soni, VP- Marketing & Growth, boAT recommends brands to stick to two channels and focus on optimizing them to grow fast. He advises using the right instruments to gather data. Some brands use free tools, but the cost of change becomes high in the long run. He advises marketers to visualise the data to create manageable and efficient content.   

On Hyper-Scaling:

Ms Shweta Sivasankaran, Director, Marketing, Unacademy shared that maintaining a strong social media presence with relevant and engaging content, marketing with a clear tone will boost your traffic online. She also recommends spending time measuring, listening and analyzing. Shweta asks companies to use accurate and exact keywords, use clear CTAs. She believes that a combination of simple and compelling display ads, along with videos that have clear CTAs have a very powerful impact on social media.

Innovation in finance: 

Mr Ajit Narasimhan, CMO, Sundaram Mutual says that going digital is no longer an enabler but a strategic leader. Mr Karanpreet Bindra, Head of Marketing, Rupeek agreed and added that offering both digital and physical transactions saw a hike in the conversion percentage for their company. Karanpreet also said that for wealth creation products, where trust is a key factor, building perception and awareness around the brand online will help. The demand for Vernacular content is high. This avoids the problem of loss in translation for complicated products like loans. Ajit says creating videos is one of the best ways to create a visual feel of the brand, where the focus is to educate the customer.  

Building a brand by going digital:

Mr Sandeep Shukla, Head, Marketing, Jaquar group says that a key factor in building a brand is reaching customers. Digital media needs to give all the information they need in one place. He says that everyone is an individual marketeer while talking about the power of sharing and circulating content. Creating videos on YouTube empowers consumers giving them all the data helping them to plan and decide. He requests brands to embrace technology while focusing on communicating and keep the message clear and simple. 

This was an extremely interesting and insightful experience. Thanks to the virtual world, the panellists came together to give us their thoughts, opinions, advice on how to make the most out of this pandemic using digital media, and its trends. The summit was concluded after the rendering of the National Anthem. To know more about vernacular marketing, video creation tools, or to read more useful blogs on digital marketing, visit the Social Beat blog page.