The year 2020 has brought along a fresh wave of changes across a diverse range of spectrums of our lifestyle, be it the way we work, how we communicate, how we shop, or even how we consume entertainment.  The influence and impact of the pandemic on these basic elements of our lives have been under the spotlight for the past few months now, with this effect to remain for the foreseeable future. After a sustained period of adaptation and on-the-fly decision making, organizations/brands across the globe have slowly come to terms with the ‘new normal’ with evolved strategies and thinking. Most of the conversation revolving around digital transformation was dominated by terms such as ‘Artificial Intelligence’, ‘Machine Learning’, ‘Cloud Computing’, and even ‘The Internet of Things’. However, the second half of 2020 is all set to bring about a fresh set of trends. Ban of Tiktok Can Change The Way Forward A key factor driving the popularity of Tiktok as a platform for content consumption was entertainment. The app garnered a huge audience in India - a total of 611 million downloads - 30.3% of the global total. (source : deccan chronicle)  With such a wide and diverse audience, it's no surprise that brands were quick to target leading content creators on the platform. The recent ban will force past Tik-tok content creators to hone and evolve their content for the bigger influencer platforms like Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook. For example, Instagram has been quick to reveal a new feature - Reels. This feature is extremely similar to the model of Tiktok and essentially inculcates the essence of it onto the Instagram app as well. Facebook, which had found a clout among the tier-2 and tier-3 cities, was having to share its audience with Tiktok. This ban can be incredibly beneficial for this social media platform and can see an increase in the time people spend on Facebook. Aside from this, new-age platforms like Funimate, Roposo, and Sharechat are slowly gaining popularity and benefiting from the ban of Tiktok.  Content Webification Will Become Inevitable Offline content is not just outdated and out of style, it is quite lifeless in this innovation-driven world of today. Marketers must strive to continuously create eye-catching user interface (UI) and user experiences (UX) along with informative yet quirky content to attract attention.  Ancient PDFs and powerpoints simply do not make the cut anymore. A prominent example of content webification in recent times is the transformation of the content of a PPT/PDF into a dynamic website/microsite.  This helps curate experiences that grab your buyer’s attention and actually require them to engage. Content Webification also helps brands track and observe user patterns as opposed to traditional offline content. Ads Will Be Different In recent times, paid advertisements on social media & entertainment platforms along with search engines have been much more specific and directed towards the user’s actual needs.  Brands are keen to take advantage of these paid ads to highlight how their solutions and business/service offerings can be put to good use especially during the plight of the pandemic and the situation it has led to.  Having said that, in the current situation, brands are being very careful in creating the content for their ads. Right now, words that would, in any other event, be perfectly appropriate to use, maybe perceived differently.  Google recommends being careful with terms like “checkup” or “protection” as they can be deemed to be inappropriate in the current scenario.  Google also suggests that brands evaluate their assets thoroughly. For example, brands need to check the suitability of images and videos depicting social gatherings of people.  (source: google ads help)  A few industries that have especially performed exceptionally well in the COVID era when it comes to search ads, and are expected to keep up this performance are - 

• Nonprofits and Charities 
• Health and Medical 
• Business management 
• Finance
• Beauty and Personal Care
• Online Gifting 

Rebirth of Email Marketing Brands, e-commerce platforms, organizations, educational institutions - all have adopted Email Marketing as a reliable communication platform to reach their audiences in these uncertain times.  This has, in turn, led to individuals accessing and using their email IDs much more compared to earlier. Average opens are up across the board for March and April, despite the marked rise in send volume between February and March (email sends were up by 19% from February 2020 to March 2020). (Source: Campaign Monitor)  A reason why brands are putting emails on the frontlines of their communication strategy in times of crisis is that people tend to trust the information received through email more than they trust other channels. Aside from this, the emails are also observed to sound more helpful and supportive.  However, in order to make the emails more effective and relatable, brands are making sure that their messages express an appropriate sentiment.  Another thing that is being widely observed and will probably become the norm in H2 is asking for subscriber feedback. Needless to say, we are currently in the midst of an incredibly new experience and in such a situation, it never hurts to get feedback. Many emails are now coming with a closing note, asking people to share their opinion on whether or not they would like to hear more about the subject.  Agile Marketing Will Become More Important Than Ever If there’s anything that we have learned from this crisis situation is that it is incredibly critical to be agile in adapting to change. This brought one thing to the forefront - the current one-size-fits-all outlook to digital marketing is not feasible.  This is where Mar-Tech will be significant in leading the way for the future of digital marketing. New-age marketers are adapting to more real-time marketing technologies where data-driven, dynamic techniques allow immediate changes to the content being pushed out to all marketing channels. The post – COVID era will definitely be driven by online experiences and the marketeers need to be agile in leveraging this beforehand and accommodate the shift in consumer behaviors. Marketers will rely more on AI-driven models that will help generate the targeted ROI for the spends on Media. These trends make one thing clear, now marketers will have to rethink their strategies and get ready to embrace a whole new world of digital transformation. 

The global pandemic has brought a plethora of changes in basic day-to-day activities and functions, be it the way we work, shop, communicate, or even entertain ourselves. This shift in lifestyle has led to a clear transformation of consumer behaviour and patterns. It is quite clear individuals are spending more of their time online, with various facets of digital platforms becoming widely popular. Brands must leverage this opportunity to come up with engaging and impactful content to leave lasting impressions on their consumers through digital channels. Through the power of words and visuals, content can be used to connect with audiences and build a community of like-minded people.

Creators, Culture & Content

A digital channel and its wide array of functions is a great way to help cultivate brand image and awareness through content. You can position your brand by talking about what really matters to the consumers through relevant content. If your brand is strongly involved with positive causes or initiatives for the betterment of society, do not hesitate in to stand up for a cause that’s integral to the brand’s purpose. It is quite likely that this sentiment would resonate with your target audience, and in turn, build a sense of community and belongingness. Now is the time to drive engagement and active participation of your audiences. You must build on ideas (campaigns, competitions) that help energize social communities as well as bring people together on one common platform.

Creative Playbook 

Building brand identity & persona through communication design is an easy yet effective way to help create an online presence. Design capabilities are at an all-time high, with no signs of slowing down in the near future, so building consistent visual language with colour & typography is a great way to start. Branded content creators have been around for a while now, across nearly all social media and content platforms. Brands can further enhance their content creativity by investing even more time and resources in these specialised content creators and further exploring remote production. Social media platforms evolve at a rapid pace and missing out in these developments designed to augment your content is quite risky. For example, Facebook playable ads are a jump from the ordinary - a quirky and engaging way to advertise to users. 

Ad(ding) Value 

Winning the social media game revolves all-around maximising a users experience when they open their app & adding some value to their time spent browsing. This will help you stand out from the plethora of content a single user consumes in one session. As already explained, Facebook playable ads are a unique form of advertising online and help give users a chance to interact and participate with the brand. Playable ads can also be leveraged keeping in mind the recent shift towards online mobile gaming. Like playable ads, there are a variety of different social media elements that can be utilised to add value to user experience, including native content such as Instagram feed ads.

Feel It, Reel It

The importance of staying up-to-date with the latest elements of social media, and using them to enhance your content curation capabilities, simply cannot be stated enough. Instagram Reels is here to add an entirely new dimension to the platform. The feature follows a 15-second video format with its own set of creative editing tools like a countdown timer, speed adjustment & more. Unlike stories, Reels can be shared in the explore section & viewed by everyone on the platform. It is even possible for multiple reels to be recorded at once & different effects can be added to each clip. The feature also includes some quirky and innovative AR effects to help users add a unique touch to their videos.  With the recent ban of Tiktok, it is no surprise to see Instagram leverage this new feature to capture that entire user segment. While prior to the bane, Tiktok content creators strictly restricted themselves to that platform, now we will see a much wider and diverse segment using Instagram.  Simply due to the wide functions and capabilities of digital mediums now, the chances to engage and connect with users through innovative content are on the rise. Accurate targeting functions allow you the option to engage with relevant consumers, while new-age data insights and analysis give you a clear picture of how your content is resonating with users.

Imagine a world without content. A world that is so abstract that it becomes a self-negating proposition in itself. One that cannot be addressed using words that set the context and induces the imagination in the first place. But, for a moment, let's give it a try. What would it mean if nothing were written, if the pronouncement "I give you my word" was sufficient as a contract? If all languages would be spoken text, except that "text" would not exist. Suppose we would have been texting with our friends but only with images but not text. If there would be products but without any expiry date or how to use instructions written on it? Living without content would have been impossible 500 years ago and it still stands true. We all connect with content daily, be it from a magazine, song lyrics, Instagram caption, banners, labels on beauty products, and much more. Even different industry players are leveraging content in the form of content marketing to gain brand recognition & position. They are building a strong brand voice that captures their audience's attention and helps them differentiate from competitors.  The power of the content has never been greater than it is today. As Content marketing has now become one of the most effective methods of growing audience engagement, developing the brand presence, and driving sales, modern businesses must work to ensure they are creating valuable, high-quality content that supports and improves the customer journey. 3C's Of Content Marketing: Content Creation  When it comes to content marketing, the first and foremost step is creating content. With more and more consumers demanding a personalized experience, brands should aim to create interactive content since it is the perfect way to grab the consumer's attention & increase engagement. Curate Brands should not just create content to gain clicks, shares, or page views but to create something that the audience finds truly useful. To create something useful, brands should know their target audience. After knowing the audience, one will be able to create content according to the interests of the target audience. Rather than just telling themselves about the brand, the focus should be more on how the brand's products and services can solve the audience's problems. Circulate Brands must spend 20% of their time in content creation, and the rest of it in content promotion. It is time to focus on content promotion & distribution through collaborations, cross-publishing, repurposing content, etc. Brandbuilders & storytellers These days brands are continually looking out for innovative ways to engage their target audiences to achieve their goals. The success and popularity of influencer marketing have made brands move towards a model that celebrates this and enables them to make a mark to establish  Relevance To add credibility to the content by collaborating with an influencer who creates relevant content matching the brand's tonality. Reach By not jumping into the influencer marketing trend haphazardly and taking time to find an influencer that matches the brand. This way, they are able to deliver an authentic message to the specific target group that the brand is trying to reach, and be upfront about it. Resonance An influencer is known for its unbiased and authentic opinions. The fact that posts from an influencer don't appear as advertisement is one of the most significant benefits of influencer generated content. To resonate with the audience effectively, The brand should boost engagement in the influencer marketing campaign through user-generated & customized content. Connecting creativity with content Creativity is critical when it comes to standing out among the noises that distract the target audience daily. To start somewhere, here are a few ideas to kickstart conversations and improve overall brand recognition:

• Brands can take the help of blog posts as they are a cornerstone of B2B content creation due to their SEO benefits & help in the process of primary content distribution.
• Another way is to use gated content that can help generate leads as it requires users to fill in their details to receive access.
• As Robert Gerrish rightly said, "You just need one person to listen, get your message and pass it on to someone else. And, you've doubled your audience", podcasts are one of the best ways brands can talk to their audience. 

Funneling Content Finding the right content to answer the customer's questions, nurture their opinion of and relationship with the brand, and ultimately convert leads into paying customers is hard. So hard that most brands and marketers are lost when it comes to choosing the right kind of content. Every brand should keep these three stages in mind as to provide the right content at the right time to their audience: Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU)/Awareness Stage At this stage, brands capture their audience's attention by providing solutions to the target audience's most pressing needs through relevant content. This must be offered without asking anything in return.  Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU)/Evaluation Stage Once people have been introduced to a brand and have received some degree of free value from them, it's time to convert them to an actual lead. Brands should help prospective buyers make the right decision by providing case studies, product demos & in-depth research reports. Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU)/Decision Stage It's time to present customers with an offer that naturally transitions them into a paying customer. Send out offer reminders through drip email campaigns, free trials, discounts & consultations. On Top with SEO Yeah, creating top-quality content should be the priority, but it should be optimized for search engines. Brands should:

• Foster authority & trust by using high-quality links that pass value from one site to the other.
• Optimize their blog posts for featured snippets to give quick wins and drive traffic from the SERPs.
• Create content that focuses on the target audience with the right keywords & generate high-quality links back to their website.

Grow socially High-quality content has the best effect when it gets distributed over social media. It's no wonder that many marketers say that social media and content marketing go together like wine and cheese.

• If the content offered by brands is not meaningful or engaging, it can be tiresome, frustrating, and push the audience elsewhere. Creating share-worthy content in social media is the modern-day word of mouth.
• Establish a relationship with the audience by creating authentic content, such as personifying communication tonality to humanize the brand. This shows that the brand is interested in connecting with the audience and committed to building meaningful relationships with them.
• Focus on adding value to the customer's lifestyle, which helps to build a brand's reputation & establishing authority in the industry.
• Social media should not be used as a stopgap. Initiate direct communication with the audience. But do not bombard them with everything. Play with new ways to connect with the audience. For instance, one day, post a series of Instagram Stories to give customers a behind-the-scenes tour. Next, host a quick Q&A session via Facebook Live video streaming. 

At the end of the day, content is what really matters the most. Nobody will engage if the information is not right and useful to them. Consumers want to find topics and companies that they can relate to or aspire to. The content and conversations must be true to the brand's personality, motto, customers, and business."

Believe it or not, people have always been great listeners. From traditional storytelling predating the written words to more modern means of communication starting with tape recorders and now, using some of the most advanced 21st-century digital technologies.

No matter what one is consuming- music, news, talk shows, audiobooks, gripping podcasts, people are perpetually consuming information with their ears. Furthermore, audio-streaming is a clutter-free environment, which means consumers are less likely to get distracted. 

Think Stats 

A country like ours has always had a rich history with audio content. From the tales of Panchatantra to stories by Indian writers to music, our country has consumed content such as cricket commentary, Premchand ki Kahaniya, Shayari by Ghalib, and so much more across different platforms. The podcast market growing in India is just rediscovering its love for audio content.

Hence, it is of no surprise that India stands as the world's third-largest podcast listening market, and by 2023, the number of listeners might rise to 17.61 crores! One should keep in mind that in our country, there are over a billion phone connections; however, only 35% of them are smart. That means audio content can reach devices where video fails.

Attention Please!

Video content consists of extensive research and execution; however, the sound still accounts for 60% of an ad; it’s an area that creative agencies/marketers need to take advantage of. In a world that's becoming increasingly voice-controlled, this is the time for brands to build their sonic identity. 

Choose the right format

Interview: A panel-discussion or roundtable format, with a host who leads the conversation. It is a classic in the world of podcast/audio storytelling, features a consistent host, and a new guest every episode. This gives the audience a chance to learn something new every time they tune-in and be introduced to a lot of interesting people within a niche and learn from their expertise.

Monologue: The commentary-style podcast is built around one personality, which gives the show one voice or a single point of view. This is where the podcasters connect with the audience in an intimate manner and with people all around the world. Some of the best podcasters' not only offer their listeners entertainment/education but also serve up a slice of their heart: their passion, likes and dislikes, and soul. 

Multiple hosts: The podcast is divided between several people, or two or more co-hosts leading the show. This is the kind of format that involves two people having a conversation and generally have great chemistry. This is unlike an interview podcast; both are hosts. In a case like such, both of them will play a specific role in the conversation. For instance, one might talk about the idea/service/products, and the other will provide commentary or comedy.

Narrative: This storytelling style of the podcast focuses on how the content is presented. Many narrative podcasts have a decidedly linear quality, and generally, one might not see a shift in topic or segment. They are usually story-driven shows, as opposed to interviews and rely heavily on editing to splice together the right story, pulling from recordings, sounds, music, and other interviews.

Mixed/Hybrid: This hybrid format uses various elements of the other four content types & may repurpose content from other mediums, such as radio. For instance, the show starts with a discussion between two hosts and ends with an interview? Maybe one is a solo presenter, and for part of the episode, one dishes out expertise and then includes an appearance from one of the listeners? There are no rules in this one, and one can mix and match depending on what suits the show.

Think on your fingertips

Keep your podcast focused & narrowed to a single topic

As one progresses in podcasts, the fun also increases, and so does the comfort. But one thing that holds paramount of importance is to make sure that one doesn't become so relaxed that the conversation consistently strays off the topic. To keep oneself on track, follow scripts or notes, at least loosely. 

If one feels like that they are going down the wrong path, reign conversation back to the initial plan. That being said, not all tangents are bad, but make sure that one is not eroding the value of the episode.

Create fictionalized models of ideal customers & devise audio content based on that.

When producing content, it is very helpful to think about the kind of audience one wants to attract and try reaching out to them with the help of the podcast. Several marketers set up buyer personas that are fictionalised models of ideal customers. One can create such models as it will help craft the content.

Convert podcasts into articles & publish on content seeding platforms with a CTA to the original podcast.

One might feel like once they have posted their podcast, their job is done for the day. However, it is imperative that one convert their podcasts into long-format articles and publish them on content seeding platforms that have a CTA to the original podcast, as this will bring more traffic to the podcast.

Add good intro & outro music to the audio podcast to captivate consumers' attention.

Add music but do not infringe on copyrights. One can also add music in between the podcast that denotes segue to another topic or segment.

Effective promotion

Utilise platforms like Anchor, which help distribution audio content across various platforms.

Platforms like Anchor give one the freedom to record from anywhere. It helps capture audio straight from one's phone, iPad, desktop computer, all one has to do is use the Anchor's recording tools, and it is also compatible with most external microphones.

Leverage email marketing by sending monthly or bi-weekly recap of the latest podcast episodes to encourage subscribers to engage.

Make it personal. No matter how many emails you send out, try to make it personal and include some snippets from the podcast. Another thing one can incorporate is- send a note the day the podcast goes live and include a series of shareable media such as images, pull quotes, and links.

Urge subscribers to share reviews as positive reviews can help the podcast rank higher in searches.

Make a list of the subscribers and urge them to leave a review as it can help the podcast rank higher in searches. Make sure to reply to the reviews as well, and this will show how much one cares about the content they are publishing and also adds a personal touch.

Include a transcription with the podcast as it makes content more accessible for the audience & helps improve SEO rankings.

Many highly successful podcasts offer a full transcript of the entire podcast as it has great SEO benefits. Furthermore, it improves the discoverability of the episode by focusing on keywords, content structure, and topics. Not just that, but a transcript has the potential to make the podcast more accessible to people and can even split the topics that are mentioned in time brackets to help everyone find them easily in the podcast.

Closing Notes 

Research and statistics continue to prove that podcasting has revolutionised the audio landscape, as we witness listening numbers reach millions. And, to imagine that 20 years ago, podcasting or audio storytelling wasn't even in the dictionary, while now it plays a crucial part in the audio landscape. Moreover, with new-age consumers currently consuming content through various platforms and sources, the only way to stay relevant is by exploring every aspect.

Gone are the days when artificial intelligence (AI), voice search engine optimization (VSEO) and data-driven marketing were considered absurdly ambitious concepts. In present times, business leaders are greatly prioritizing implementation of these digital marketing trends to drive business growth and thrive in 2020. 

In the time ahead of us, we will see out-of-touch marketing strategies gradually become extinct. This is because personalized content, video, AI-based automation, transparency and brand values have become influential concepts for organizations' survival and success. 

Quick Takeaways:

- Marketing has gone past the traditional forms, i.e. branding and advertising. Hence, marketers must collaborate across departments and focus on building customer experiences while engaging them for lasting relationships. 

- Content visualization can be seen dominating the next year, as 64% of Internet users are more likely to purchase a product online after watching a video. And marketers can observe a 49% boost in business ROI with dynamic video retargeting. 

- Infographics will be an ideal content form to reach to audiences whose attention spans are less. The collection of imagery, minimal text, and relevant charts; infographics are 3 times more likely to be shared than other forms of content. 

- Statistics indicate that content marketing holds the potential to get 3x more leads than paid advertising. 55% of marketers are prioritizing to create content for blogs as a part of their marketing strategy. And 72% of marketers are improving their engagement through content marketing.

- According to research by Statista, there are around 3.9 billion email users in the world, and the number is expected to grow to 4.48 billion users by 2024. Furthermore, 122% is the average return on investment from email marketing. Witnessing the obvious growth of the medium; email marketing, business leaders should focus on prevailing and upcoming innovations in email marketing.

Customer experience will continue to reign. 

Each year, business owners spend a majority of their time driving customer engagement and serving for seamless customer experience. However, the average time that a human being can pay attention is 8 seconds, which brings a challenge for marketers to implement strategies effectively. 

Today's customer is mostly on-the-go; hence, seamlessness plays a vital role in customer engagement. Moreover, they are impatient, and the 'quick nature' of infographics and mobile marketing provides them with the information they want at their fingertips. This results in quick buying decisions, and as a result, marketers can witness increased conversion rates, which serves as a reason for mobile marketing to dominate the digital landscape. 

Artificial intelligence has changed in the wave in the marketing sphere. The hype around AI is growing with each day. Two of the significant transformative customer experience trends; personalization and chatbots are supported by AI technology. 38% of businesses are using forms of AI technology for better customer experience (CX). And the figure is projected to reach 62% by the end of the year. 

Management experts at Bain and Company indicated that a mere 5 per cent boost in customer retention increases profit by 25 per cent. Hence, businesses need to align CX with each aspect of their marketing strategy to provide greater experience, retain customers and attract new ones. 

Immersive technologies paving the way for innovation 

The sister technologies, Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) offer a more personalized and immersive experience. It helps customers make informed buying decisions. Moreover, Augmented reality saw a record-breaking growth last year. With big names like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google making serious commitments to AR technology, experts are expecting 2020 to be a year for fast-paced industry growth. 

Consumers already lean on map services, but the use of AR in the navigation will provide detailed directions through the 3D rendering of places with precise instructions.

A BRP report exhibited that around 48% of consumers are likely to buy from retailers that provide AR experiences. Hence, brands can leverage AR-assisted shopping apps to enhance the customer experience, benefit the distributors & the manufacturers and most importantly observe increased sales. 

The future of design resides with AR and VR technologies. Brands can produce products with improved and innovative design with AR by showing an immersive, realistic experience of the product being designed.

Get caught in the web-trends for improved user experience.

When it comes to UX and UI, it's important to be cohesive and ensure web accessibility. The terms are much more than an industry buzzword; they facilitate conversions and help marketers increase sales of products. 

Once a quote by Edward Tufte, American professor and statistician, "Confusion and clutter are the failure of design, not the attributes of information" has now turned into a fact. This stays true to user experience as well. One of the best ways to stand out and stay ahead of the competition curve is to stay accessible to the target audience. Hence, brands must focus on neat minimal UI/UX for a seamless customer journey. 

The loading speed will be a crucial element to drive success through SEO efforts and an essential factor in overall user experience. Fast loading websites result in improved search rankings on Google. With the help of Google's speed update algorithm, brands can diminish page load time for their websites. 

Design accents and movements on the screen, having a water-like feel for web design will explode in popularity for the year 2020. Marketers can incorporate the new trend of liquid animation on websites to improve the user interface to ensure users stay and come back for the experience. 

Devise improved rankings for SEO efforts

Today, 50.5% of the population speaks daily to smart speakers or mobile devices to well-known attendees, Siri, Alexa or Cortana. Voice searches have emerged as the new norm, and as predicted by ComScore, nearly half of the searches in the year will be voice searches. Hence, with the use of voice search technology in the SEO strategy by optimizing content & syncing it with search intent such as location-based searches, organizations and marketers can observe increased rankings. 

Schema, structured markup is a continuously evolving concept in the SEO sphere. It helps define the context of a search query and further simplify page content for search engines to easily understand what that page is about. Once added to a webpage, it creates rich snippets in search. These snippets will result in enhanced listings which are more attractive to users. 

Google releases hundreds of algorithm updates every year and this year will be dedicated to Google's new SEO algorithm, BERT. Marketing professionals can utilize it to target relevant, accurate content, especially with mobile users.

The number of zero-click searches has increased over the last few years. Today, zero-click searches have quite an impact. According to the SparkToro report, the previous year witnessed 50.33% of all Google searches ending without a click on both organic and paid search results. By optimizing zero-click searches with the implementation of structured data on the website, a boost in online presence can be noticed. 

Ad(d) value to bring more conversions

Segmentation serves as a key element to detect and define target markets. Companies will witness improved returns on ads and attract more B2B customers by targeting niche websites.

Utilizing Microsoft audience network or Google Display Network (GDN) based on the target profiling will allow running ads targeting users' demographic, professional placements for improved campaign and performance management. 

In-app advertising will be a useful strategy for target marketing. Studies indicate that people spend 90% of their browsing time using mobile apps. So, it wouldn't be surprising to say that at times, advertising brands through apps rather than websites will ensure higher click through rates. 

Organizations can run native ads with top-performing content & create complementary display campaigns using remarketing techniques. Interestingly, as many as 96% of people who visit the brand's website aren't ready to buy. Hence, the method of remarketing can be credited as a powerful way to draw those prospects back into your conversion funnel. 

Closing Notes  

Change is an integral part of the digital marketing sphere. For anyone operating a business, it is crucial to know about prevailing marketing trends. Hence, one must keep looking out to thrive and strive to embrace upcoming technologies to stay ahead of the competition curve. 

Digital for SMEs

The small and medium businesses (SMEs) in India comprise of 63.4 million units and accounts for approximately 1/3rd of India’s GDP, offering employment opportunities to an approximate figure of 460 million people. Similarly, in terms of exports, the SMEs contribution is estimated at about 45% of the total exports.  Despite the SME sector contributing to a sizable chunk of the country’s economy, traditional and out-dated business strategies and the low rate of technology influx has started to hinder these industries in enabling them to achieve their full potential. A primary barrier has been technology adoption, and this is where SME’s must strive to understand and adopt new-age digital channels to help amplify their businesses.  New Mantra’s for SME’s  With evolving habits and behaviour patterns, SME’s must stay up-to-date with ways in which they can understand their target audience and how to maximise their satisfaction. 

• CRM tools are a great way to increase customer retention - you can only think about approaching new customers once your current ones are happy enough. 
• Similarly, to attain an even more detailed understanding of their customers, You can consider carrying out a ‘KYC’. A KYC is a detailed onboarding process where businesses can collect and store detailed information as per their requirements. A KYC process can be made mandatory and helps promote transparency along with in-depth analysis of the buyer persona.

Tools Kit The benefits of exploring a diverse range of tools are multifold. Exploring tools across multiple functions ranging from social media to sales or even email can result in an array of benefits. If you’re looking to scale your business, an in-depth understanding of digital tools is a must.

• While social media has many uses, one of the primary benefits is the influence they have in maintaining reputations of brands. This is precisely why exploring ORM (online relationship management) tools to help customer interactions is a smart move.
• Similarly, by adopting an automated email marketing tool, you can build and hone strategies to target a large number of stakeholders. These tools can help in creating highly personalized messaging in emails and elevate the impact of your existing email marketing strategy.
• Lastly, exploring a Whatsapp Business API is another innovative way to build relations with both new and existing customers by offering them digital support and assistance. This offers a highly personalized experience and helps give your brand an identity - rather than an SMS - where a string of digits do not leave the same effect. 

‘E Route’ For SME’s  E-commerce is a strategic game-changer, particularly in recent months with the focus on offline selling at an all-time low. If as an SME you are yet to explore online channels for sales, it is never too late to start. E-commerce provides you an opportunity to break free from the limitations of physical commerce-enabling you to market yourself to a larger audience. With lower barriers to trade, and lower expenses without any rent and inventory costs, e-commerce is a no-brainer. Here are some tips to optimize your e-commerce strategies -

• Consider price, features, support, ease of use and performance while choosing an e-commerce builder.

• • Augment your e-commerce platform with the help of insightful product descriptions, video content, and quirky blogs. This helps keep visitors engaged and helps offer them an insight into your brand rather than just serve as a transactional platform.
  • Tinker around with diverse sale strategies and promotional offers to help understand your audience even better, and evaluate how these strategies affect your sales and revenue.
  • There are plenty of e-commerce platforms which are offering free assistance to businesses affected by the pandemic that are worth exploring.

• Evaluate whether you need an on-premises or cloud hosting environment to run an efficient e-commerce platform. 

S for Social, SME’s & Success Along with the standard features offered, social media platforms have taken distinct measures by launching innovative offerings specifically aimed to help SME’s. These offerings have been launched in light of the coronavirus pandemic which has brought a huge burden on the shoulders of SME’s while they faced problems staying afloat. Social media become the norm for marketing strategies, so these platforms went a step further to help out SME’s - 

• Utilize Facebook’s ‘Business Resource Hub’ that includes a ‘resilience toolkit’, helping businesses prevent disruptions. The Small Business Resiliency Toolkit holds a framework for small businesses that lack the time or resources to create an extensive plan to recover from business interruptions. The Toolkit is based on best practices and is designed to educate you on basic business resilience activities and approaches.

These resources will guide your company toward addressing preparedness issues while building the flexibility to handle potential business disruptions. The Toolkit is designed to lead any business, even one with no disaster experience or knowledge, towards greater resiliency.

• Leverage Instagram’s ‘Support SME Sticker’ - a feature that allows brand users to easily show their love for businesses through stories. They can tag businesses directly in the sticker to give their followers an overlook of the account. This feature is a great way to promote local businesses and help them thrive on social media.

• Similarly, on LinkedIn, SME’s can make use of the ‘Open For Business’ feature. This feature allows freelancers and small business owners to add their services to their LinkedIn profiles, which helps make them discoverable on the LinkedIn search engine.

SME’s form a substantial chunk of the economy in our country - and often face difficulties adapting to dynamic technological innovations that spring up on a consistent basis. In the digital world we live in today, it is imperative to embrace these new innovations to fully thrive and sustain business.

Leading the e-way

Amid the lockdown, everyone has turned to social media to pass their time. In the first week of lockdown, Social Media Consumption went high, and Indians spent more than four hours every day on social media. Due to the global pandemic, consumers are locked inside, and for the first time, we have a situation in front of us where the necessities collar bound consumerism. And, all the brands and marketers are operating with this situation in hand. Keeping the aforementioned in mind, a significant advantage that digital marketing and brand gets is a substantial change in the internet behaviour of consumers globally. The impact of COVID-19 is perceptible all across- from lifestyle choices to purchase decisions that we are making during this period. Moreover, the way we utilise our time during the lockdown has changed significantly. Don’t believe us? McKinsey reported a 33% growth for social media usage and over 40% for digital content consumption. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for brands, they should leverage soft data in the lockdown and optimise their marketing approach.  When you completely optimise your digital channels to tap both old and new customers, have an enhanced ORM system that can handle volumes larger than usual if you are thinking about adopting a new face for the customer.

Win the web(site)

• Display top-selling products on the landing page to create an impression & give a starting point for customers’ shopping spree.

People tend to neglect but landing pages play a crucial role; it is a key initial impression and touchpoint for new shoppers. And even for the old consumers, eCommerce landing pages hold paramount importance in terms of motivating traffic to continue engaging with your brand and then convincing them to finally make a purchase.

• Optimise your e-commerce website with an accurate CMS to manage all the website content in one place.

When you think about eCommerce content, it is not in any way similar to its counterparts in B2B. It has its characteristics, and brands are rapidly realizing that visual, rich, content experiences hold great value. If you have a CMS or content management system, intact, it will help you to publish, manage, and edit your website content. Some of the must-have features that your CMS should offer are SEO, User experience, Marketing and sales, Testing, and analytics

• Use a filtering system by keeping categories broad enough to fit all of the products, but specific enough to be helpful to customers.

Too much information can be overwhelming and cause problems, no matter if it is an eCommerce site, news site, social media, or a big corporations’ website. To help your customers navigate through these many options, use a filter system. A filter category can be divided into colour, brand, price.

• Incorporate a live chat option that allows users to engage directly with customer service executives in case of any question. 

Live chat as an option has been around for more than a decade, but fairly recently, companies started taking it seriously and its profound effect on website conversion rates. A recent survey shows that 52% of customers are more likely to repurchase from a company that offers live chat support.  In case you are wondering why does live chat make such a gigantic difference? It has been suggested that live chat is the only thing that provides real human interaction when you are trying to make a purchase. In simpler terms, customers need a sense of reassurance, and their questions answered that can only be provided with the help of a live chat.

Accelerate with SEO

• Focus on search volume, product fit, commercial intent & competition, to boost eCommerce keyword research through SEO.

If you practice eCommerce SEO marketing, your brand will get more visibility, which will lead to more customers and sales. We all know that online research is embedded in modern shopping behaviour, most of us start our shopping journey with the help of a search engine to discover new products, ideas, or services. And 74% of shoppers use a search engine for consideration and purchasing (research, comparison, transaction). Never forget about product fit; it might seem obvious at first; however, you need to pick keywords that match your products.

• The golden rule for site architecture & user engagement is to keep every website page three or fewer clicks from the homepage. 

Having a robust site architecture is very vital as it represents how your eCommerce site is organized into pages and categories. It is not only crucial for your visitors but search engines as well.

Publish High-Quality Content

SEO has changed with time, and it is no longer the same. The ability of Google bots and search engine algorithms to grasp human intent and the relevance and quality of content has improved. As a basis of these attributes, Google provides customers with the most relevant information for their queries. As a result, keyword stuffing is no longer effective, and quality material now takes precedence. Hence, publish well-researched and useful material on your blog to improve its social media and SEO performance. Capitalize on ‘how-to videos’ as it helps customers to understand why they need the product & how it will improve their lives. Many kinds of research have shown that videos are top in performance. This content format has an average click-through rate of almost 2%, which is the highest among all online ads. You can even make a product-related video on your website or even on channels like Youtube. They have over a billion active users, and chances are your target audience is somewhere in there. 

• Interact on e-commerce websites by hosting contests, raffles, polls, surveys, ratings, etc., to attract & engage users.

With an array of brands now using video content to increase brand awareness, hosting an online video contest, survey, ratings, raffles, makes a lot of sense. Video contests are a great way of gathering user-generated content (UGC), growing your social media followers, and driving traffic to your website.

Sell through Social

• Leverage Instagram’s ‘shopping feature’ to tag products & add information that helps customers navigate easily.

Rather than directing your customers to Instagram from your website or vice versa, you can fully utilise the Instagram shopping feature and let your customers buy products quickly from the app. With more than 1 billion monthly users, it is safe to assume that your customers are already on Instagram. Now make it easier for them to discover and shop your brand with Instagram shoppable posts.

• Utilize Pinterest’s, ‘Complete the Look’ feature, a visual search that recommends products based on past customer engagement.

Pinterest, for a very long time, has been focusing on its eCommerce capabilities, and this new search tool is a massive step in that direction. They have launched a new “complete the look”, which is a visual search tool that will recommend you with relevant products in the fashion and home decor category. An excellent time for all the brands out there to take advantage of this feature.

• Use personal CTA features like drop-down, shop now, sign up, etc., on Facebook to actively drive customers to click & boost potential sales.

Facebook is an excellent platform for ads, as it is the largest social media network. If you target the advertisements correctly on Facebook, it can yield great results for your eCommerce store. Moreover, you can also use their shop feature on Facebook to customize the look of your virtual storefront with personalized fonts & colours.  Brands should not sleep on this opportunity, in case you are, then you are missing out on good opportunities to cash in if you are not running Facebook ads for your store. 

Ways Social Media Supports Organic Search Marketing

1) Create Link Opportunities

This method is passive, and the challenge lies with the recipient rather than the implementation. It is reliant on a third party acting without your direct involvement. Opportunities are created by developing a standard operating procedure to ensure that each new piece of content passes through the sharing plan or developing a social media marketing strategy to promote your material.

2) Increase Brand Awareness and Positive Mentions

According to google's search quality guideline, human raters do consider brand references when evaluating a website's credibility. Seo and Social media have a big impact on how people see your brand. Brands that have a strong social media presence and interact with their customers directly find a significant improvement in overall growth and help in engagement.

3) Social Can Help You Improve SEO Ranking Signals

Social media for SEO is believed to aid SEO by assisting in improving indicators that impact rankings. More traffic to your search-optimised sites is driven by the impact of social media on SEO social media, which improves social media exposure and engagement.

4) Social Media Helps You Identify the Audience for Your SEO Content

Social listening is one of the aspects that brands consider for improvement, which is willing to read through customers' online conversations. Reading these debates can help you focus on specific topics that consumers are talking about, highlighting what a specific type of audience wants from a product. When you increase your social listening, specific details will be revealed.

5)  Establish Authority

You establish yourself as an industry expert over time if you consistently produce high-quality content which is one of the most significant benefits of content marketing. People start to believe in the information you supply, and that belief spreads to the entire brand. Google's evaluation of your website authority also makes a significant impact on search ranking performance and SEO social media marketing

6) Social Media Boost Content Lifespan and Engagement

Making sure your content is interesting is one of the most important steps. Following that, your social media SEO plan must start in assist getting that content in front of your target audience. With the correct content and a solid social media marketing approach, you can substantially increase your material's reach and lifespan.

Transforming e-commerce

Thirty years ago, if someone said they are opening a business, it was natural to assume that they will either purchase or rent a space, set up phone service, rent some computers, and work on attracting customers. The internet changed all that, though, and now one doesn't even have to leave their couch to start a business. Also, if one has an office space, an online presence is much essential nowadays as that makes it easy for customers to get information about the business or place orders.  However, just having an e-commerce platform isn't enough anymore. Nowadays, it is imperative for companies to double-down on digital transformation & focus on new customer experiences. Talking about e-commerce in India, the country has the second-largest Internet base, with the number of Internet users exceeding 450 million. Of these, around 70 million people are estimated to have online experience currently, which makes them comfortable with engaging in e-commerce. As more people join the Internet economy, the E-commerce market size is predicted to surpass 200 billion USD by 2022. Digital transformation is changing the way a business interacts with its customers and how they provide their customers with a consistent experience whenever and wherever they need it. Let's look at some of the e-commerce trends: E-Trends Alert

• As consumers are digitally engaging with brands more and more, this will bring a different set of expectations & opportunities to build trust and relevance.
• AI tools such as recommendation engines & hyper-personalisation to visual search will be used to generate leads on e-commerce sites. 
• Consumers will turn to marketplaces for purchases as they offer an attractive assortment, competitive & ease of purchasing through a trusted facilitator.

Beyond technology, digital transformation revolves around the customers; how a brand reaches them, speaks to them and finally, how a brand makes customers lives more manageable as one thing is quite clear that customers are in the driver seat. Let's see how a brand can transform itself to take the customer experience to a whole another level: Experience-led transformation  Boost Visualisation With digital transformation, consumers have come to expect access to just about any kind of information at any time. Not only that, but they've become very visual. Using exceptional product visualisation allows brands to quickly and effortlessly show off their products so consumers can look at the details without necessarily having to read about them. Brands should leverage tools that allow people to zoom in, spin the product for a 360° view in order to boost customer experience. Automate with Chatbots Chatbots may be the first point of contact that can make or break the customer experience. These friendly little bots make it easy to communicate with customers in a very human manner and, in turn, offer a personalised experience that can significantly influence purchases. Brands can use chatbots to provide a customised experience that can substantially influence purchase while providing instant up-selling options.  Elevate the experience with Mobile-friendly applications Google found out that 73% of consumers will leave an unfriendly mobile site to use a site designed for mobile use. Brands should design mobile-friendly applications so that customers can easily scroll, read, and purchase via website.  Optimising e-efforts  User-Generated Content Nothing sells a product better than a satisfied customer. User-generated content provides hands-on experience from past customers who are living in and using the brand’s products. Brands should promote user-generated content that showcases hands-on experience in the form of testimonials & reviews. Leverage Re-targeting Retargeting is crucial to the success of any e-commerce site. It allows brands to follow customers while they are online and keep them aware of the brand's products and services. Once they visit a brand's site, the ads can show them what they are missing with a quick link back to where they can purchase the items. Recover Cart Abandonment Cart abandonment is most likely to occur when a customer gets to check out and finds the delivery options do not suit their needs. One of the most effective ways to address cart abandonment is to introduce an email recovery strategy. When someone abandons a cart, brands can send a series of emails encouraging customers to complete their transactions.  Keeping up with the pace of technological advancement is a challenge for companies to be it of any size. Although technology creates a plethora of business opportunities, it also creates skills gaps. So how can employers combat this skills gap while retaining their current workforce? Let's look at it: Bridging the skill gap with upskilling or reskilling  

• One of the critical cornerstones of the upskilling and reskilling process is to keep up with the pace of digital transformation and stay ahead of the curve.
• Converting 'panic into productive & proactive'. For instance, we at #ARM Worldwide took the opportunity of lockdown to adapt to the normal by upskilling with over 400 certifications across modules.
• Brands should prepare themselves and their employees for the future by providing innovation-driven solutions through learnings from Amazon AMS, IBM Design Thinking, Google AdWords & Analytics certifications. 
• Redesign the brand's thinking & strategies at a user-centric level to match the changing consumer behaviour. Keep in mind that learning and self-improvement is a continuous process and must be followed on a daily basis.

Lastly remember, clarity of purpose is essential. Before diving into a digital e-commerce transformation, analyse the business and take into account priorities and vision for the future. Only by having a deep understanding of the business's needs, one can successfully implement their goals within a reasonable timeframe and budget. Read More Download the PDF version

AI revolution in digital space

The age of AI 

• By 2023, 40% of infrastructure & operation teams will use AI-augmented automation, resulting in higher productivity with greater agility & scalability.
• Usage of the chatbot to grow at a CAGR of 29.7% probing bots as the future of customer support. 
• In the past two years, there has been an 186% increase in AI adoption as there is a shift to source & document customer data through AI.

Leaping forward with AI 

• Microsoft with FedEx, to apply the power of Azure in building new commerce experiences that will transform logistics for customers.
• Airtel to leverage AI, speech-to-text and voice applied sciences to gather real-time analytics and transform the customer experience.
• To expedite SMEs growth, Facebook launched a ‘virtual shopping mall’ powered by AI, to embellish distinct customer experiences.

When AI meets social 

• Facebook leverages AI to judge search patterns, buying patterns & complete online presence.
• Instagram introduced 'DeepText AI' a smart algorithm that removes spam or anything against the community guidelines.
• ‘'PinSage', a deep learning algorithm is based on neural networking in which every image on Pinterest is attached based on a theme.

AI in the digital race

• AI is enabling marketers to get a closer look at audience preferences and target the ads and content in a better way. 
• AI tools help track and analyze the move of users in the digital landscape by tracking user engagement.
• AI technology can use complex algorithms to help craft personalized emails to subscribers. 

Your experience, enhanced Three ways how marketers can leverage AI to enhance customer experience. 

• AI-powered tools help in ensuring personalization for customers, which will make them keep coming back for more.
• With brilliant speed, AI-enabled tools can analyze content performance and drive traffic to ensure maximum conversion.
• AI tools can help optimise and conclude the channels of communication for brands to increase engagement with customers. 

That’s so social! Social media is an ever-changing medium. Whether it’s keeping track of new developments and improvements on various social media platforms or adopting new social media strategies and evolving statistics and data, digital marketers and business owners need to keep themselves well-updated and educated at all times. Here is a list of the top social media updates for the month of May:

1. Facebook launches the most human-like chatbot Facebook creates its own chatbot called Blender, which blends a diverse set of human conversational skills like empathy, knowledge and personality together in one system. It has been brought to the market using a new chatbot recipe of improved decoding techniques and novel blending of skills.
2. Instagram works on “Shops from Facebook” update Instagram is processing “Shops from Facebook” feature which will suggest products to its users according to their previous search across various online websites. They will use the data available across Facebook products, including Instagram, to make personalized recommendations to its users.
3. TikTok unveils new in-app reporting feature TikTok users can report misinformation with this new in-app feature - Misleading Information, which will enable users to distinguish between facts and false content. TikTok has given a sub-category within the feature named “COVID-19 information” where any information related to COVID-19 can be reported.
4. Facebook adds gift cards and donation tools Facebook has expanded its Community Help feature to make it easier for people to support local businesses and nonprofit organizations. Users will be able to find gift cards and vouchers to support local businesses, donate to local nonprofit fundraisers, sign up to become a blood donor and find local job opportunities.
5. LinkedIn releases new tools for Virtual Interviews LinkedIn is introducing 2 new features - a video introduction tool and AI-powered feedback tool, which will help people in preparing for some of the most common questions that are asked in the screening process, with access to quality videos and tips by experts and hiring managers on how to answer the most common interview questions.
6. Bringing back Live With on Facebook With more people turning to live video to connect with their community during COVID-19, Facebook brought back its ‘Live With” feature that lets hosts choose a guest to go Live With during their mobile live broadcasts – either from their Page or profile. With this feature, one can bring on a guest speaker, interview an expert, or perform with a fellow artist, among other cases.
7. Twitter rolls out changes to threaded conversations Twitter introduces a new layout for replies that will use lines and indentations to make it easier for the users to understand who they’re replying to and how the conversation is flowing. It will also test putting engagement actions - likes, retweets and reply icons, behind an extra tap to make replies to conversations easier to follow.
8. Facebook reveals its Board members for content Facebook announced the first members of oversight board who will be empowered to make binding decisions about what content must be allowed or removed on both Facebook and Instagram. They will also take cognizance of the disputes about posts, pages, profiles, groups and even ads on Facebook.

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