T

he coronavirus has hit the world since December 2019. It was first seen at Wuhan, China, and then spread brust at a speed of flash throughout the world. The countries were not ready to cope up with the deadly virus as it was very sudden and unpredicted. The virus took many lives as there was no medication for the virus when it first hit the world.

Governments and the health organizations were clueless about how to stop the communicable disease from spreading. WHO (World Health Organization) came up with the idea of social distancing and isolation to stop the spread of the virus. It suggested Lockdowns in the major hot spot nations and cities first. Soon the governments followed the instructions from WHO and imposed nationwide lockdowns.

The Lockdown restricted the businesses, industries and services of all kinds to function. The government ordered people to stay and work from their homes. Industries and service sectors were shut. Businesses started to face crisis due to the lockdown. World economy drooped, as production and distribution stopped due to the lockdown. The countries sealed their borders and issued travel restrictions.

This new challenge gave rise to the new ways to live a regular life and to do business. People and businesses adopted the digital medias to regulate and fulfill their needs. Businesses started to focus on optimizing their online presence in social media and other digital platforms.

The blooming digital world has influenced our country Nepal too. Businesses have shaped new modules and are focusing on increasing their presence online on digital and social media platforms. From schools/colleges to restaurants, they have started maintaining their online presence and are serving their purposes online. Manufacturing businesses are also focusing in marketing their products online, digitally. Digital marketing has been there in the market for quite a few years already. But, this swift change in marketing platform over the last one and a half years shows the growth of digital marketing.

The lockdown has limited people to their houses. Offices closed, schools/colleges closed, travels and tourism closed and the restrictions on travel and movement have allowed people to engage more on digital/social medias. This has increased the prospects of reaching more possible leads to businesses and Digital platform has been serving the purpose of an interface between businesses and clients, to connect them and serve the needs of both mutually.

Some of the reasons highlighting the importance of digital marketing during lockdown;

The Importance of Digital Marketing during Lockdown in Nepal

Let the statistics speak itself:

This report is a survey analysis conducted by, Hootsuite and summarizes the importance and growth of digital marketing and social media usage due to Covid-19 and lockdown, globally.
Report source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-global-overview-report

The above survey by Hootsuite clearly show how social media and digital platforms users have increased during the Lockdown period. That is why businesses stood up to make their strong presence online and support branding as Digital marketing is relatively cheaper and cost effective with immediate results and easy monitoring on statistics, i.e. Analytics, then other forms of marketing.

There are certain advantages of digital marketing over any other form of marketing, and they are;

  • ✔ When you are marketing your product/ service using digital marketing, the digital platforms segment the audience making it easier to make an specific approach. e.g. when running Facebook ads, you can easily target a region/ demography across the globe.
  • ✔ Cost efficiency is another merit of digital marketing. It generates better ROI than traditional marketing approaches. Studies say that digital marketing is 62% cheaper and generates 3 times more leads than Billboards, radio and TV advertisements.
  • ✔ Digital marketing helps you reach more targeted audiences than radio, TV and magazines. Though they have large audiences, it doesn’t ensure lead generation. Reaching a specific target and putting more efforts there ensures better results.
  • ✔ SEO, a digital marketing technique helps you reach audiences who search products for buying intent.
  • ✔ No other form of marketing is as engaging as digital marketing. It allows both ways of interaction of clients and business even before they meet each other.
  • ✔ Longevity, SEO, video contents, blogs, social media posts, email marketing have a longer presence in the platform than radio, television, magazine and billboard ads.
  • ✔ Digital marketing allows you to track results and measure customer engagement which no other marketing approach allows.

Due to these many up merits of digital marketing, it has been popular since the last decade worldwide. This new marketing approach had influenced Nepal a few years early but the lockdown made it a Star.

If it wasn’t for lockdown, digital marketing may not have been so popular as of today. This lockdown has played a vital role in establishing digital marketing as they must go for a choice of marketing approach. The growing number of mobile users and internet users, businesses in Nepal are able to reach to their targeted customers easily and cost effectively. The government has encouraged digitalization with open arms. This is where the future of marketing lies.