No arena of the marketing world has changed faster than digital marketing and credit goes to CORONA-19 pandemic. As Technology is changing our world at an astonishing pace, it becomes difficult to keep up with different new trends in the industry. With the arrival of the pandemic, people started spending more time online than ever before and enhanced their online presence widening the online business opportunity promising a bright future for digital marketing agencies.

With the advent of COVID-19, people around the world confined to their homes for long periods followed by the norms of social distancing which resulted in permanent behaviour change of the consumers causing a great shift in the consumption pattern of information, goods and services. More the people interact with the technologies more enjoyed the experience, making it a regular part of their lives irrespective of pandemic or no pandemic.

Digital Marketing and Advertising Agencies need to Get off the cutting edge and leap to the bleeding edge to make exciting changes and lead the Marketing profession. It’s clear that digital marketing is evolving to keep pace with new technological innovations and changing consumer preferences, such as the expectation for ads and content to be increasingly personalized and relevant to the individual.

The pandemic has compelled businesses also to shift online to showcase their products and services which have prompted brands to create content that is contextual and relevant to garner larger mindshare from their customer base. Marketing agencies will have to continue to innovate and develop whether that’s investing in graphic designers or taking advantage of tech innovations that prioritize user experience to derive success. We need to remove all barriers to ensure their marketing efforts are successful in this Covid world.

Digital marketing has become a solution as well as a means to satisfy needs as basic as food, but also contact with friends and family, entertainment and acquisition of information, goods and services normally accessed physically and in person. However, the arrival of lockdown has dramatically increased the size, availability and profile of the digital audience and has changed their behaviours, expectations, consumption of content and the way they expect to be interacted with as customers.

With more consumers online than ever before, agencies can’t afford to slack. These agencies realized they could do away with expensive offices and saving on fixed costs, utilize the freelance economy to provide exceptional work for clients as needed. Technology has made this a seamless process, allowing agencies to get highly specialist work done without having to maintain full-time employees.

Last but not the least, COVID-19 might not completely change the future of digital marketing agencies, but it has supercharged existing trends. Marketing agencies have been successful at adapting to these changes during the pandemic, but they need to continue to do so even after the pandemic is gone.

It is essential to understand that both consumers and providers have changed their behaviours and interacting accordingly as per the new norms. There may be a greater demand for digital marketing going forward, but this will be balanced out by greater competition and to stand out, one will have to develop a strong brand and invest in business flexibility that works better with clients.

Undoubtedly, the future is bright for digital marketing agencies, but as ever, only for those that are able to convert pandemic to an opportunity and adapt accordingly.

(Author: Shreesh Pandey, Founder &CEO of MSP India Corporation, a Marketing and Advertising Solution Network)