Is digital marketing going to replace conventional marketing? if yes, how soon? if not, why you feel so?

In urban areas it will and would be soon.

Yes sir, the growth of e-marketing is tremendous. Growth Rate is very fast. Moreover competitive aspect also. Prices of offered are abnormally low. Even branded items are far cheaper than in a wholesale market in many cases. Once accustomed to it means the customer is temporarily stopped going for shopping...generally. The product is at you door step in a day or two. E-marketers started exploring the field in as many items as possible. The conventional marketing is going to be choosy of the items selected which are not at all the target of the e marketers.......gradually this will also change ...it seems to be.  Recently  I come across a sweet stall doing e-marketing  for some their sweets during the Dipawali season....the response is quite beyond imagination. So the possibility is anywhere and everywhere to tap. When the manufacturers also opt for supply to e-marketers than through their supply chains they also find economy in services outside the factory.  Surely there is a trend...

According to eMarketer, digital advertising spend will increase to over USD137 billion globally in2014. This is a phenomenal growth of more than14 per cent over2013 spend. Interestingly, this will account for more than25 per cent of global media ad spend. By2018, digital advertising spend is expected to be around one third of global spend on advertising.

Considering this growth, marketers are significantly worried about the future of traditional marketing. Many have started to believe that digital will replace traditional. On the other hand, a large number of professionals including business owners are still thinking if they should invest in digital or not. Like in any other industry, this combination of over optimism and fear about digital marketing is natural and part of the evolution.

It is evident from the figures shared that digital will not replace traditional marketing but is complimentary to it.

According to eMarketer, digital advertising spend will increase to over USD137 billion globally in2014. This is a phenomenal growth of more than14 per cent over2013 spend. Interestingly, this will account for more than25 per cent of global media ad spend. By2018, digital advertising spend is expected to be around one third of global spend on advertising. Considering this growth, marketers are significantly worried about the future of traditional marketing. Many have started to believe that digital will replace traditional. On the other hand, a large number of professionals including business owners are still thinking if they should invest in digital or not. Like in any other industry, this combination of over optimism and fear about digital marketing is natural and part of the evolution. It is evident from the figures shared that digital will not replace traditional marketing but is complimentary to it.

Digital Marketing is all about technology: Unfortunately, a large number of business owners including marketing directors consider digital marketing technical and expect their IT teams to manage it. This treatment is one of the biggest reasons of failure of digital marketing initiatives. Since they are unaware of the potential of this new medium, they don't consider that digital has to be an integral part of their business strategy.

While technologies play a role in expanding the opportunity of digital marketing, digital marketing has to be owned by Director of Marketing or CMO with active involvement from other key stakeholders including CEO, COO and CFO. In case of digital marketing campaigns, content in various forms including videos, pictures and presentations speak to customers on behalf of the organisation. While technology can be and should be leveraged to improve the effectiveness of content and expand its reach, the role of marketing team cannot be minimised.

While technologies play a role in expanding the opportunity of digital marketing, digital marketing has to be owned by Director of Marketing or CMO with active involvement from other key stakeholders including CEO, COO and CFO.

Digital Marketing can be completely outsourced to an agency: For the similar reasons shared above, a large number of organisations outsource their digital marketing to external agencies and expect them to be solely responsible for the success. Unlike software development, where requirements can be captured to the finest details and there's very high degree of certainty, digital marketing if outsourced to an agency must be treated differently. Active involvement of key stakeholders, especially that of the marketing team is critical for the success of digital marketing even if it is outsourced to an external agency. The relationship between the company and the agency has to be more of partner relation vs a typical client-vendor relation. In addition to providing understanding of the customer's concerns and their behaviour to the agency, the company play active role in strategy development, content creation and regular reviews.

Content is not a big deal: In case of digital marketing, content speaks on behalf of the company. A large number of digital marketing initiatives fail because organisations underestimate the requirement of the content. When outsourced, they expect the agency to take care of it fully.

In addition to the volume and quality of the content required, managing various types of content based on platforms used is mostly underestimated. This failure in planning for the content is one of the major reasons of failure of digital marketing campaigns whether done in house or outsourced. It also leads to crisis situations especially in case of real time customer engagement campaigns on social media.

Everything is measurable in digital media: Measurability is one of the biggest advantages of digital media. However, over the years, it's oversold both by individual practitioners and digital marketing agencies.

Unfortunately, expectations around measurability have become so unreal today that a large number of organisations are unwilling to invest in digital marketing unless they are given the guarantee of success. It does not only kill the opportunity of getting a new customer for a digital marketing agency, it actually ends up depleting the opportunity for the company as it ends up not investing into digital in absence of guaranteed success including by their internal team.

While measurability will continue to be one of the key advantages of digital media, marketers cannot ignore the qualitative side of it and the fact that success in digital requires experimentation especially in the current evolutionary stage of the industry

Frankly, i would go to the grass root - Every product presently cannot be Digital oriented .

Reasons Are Many :

(i) Mixed Economies ;

(ii) Generation today is still not net savvy to50 % in rural areas ;

(iii) Last Generation people have faith in self negotiations ;

(iv) Culture Is People Would Like to see the Product In Actual before Buying ;

(v) Etc....

It will surely be converted with a high pace , because of many linked reasons . But the Major Show for many products will still be - Traditional Marketing Style for the next2 Decades ( Yes FMCG / Consumer Durables / Luxuries & Electronics will change its coarse of selling in the coming time - days - years . But Not Everything & Anything . Yes, if talking about our Next Generation - People Should Study / Educate Digital Marketing As their Main Subject - Because Avenues will be like a Computer Operator - Needed everywhere ) . May be i am wrong but that's what i think of today - may be20 years down the line ( Meaning4 gen next things will be a complete changed scenario ) .