During the past decade, the number of businesses that incorporate digital marketing into an overall promotion strategy has increased drastically. For instance, from 2012 to 2019, Google’s revenues from digital advertisement increased by more than 200%, while Facebook experienced growth by approximately 1500%, indicating the channel’s growing popularity (Statista, 2021). Moreover, the survey conducted by Herold (2018) revealed that 38% of businesses spend 26-50% of their overall marketing budget on digital promotions, whereas 34% of companies invest 50-75% of their finances. Therefore, based on the aforementioned evidence and the fact that technologies continue developing fast, it is fair to claim that the emphasis on digital marketing will only grow in the future.
There are several reasons that determined the growing popularity of technology usage in the marketing sphere. First of all, this trend is explained by the improvements in information technologies and the spread of the internet (Efendioglu, 2016). Indeed, as people spend more and more time engaged in virtual reality, the best way to ‘approach’ potential customers would be through the digital channel. Secondly, Piñeiro-Otero and Martínez-Rolán (2016) maintain that digital marketing is associated with lower costs and better returns on investments. In this regard, Hartemo (2016) claims that every dollar spent on product promotion via email brings the company $28.5 of additional profit. Furthermore, digital marketing is more engaging as it provides two-way interaction between the brand and customers (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). Due to this function, the marketers can easily assess the success of their campaigns, which is another reason for the channel’s popularity (Develop a digital marketing plan, n.d.). For example, it can be done through sentiment analysis on social media or accessible statistics on views and clicks. Therefore, although not exhaustive, the list of four factors mentioned above still provides a good explanation for why digital marketing becomes increasingly preferable compared to traditional promotion methods.
However, even though technology usage in marketing has many advantages, there are also certain barriers that companies may encounter trying to expand the usage of digital platforms. According to the survey conducted by Goran, LaBerge, and Srinivasan (2017), the most common difficulty is cultural and behavioral challenges. Other barriers also include lack of digital trends understanding, professionals in the digital sphere, appropriate infrastructure, and alignment between overall and marketing strategies (Islam et al., 2021). As a result, a combination of these factors can significantly deter the businesses’ marketing efforts.
Reference List
Chaffey, D., and Smith, P. R. (2017) Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing and integrating online marketing. London: Routledge.
Develop a digital marketing plan (n.d.)
Efendioglu, D. Y. (2016) ‘Travel from traditional marketing to digital marketing’, Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 16(2-E), pp. 35-40. doi: 10.23956/ijermt.v6i11.60
Goran, J., LaBerge, L., Srinivasan, R. (2017) Culture for a digital age.
Hartemo, M. (2016) ‘Email marketing in the era of the empowered consumer’, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 10(3), pp. 212-230. doi: 10.1108/JRIM-06-2015-0040
Herold, K. (2018) How businesses invest in digital marketing in 2018.
Islam, M. N., Ozuem, W., Bowen, G., Willis, M., & Ng, R. (2021) ‘An empirical investigation and conceptual model of perceptions, support, and barriers to marketing in social enterprises in Bangladesh’, Sustainability, 13, pp. 345-365. doi: 10.3390/su13010345
Piñeiro-Otero, T., & Martínez-Rolán, X. (2016) ‘Understanding digital marketing—basics and actions’, in Machado, C. and Davim, P. J. (eds.) MBA: theory and application of business and management principles. New York: Springer, Cham, pp. 37-74.
Statista (2021) Selected online companies ranked by total digital advertising revenue from 2012 to 2020(in billion U.S. dollars).