The Influence of Digital Marketing on Consumer Behavior

The development of digital marketing has immensely altered the marketing scene. It has given all organisations a chance to market and advertise their brand on a global platform, majorly growing their possible target audience.

This further digitisation of the marketing scene has also had an effect on how consumers interact and associate with the different available organisations and brands.

How digital marketing influences consumer behavior:

Consumers never make a purchase prior to conducting online research

Consumers now have the ability to collect all the research they could possibly need, as well as compare brands before making an informed decision followed by a fitting purchase.

The consumer’s decision regarding which product to purchase is heavily impacted by all the information they find while researching about the product. This makes it absolutely crucial for brands and businesses to have a strong online presence, as this is what consumers judge them on. A brand’s online presence can communicate its message more clearly and accurately considering it’s the business who controls the information placed online.

This impacts consumer behaviour since today, brand presence is a combination of associations, such as values, products and ideals, made by consumers after they have interacted with your business. An online presence is also a means to communicate directly with costumers, this translates to a one-on-one communication medium with both happy and dissatisfied customers.

Nowadays, we can see a very steep decline in print advertising. It is estimated that the print advertising revenue from newspapers will decrease to 5.3 billion dollars by 2024 in comparison to the estimated 25.20 billion dollar revenue it procured in 2012.

This makes an online presence crucial as it is the first point of communication between a brand a customer, a brand’s response to both praise and criticism is done through digital platforms, making a brand’s digital presence crucial to its survival.

The powerful tool of digital word-of-mouth

A dependable way to get recommendations is through digital word-of-mouth, also called influencer marketing. Digital word-of-mouth, also known as influencer marketing is a dependable method of recommendation.

Consumers today seek recommendations from peers or look for endorsements from their role models. In addition to customer reviews, influencer marketing, testimonials, and comments, other types of recommendations can also assist brands in establishing trust with consumers. Customers are more likely to trust a brand if it has a good digital word of mouth.

Businesses have also been able to maintain a presence online through this. Word-of-mouth can have a huge impact on any brand’s sales. Furthermore, it is safe to assume that digital marketing has placed consumers in control.

Unreliable clientele loyalty

Prior to the digitisation of the marketing world, customers were more prone to staying partial to their brand of choice. They chose to stick to the brand they are already familiar with, this was a result of low exposure to the different available products on the market. Today, customers actively search for different products that cost the same but provide them with increased value.

Customers now feel less hesitation when replacing their go-to brands with brand new ones, this is because customers are now able to judge a product based on a range of different criteria including sales and discounts, value, and customer support. Since customers are able to research everything they need to know, if they find a better deal they are more likely to take it.

Consumers exhibit a lower level of patience

Nowadays, consumers demand fast responses to their questions and concerns. Digital marketing makes this possible. You can easily share customer queries and thoughts on social media for a large audience. Positive and negative customer reviews greatly influence consumers.

By empowering customers and giving them tailored experiences, digital marketing allows brands to establish transparent and stronger relationships with them. Consequently, digital marketing is a strong motivator for consumers.

Impulse buying is driven by digital marketing

Marketing through digital media allows brands to promote their products at the right time and in the right place where consumers are most likely to make spontaneous or impulsive purchases. Deals, discounts, and offers from brands are used to entice customers to buy their products.

It’s highly unlikely to happen in an offline setting, but it can be used by marketers as a marketing tactic.

Provides consumers with a more customized shopping experience

Digital marketing allows consumers to tailor their shopping experiences. It has been observed that customers prefer instant gratification to researching new products. A brand’s digital content can be crafted and modified to offer tailored shopping experiences. This will have a significant impact on consumer purchases.

https://www.statista.com/chart/20244/estimated-print-advertising-revenue-in-the-united-states/

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