What does digital marketing mean for India and its businesses… today? The TL;DR version would be ‘very little, and at times a luxury’. The word ‘optional expense’ would be a strong second choice. Asian countries, and population-dense ones, would see this trend too. Micro, small, growing and even mid-sized companies would go for a domain, a website, sustained social media and even branding only after they’ve hit ₹ 10 crore turnover. Grassroot Digital Marketing, Globally… In first-world countries, people would register their domain before filing company registration taxes for their pop-up lemonade stand. Yes, there’s hyperbole present in the example, but only ever a gentle sprinkling. A bakery would have a not-insignificant portion of its start-up budget dedicated to branding, fonts, colour pairing, menu design, customer retention schemes, WiFi sharing - and we’re just getting started. For a hotel, the hiring of a mid-sized digital marketing agency is as important as designing the staff livery. For a new soft drink - custom QR codes, brand ambassadors, social media launches, the works. The competition shouldn't be ignored, just because India has a massive consumer market. …meanwhile, in India It would not be wrong to bet that more than 80% of all new and existing enterprises in India have not even thought of getting online in terms of marketing, let alone get a custom domain and a colour palette. Most MSMEs have barely functional websites, let alone update to the latest patches and test to responsive standards. In many mid-sized companies, the marketing department has responsibilities which have more to do with non-marketing areas such as sales, production, HR, (and sometimes even managing the factory floor 😱).  Companies in Tier-1 cities have funding, worldview and target both domestic and international markets. Therefore, the marketing teams can and do spend on design, presentation and branding, websites, social media, content curation, promotions, tie-ups with influencers, and more. That’s the visible side of activities. On the backend, there’s site health, mobile responsiveness, SEO, content, image and asset management, A-B testing, site reputation, and social media management. The latter includes social media presence, posting, tracking competitor activity and events, and cross-posting - that’s a separate beast in themselves. How do companies in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities manage the above? They don’t, because one, they can’t afford a full-size DM agency and two, if they do – the overheads will sink their margins. Heck, it would come under smartness for small companies to play to their strengths, do ‘bijness’ like their fathers did and not bother with ‘digital flimflam’ at all. Technology democratises grassroot digital marketing in India In the race to nab the latest, hottest domain and websites AI-ed up the gills, a lot of us have forgotten how freeing, empowering Internet basics are. The first steps are getting online and not ranking… #0. There’s ranking for #1 result, and Google’s default answer, up top, is called position zero. ( If you thought #1, you need proper SEO experts. ) We’ve been talking about mid-sized companies, but what about mom-and-pop stores, tailors, restaurants, garages, stationery stores, small factories, dairies and more? Of course, they can’t afford to even pay the gate fees to the above wargrounds, but should they accept being relegated to visual and memory-based search? Google has made getting an online presence free. Yes, you don’t get a nice domain, and it’s pretty basic. But that, combined with a Google My Business tag, is a world of visibility… for free, forever. Add a QR code which most businesses have in this country, and which people can't do without. Sometimes, we forget how cool technology can be at the grassroot level. No-Code, No-Fuss, AI-Powered Websites for Growing Businesses Getting online, and staying visible, is possible, easy and affordable. Not every company needs to be in the race to be the #1 search result in India, but every small business should be able to get a little bit of digital visibility. A decent website, a set of free fonts and images, a little gallery of videos, and a lively Contact Us page should be within every company’s reach. And with no-code and low-code website building tools like Wordpress, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, it’s so very easy for businesses to get a little help and jump online. No one has to have an on-duty coder, a writer, or a designer to build a website. There is a little hiccup here and there connecting the site to the domain, but nothing a little Googling can’t solve. For businesses with no budget for marketing, all it requires is some time, learning and Google will set them up with a free presence. With a little annual budget earmarked, businesses can have glorious websites, thanks to no-code website builders. And with a monthly plan, digital marketing agencies can give a little extra push to get ranking. Getting visible and being noticed isn’t rocket science. Only rocket science is… well, you get it. Free and cheap works in digital marketing, too.  There’s another chain of thought that says how digital marketing of all things can help stem and combat scammers and spammers, but we’ll get to that bridge too. For now, it has been genuinely nice of you to stop by. Drop in your details in our Contact Us page, and we’ll love to talk about how we can help your company. Or, call us at +91 755 417 3379!