Digital marketing is the main ingredient of today’s modern marketing world that makes use of the internet and we can promote anything on internet from our product to our view points, everything can be shared across and become viral. As technology grows ways of working also changed. People and companies are adopting modern ways to grow their profiles, businesses, companies and social existence. All of this started in 1990s or we can say in the late 20s when companies started to advertise their products through the internet. Back in those days, it was a unique attempt also rare one to promote anything through the internet and instead of a hand full of people who were able to see TV or read newspapers so you can promote your product in the whole world. Daily Times is covering an exclusive part of digital marketing for its reader and we searched in the market and met digital change maker ‘Haris Sial’.
Please tell us something about yourself.
I hailed from a small town of Punjab, moved to Lahore in 2005 to pursue a career in media and showbiz. Like every small towner, I was instantly rejected by the media market of the city. An uneducated boy with no money to grease the palms had to work like maniacs for free to get my name out in the market. I worked as a free-lancer, even at times without any constant earning stream, for many singers and artists. I strived and struggled over the years, working tirelessly to get a name for myself. I am currently running a business of content creation which has active contracts with a number of national and international companies.
‘These days, the trend of getting noticed by digital audience is on the rise. During COVID lockdown companies invested a lot on digital campaigns to increase their visibility before audience’
What is digital marketing about?
These days, the trend of getting noticed by digital audience is on the rise. During COVID lockdown companies invested a lot on digital campaigns to increase their visibility before audience. The huge giant businesses are following the trend and started to adopt it for advertisements and promotions. Companies want their product to be promoted in that latest way and started to hire agencies and companies. As with simple example if I explain this in detail you can consider that I have a product and want to promote it instantly. I have two choices which includes digital way and the other one is old fashion way. Now let’s say if I promote my product on TV channels, newspapers, banners, flyers, etc only a hand full of people will come to know about my product and for all of this I have to pay a huge amount to channels, papers, to the printing press for flyers brochures, etc. but if I use the digital way, I can target to whole number of people according to their age group and interest that is related to my product and I also have the liberty to target the audience in different countries as well. In this process a company can set expenses on their advertisement and promotion according to their preferences. They don’t have to pay bulks of bills to people at less cost to target huge number of people showing interest in their products and they don’t have to wait quite long.
Since it’s a digital arena how can people can get benefit by spending more on digital?
Digital marketing is not a small field it’s like a tree having lots of branches: Search engine optimization (SEO): it is used to improve the visibility of business websites and brand-related content according to the behaviour of the customer. Search engine marketing (SEM): It includes paid ads that you can see on search engine pages. Social media marketing: Its like the creation of content and sharing it on social media for means of branding and marketing. Content marketing: Its main theme is to target a specific audience like whatever is being done in this e,g creation of content, publishing, and distribution. Target is to generate sales and gain clients. Not only social media is part of digital marketing it also includes email, videos, articles, Influencer / Affiliate Marketing, Viral Marketing.