We ask the figures in the relevant industries about the significance of digital marketing and learn about their perspective and take on digital marketing in the post-COVID world
With the information age upon us, with the internet ever-present in our lives, no one can ignore the significance of the internet in our daily lives. And with COVID-19 hitting global tourism for two years, the digital aspect of our lives has been given even more importance. So we ask the figures in the travel and trade industry about the significance of digital marketing and learn about their perspective and take on digital marketing in the post-COVID world.
Q: How do you integrate digital marketing into your business?
“With the 21st century being a digital one with one in three human beings having a cellphone, I would say that Digital Marketing plays a significant role and a major game-changer in the platform for any business.
We have used this to our advantage by using social media to reach our target clients, gain an audience through our dynamic and interconnected website, and focus on being the OTA platform to create more dynamism for our digital presence. Also, the search engine optimization (SEO) ranking is a major criterion we use to promote our organization.”
-Kevin Ma, General Manager of The Malla Hotel
“ With Beanstalk being a digital marketing company, we however use a multi-faceted approach to promote any business or company. We start building the digital presence of companies by using websites and social media such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Gain more recognition by listing the business in Google businesses and Maps for people to search and come across our businesses. We process the initial info by early users and consumers of our marketing to find out their preferences and attune our ads to reach our intended audience. In the backend, we use a mix of SEO strategy, social media marketing (SMM), content marketing, influencer marketing and paid digital marketing to promote our business in the online space.”
- Subodh Thapa, Head of Business Development and Strategy, Beanstalk Asia Nepal
Q: In your opinion, what are some pros and cons of digital marketing?
“I would say that there are more pros than cons in digital marketing. Digital Marketing helps you build and retain the attention of interested consumers and make rapport and reputation with the consumer base and remain in contact with them. Also with the technical and such precise and accurate information that comes from Digital Marketing, it helps brands and companies to specifically target consumers based on many criteria such as intent, location, spending amount, gender, age groups and so much more. And with this data, people can get instant feedback and results and can alter and fine-tune their advertisement to better cater to the targeted audience and interested people.
But it can also be a double-edged sword. With digital marketing everything will be on the net; the good, the bad and the ugly. Anyone in the matter of digital marketing needs to be vigilant of what’s the discussion of their brand and promotion and needs highly competitive and fast-responding staff to manage and handle the ‘on-line brand’ presence.”
- Subodh Thapa, Head of Business Development and Strategy, Beanstalk Asia Nepal
“I would like to believe that with any topic or aspect that there will always be positives and negatives. Sharing my perspective on the matter, I would think the main advantage which causes much of the appeal of digital marketing is the instant nature of marketing to the consumers. You can make an ad in digital marketing and then after you post it out, it’s reachable to anyone in seconds. This is the main potential of digital marketing, that any potential consumer of your product or service is just seconds away from discovering you.
But this is also the main negative of advertising. Unless you spend time and effort into making the digital marketing appealing to the consumer, it can cause rampant ads, unusable interfaces on the internet due to ad-spamming and pop-ups and cause detriment to our brand.
-Kevin Ma, General Manager of The Malla Hotel
Q: How do you think that digital marketing in Nepal has been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
“Due to COVID-19, I think that Digital Marketing has become the mainstay of marketing and branding tools available to organizations and tech-savvy organizations that had already invested in Digital Marketing are reaping the benefits as traditional marketing methods were rendered ineffective by social and physical distancing protocols in COVID-19.”
-Subodh Thapa, Head of Business Development and Strategy, Beanstalk Asia Nepal
“I would say that there is a lot of nuance in these questions. Let’s not cut any corners here. COVID-19 was a horrible event that everyone in the world has gone through with many companies going through much hardship. But I would say in this period, digital marketing has created a positive value in the space by reaching targeted clients during the pandemic and has led to more trust between the brand and the consumers. Such measures have caused many people in the market to turn this into profit at least in terms of growth.”
-Kevin Ma, General Manager of The Malla Hotel
Q: What is the role of digital marketing in the revival and rejuvenation of the Nepal tourism sector after the pandemic?
“In short and simple terms, the term “Local to Global” approach in Digital Marketing of Nepal will help in the rejuvenation and revival of the Nepal Tourism Sector.
-Kevin Ma, General Manager of the Malla Hotel
“I think that Digital Marketing should be the primary focus of any National Tourism Organizations’ (NTOs’) overall marketing strategy. The more we use this tool, the more we can showcase Nepal to the world and present our culture, heritage, natural beauty and the potential of our country as a tourist destination. We must find innovative and new ways to engage and attract our base consumers and users and have a ‘back-end’ strong enough to handle the ‘online brand’ perception on the internet. This is an excellent tool to amplify or rapidly expand our reach to new customers while giving existing consumers what they want through targeted ads, information and consumer support systems.”
- Subodh Thapa, Head of Business Development and Strategy, Beanstalk Asia Nepal
Interview done by: Samyak Dhar Tuladhar