Gone are the days, when we looked around to the people surrounded us for, references, suggestions and guidance before making a purchase decision. We were so particular at the time of pre-decision period for selecting and buying a product.
If you think above statement that I’ve just written is true in my opinion then you are wrong. Confused?
Come on! Don’t get confused. I do not believe in this statement. This consumer insight is still the same and same are the days. What added a difference is, finding different other credible options which consumer is looking at to satiate the urge of making right purchase.
Take it through the view point of consumer. It’s been ages since consumers have this habit of inspecting and assuring that whether they are making right choice or not, before choosing a product to buy is still in their blood and veins. The only difference that has been arrived is that now they have started looking around for more options to get convinced for the choices they are going to make. Of course there are advertisements scattering around form every corner to the consumers, be it print media, broadcast media or any other traditional media is they are all set to woo the customers in all possible way, but it has never been so easy.
Now from the view point of marketers all they need to find is better options in order to cope up with the competition, gaining maximum exposure, cut throat competition to seize maximum market shares, maximizing profit and to increase the sale. Marketing has always been a crucial part of a business. Good companies have become great on the sheer basis of effective marketing strategies. Companies are going great length to advertise and promote their products and earn valuable customer loyalty. They are bound to improvise their marketing strategies to remain relevant.
So by the passage of time, all the old continued marketing applications are getting obsolete. Companies those who are anticipating and changing accordingly have better chances to survive in the business. The deciding factor which is creating such a strong impact is none other than digitalized version of marketing and so here comes the new media which is Digital marketing or online media. It is a new, advanced and emerging as the most powerful and popular media. It really affected the way marketing plans are being defined then it must be technology. Though, it is still in a nascent stage but canny marketing strategists it has changed the way firms communicate with consumers. They are leading users, who are in quest of information and catching the attention of unaware ones, to necessary places in the online world. A branded Facebook page with multiple tabs, at least one Twitter account, a YouTube channel, a Linkedin page and a few groups, possibly a community you host on your site can do wonder for the marketing of a product and can create so much impact and trust factor in the mind of consumer. Yesterday’s effective traditional media is losing power against social media. Social media marketing is one such great change that many companies have started to accept in a big way.
The biggest advantage of digital media is that it is interactive. By the term interactive here, I mean, consumer can share, ask and find his/her experiences, queries suggestions and guidance from others. There are public forums, blogs, fan pages, communities; social websites like myspace, twitter, facebook, google plus, orkut, linkedin, stumbleupon, delicious etc, It is a powerful marketing medium that is defining the way people are communicating. It is one of the best cost effective as well objective oriented promotional methods that ensure large numbers of links and huge amount of traffic. It increases the massive attention and works in favor of the company. Social media marketing is a potent method applied by progressive companies for selling their products/services or for just publishing content for ad revenue. Interactive marketing refers to the evolving trend in marketing whereby marketing has moved from a transaction-based effort to a conversation.
Interactive media is an extremely useful tool for consumer as well as for the companies. In the U.S. and in Europe, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace seem to lead the social media though all of those are fairly new but their impact is enormously huge. Twitter was founded in 2006. Facebook started in 2004. MySpace is practically a granddaddy, having begun in 2003. Yet, these relatively new forms of media are increasingly dominating the public conversation. It’s as though advertisers have suddenly realized that social media is here, it’s effective, and it’s staying. Successful companies in social media are now listening first, selling second. They are acting more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser
There are some facts below which prove how the interactive marketing has become the most powerful and promising tool directly set to reach the nerve and senses of consumers as the best media vehicle.
By 2010 96% of young Generation has joined a social network. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media. Years to reach 50 million Users: Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years). Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months.

US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum. 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females. People update anywhere, anytime.

The #2 largest search engines in the world is YouTube. There are over 200,000,000 Blogs. 54% Number of bloggers who post content or tweet daily. The speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth has become world of mouth.

25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands.

People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them.

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust advertisements. Only 18% of traditional

TV campaigns generate a positive ROI. 35% of book sales on Amazon are for the Kindle when available. 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.