Marketing strategies for today’s digital economy

According to GSMA, India will be the second-largest smartphone market globally with one billion connections by 2025. Digital India initiatives like BHIM, COE-IT, CSC 2.0, Digi Locker, DISHA and many more have led to exponential mobile-usage growth. This has resulted in users consuming more than 1GB of data per day on their smartphones, a huge leap from previous monthly usage of 4GB, according to analytics company Nielsen India. This will further scale as operators reach rural parts of India, and people start relying on their mobile phones for both business and personal use, such as chatting with co-workers and using YouTube’s mobile app like a search engine.

To keep up with the increasingly mobile life of Indians, brands need to adapt their marketing strategies. These initiatives have opened up new opportunities for brands to think differently and consider new channels to reach audiences. Below are three major areas where brands should focus to be more competitive, visible and accessible.

Go mobile – Making content more accessible

India’s mobile phone usage is surging, so marketing strategies require a mobile-first approach. Mobile content should be easy to navigate, interactive, and shareable. Use small images that do not require high bandwidth to download. Optimize websites for viewing on mobile devices. Develop emails that are less than 150 words and accessible for consumers on the go. Consider gamifying content to make it more fun and drive loyalty. And, lastly, create applications that are easy to navigate, incorporate bold visuals, and deliver a seamless user experience.

Think visual – Rise of video

With data rates dropping, video has risen in popularity among Indians. According to research, India will be the second-largest video-viewing audience globally by 2020; so developing a dedicated video strategy as a brand in the country is now critical to success.

Marketers should focus on producing more local video content than written information. Use India’s frequently spoken local dialects. Create more short-form videos that can be easily shared on WhatsApp or LinkedIn. Get creative with video, and engage with audiences in a more personal and meaningful way.

Consider paid – Go where consumers are

According to LinkedIn, 57 percent of traffic to their site comes from mobile devices, making it a prime channel for paid campaigns to reach decision makers. Leveraging popular mobile applications such as LinkedIn and Twitter for a paid strategy enables brands to reach key audiences with meaningful content and generate leads. Paid-social allows brands to target, influence, and measure audiences, which is invaluable in an ever-increasingly crowded B2B market.

In 2018, LinkedIn announced that it has crossed the 50-million member milestone in India, up from 42 million in 2017. As more professionals leverage these platforms to connect with brands, reaching them with promoted content will become increasingly critical.

As Indians increasingly rely on their mobile devices, marketers must adapt their understanding of customers, what they need, and how to influence them. Executing an effective campaign today requires taking a mobile-centric approach, capitalizing on the popularity of video, and deploying paid-social to reach audiences. Investing in these fresh ways enables brands to better market their products and ultimately secure more leads.