State of Online Marketing in India 2021 | Digital2021

  • Our 10th annual state of online marketing in India research study is here. Our research analysts have reached out to digital marketing and digital transformation experts for their views on the hugely disrupted 2020 with no thanks to coronavirus but more importantly what’s in store for 2021.

    Please find out what 250+ CMOs/marketing leaders have shared for what’s in store for 2021. Be it digital transformation, budgets, teams, skills, social media, roi, attribution, influencer marketing, marketing automation, content marketing, video marketing, programmatic this 96 page report, our proud 10th annual, captures the breadth and depth of marketing 2021 like no other research insights for #DigitalIndia. You can download the report by clicking on the link.

 

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Digital 2021 The New Normal. Release Dec 2020.

Our 10th annual state of online marketing in India research project is underway. Our research analysts are reaching out to digital marketing and digital transformation experts for their views on the hugely disrupted 2020 with no thanks to coronavirus but more importantly what’s in store for 2021. We plan to share this research report with the India marketer community by December 2020. Sign up on the email subscription box for us to alert you when this report is released.

For our latest Annual Digital Marketing Report 2019. Click here.

Digital Dividend

Highlights

  1. Customer Acquisition and Engagement: Customer acquisition remains the primary marketing goal for (70%) India Marketers in 2018. Social Media updates (50%) and Email marketing (31%) were deemed the most engaging channels.
  2. Top Marketing Activities for 2018: (69%) B2B marketers vote website based marketing as their primary e-marketing activity, while for (76%) B2C marketers Social Media marketing remains the most preferred form of digital marketing.
  3. Digital Channel delivering the Best ROI: Email Marketing (28%) was deemed the best performing digital marketing channel guaranteeing the highest ROI for each 1 rupee invested, followed closely by Paid Search (24%).
  4. Calculating ROI: The Last click (24%) and the First click (20%) attribution models are the most widely used attribution models by India Marketers. Technology limitations (54%) followed by lack of knowledge (35%) are the biggest challenges while performing attribution.
  5. Content Marketing: (70%) India Marketers use content marketing as an effective medium to get more visibility to the brand while (54%) leverage it to engage newer audiences. Social Media updates (70%) and Blogs & Newsletters (66%) were the most popular form of content deployment initiatives.
  6. Increase in Digital Marketing investment in 2018: Eying a massive opportunity in Social channels, (64%) of India Marketers are willing to allocate a higher budget share to Social Media Marketing while (55%) intend to increase their spend on the Website development/Update in the coming year.
  7. Outlook for Future Technologies: Cross Channel automation platforms , Big Data analysis and Chatbots are the three most promising marketing technologies for the India Marketer in 2018.
  8. Challenges for 2018: Justifying revenue impact of high Social Media spends and proving RoI on Digital Marketing are the top challenges for the India Marketer in the coming year.

Digital India 2017: Marketing Trends & Forecast

Highlights

  1. Customer Acquisition and Engagement: Customer Acquisition is the primary marketing goal to be carried out in 2017 for a majority of India Marketers (63%). Social Media and Email delivered maximum customer engagement.
  2. Top Marketing Activities for 2017: Social Media Marketing (66%) tops the list of marketing activities being planned for 2017, followed closely by Email Marketing (56%) & Search Marketing (54%).
  3. Digital Marketing Investment and Budget: About 19% of marketing budget was allocated to Online Marketing activities by India Marketers. A quarter of India Marketers plan to increase their investment in Digital marketing activities by more than 21% in 2017.
  4. Digital Channel Delivering the Best ROI: Email Marketing (44%) was the best performing digital channel that delivered maximum ROI for each 1 rupee invested. This was followed closely by Facebook (36%).

Digital India: State of Online Marketing in India 2016

Highlights

  1. Customer Acquisition: Customer Acquisition is the primary focus for marketing activities to be carried out in 2016 for majority (58%) of India Marketers.
  2. For 50% India Marketers, e-Marketing revenue contribution is above 10%: 85% of the Marketers are tracking revenues generated through e-Marketing activities for their business. 50% of Respondents report that e-Marketing activities are contributing more than 10% of share of their revenues.
  3. Integrated Campaigns increase Conversion Rates: 80% of India Marketers believe that integrated campaigns (Email, Social and Mobile) can result in moderate to significant increase in conversion rates.
  4. Maximum Customer Engagement is achieved through Social Media updates: Social Media updates was the top choice for achieving maximum customer engagement (46%) followed by email campaigns (28%).
  5. Top Marketing Activities for 2016: Social Media (66%) tops the list of marketing activities being planned for 2016. Email marketing is voted by 53% of India Marketers. More than 50% of the Marketers are planning to increase investment in Marketing activities.
  6. Online Budget for Email Marketing: 45% of India Consumers respond positively to email offers (which is 3x of US Consumer). For 2016, we see a jump of almost 50% of India Marketers who will be increasing their investments by 31%-50% in Email Channel.
  7. Influences of Social Media on Email Marketing: In 2016, India Marketers are expecting a considerable impact of Social Media on Email Programs. The acceleration in growth of subscribers is expected by 31% of marketers, a 500% increase from 2015.
  8. Email Marketing Segmentation Techniques: India Marketers show an increasing preference for Purchase History to be axis for Email Marketing Segmentation.

Annual e-Marketing Outlook 2015

Highlights

  1. Customer Acquisition still remains the primary marketing goal for all marketers. However, we see an increase in votes for Customer Retention that saw an 80% increase since 2011. On the contrary, Brand Awareness dropped by 32% in 2015, despite a steady growth from 2011 to 2014.
  2. The impact of integrated campaigns increased by 84% from 31% in 2011 to 57% in 2015. With 54% Travel Marketers and 69% BFSI Marketers leveraging the most from these types of campaigns.
  3. Surprisingly, for 72% India Marketers ‘Websites’ is the primary e-Marketing activity in 2014. However for Retail & e-Commerce and Travel sector the primary e-Marketing activity is ‘Email Marketing’.
  4. Content Marketing is earning its place with India Marketers. 61% marketers believe ‘Blogs and Newsletter’ is the most effective content marketing tool. However for Education (63%), Retail & e-Commerce (71%) and Travel (55%) sectors, Social Media acts like a more robust tool for content marketing.
  5. ‘Reaching out to target audiences’ is the biggest Email Marketing challenge India Marketers faced in 2014, with 51% marketers agreeing to this statement. However, 60% of BFSI factors believe ‘inadequate segmentation’ was a bigger issue for them.
  6. ‘Frequency/volumes of sending’ is the most important factor that will impact Inbox Deliverability in 2015, replacing ‘content’ as the primary factor since 2011. ‘Sender Reputation’ is a growing concern for marketers, with 66% increase the last 5 years (36% in 2015 vs 21% in 2011).
  7. 100% of large companies (5000+ crores turnover) find Behavioural Targeting effective and the number of retail marketers that think Behavioural Targeting has brought significant change to their campaigns have increased by 24% (77% in 2015 vs 62% in 2014).
  8. 33% India Marketers think that over 50% of emails are viewed on mobile devices, seeing a YoY growth of 25%. BFSI sector is on the forefront with 39% BFSI Marketers’ reporting the same.
For our latest e-Travel Marketing India 2015 Report. Click here.

Annual e-Marketing Outlook 2014

Highlights

  1. For the fourth successive year, Customer Acquisition remains the top choice as the primary marketing goal for marketers in India with 51% of the respondents choosing this option over customer retention or brand awareness.
  2.  Social Media updates and Email Campaigns continue to dominate the minds of marketers in India (both at 35%) when it comes to preferred channels of customer engagement. While mail had significantly dropped last year (29% in 2013 vs. 39% in 2012), it now seems to be back in favour with a 21% growth in the number of marketers choosing it for 2013-2014.
  3.  The number of marketers that don’t yet believe in engagement via smartphones, apps or email on the go has decreased by about 31% since last year. At the same time, 45% of the marketers surveyed said that they believe in mobile devices as an important aspect of customer engagement and are adapting their strategies to leverage it better. 
  4. For 29% of the companies surveyed, e-Marketing currently contributes between 11% to 30% of their total sales revenue while an additional 19% chose the ‘31% to 50%’ option for the same. Out of these, 57% indicated that they plan to increase their e-Marketing budgets again in 2014 by 21% to 50%.
  5. 65% of the marketers believe that Social Media integration in Emails can lead to increase in brand awareness and reputation. At the same time, 44% think it helps in extending the reach of their Email content to new markets and 24% said it helps in generating more qualities leads.
  6. 47% of the respondents shared that they think that between a quarter to half of all their Email marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014. A further 25% were even more confident and chose the 50% to 75% option while 22% of the marketers were cautious and said that less than 25% of all Email Marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014.
  7.  According to marketers in India, Content (at 50%), Frequency/Volume of sending (at 46%) and Black Listing/Sender Reputation (at 34%) are the top three factors impacting inbox deliverability rates for Email campaigns.

Annual India e-Marketing Research

Highlights

  1. 86% of top Indian marketers confirmed their use of digital channel as the most vital client engagement platform.
  2. Overall the use of e-Marketing platform in 2010 was focused on sending promotional communications (62%) and newsletters (52%).
  3. Overall the use of e-Marketing platform in 2010 was focused on sending promotional communications (62%) and newsletters (52%).
  4. 72% of leading marketers have reported of their plans to increase investments in e-Marketing platform in 2011.
  5. Customer acquisitions remain to be the prime goal of Indian marketers (59%).
  6. Overall the responsibility of email delivery is fairly distributed between IT team (22%), Marketing group (22%), partnership between IT group and marketing team (26%) and ESPs (19%).
  7. The integration of email and SMS will result in a significant increase in the return on campaign investments.

Gearing Up For Growth – India e-Marketing Outlook 2012

Highlights

  1. Remarkable increase (18%) in the number of India marketers who see the importance of integrating email and social media campaigns in 2012. 61.3% of our respondents believe integrating emails and social media is extremely important for achieving higher impact and e-Marketing success.
  2. A greater number of companies intend to use email and SMS for e-Marketing in 2012. Respondents in the two successive years have indicated maximum use of emails and SMS for Sales and Event Promotions.
  3. Trends indicate an increase in the budgets allocated towards e-Marketing. Social media initiatives are gaining momentum and Email continues to be the most effective marketing channel. Social Media (68.8%) and Email Marketing (53.1%) emerge as the top 2 online marketing initiatives that will see an increase in marketing investments in 2012, as compared to 2011.
  4. Satisfaction level on effectiveness of email/SMS for meeting marketing objectives/goal has grown by 20% over the last year.
  5. There has been a major shift in the perception of behavioral targeting. For 2012 more India marketers share that this is paramount in meeting email marketing targets.
  6. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has limited the number of SMS to 200 per day per SIM. As a result of this cap on SMS approximately 35.3% of our respondents plan to increase their budgets towards email marketing by more than 11% in 2012.
  7. Our research revealed that the majority of marketers (36%) wanted a code of conduct for Indian marketers by an industry body like IAMAI while 31.5% of participants who believe stronger anti-spam laws in India like CAN-SPAM would curb the SPAM menace.

Spark The Surge – India e-Marketing Outlook 2013

Highlights

  1. For the third year running, customer acquisition is the primary goal for marketing initiatives with more than 50% of Indian marketers opting for it over customer retention or brand awareness.
  2. More than half the marketers who are planning to acquire new customers in 2013 will focus on Email Marketing to achieve their goal – whereas for increasing brand awareness nearly 32% of Indian marketers will rely on Social Media, Videos or Webcasts.
  3. Social media continues to surge in 2012-2013 with 65% of the respondents willing to provide an investment boost to the channel as opposed to 37% last year. This is despite the fact that marketers are still getting more customer engagement from email marketing than social media; 39% in 2011 vs. 36% in 2012.
  4. Three quarters of all marketers surveyed believe that in 2013, up to 50% of all Email Marketing messages will be viewed on mobile phones. A majority of them (92%) are actively creating Mobile Marketing strategies to adapt to the change.
  5. For 68% of the companies represented in the survey, Email marketing contributes up to 30% towards the overall sales revenue. Additionally, close to 61% the companies will give their Email/Mobile Marketing budgets a boost of 5%-20% for the year 2013.
  6. Up to 94% of Indian marketers are planning to adopt one or the other segmentation technique in their upcoming e-Marketing campaigns in 2013. Segmentation using interest based preferences was the top choice with a third of the respondents opting for it.
  7. Almost 50% of the respondents feel that increasing Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and Conversion-Rate (CR) is the biggest challenge that they face in email marketing. Last year the biggest challenge was to prevent emails from going into the junk folder.
  8. More than half the companies doing e-Marketing campaigns in India rely on professional ESPs (like Octane) to ensure that their emails reach the inbox. Meanwhile, our findings also indicate almost a 50% drop in the number of marketers who feel that Email deliverability is out of their control (15% in 2012 survey to 7.80% in 2013 survey).

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