Digital Marketing in Bangladesh: Ultimate Guide

Every business requires to sell its products or services. And marketing is the way. However, with the advancement of technology, the way of marketing has changed. People are now connected to the internet, social media, website, and different online platforms more than ever before.

Hence, traditional marketing is no longer enough. To stay ahead of the curve, you have to focus on digital marketing, too—even more! And due to the cost-effective solution, easy-to-target audience, and increased ROI (return of interest), companies now rely more on digital marketing.

Following the wind, Bangladesh is also advancing in the digital marketing world, and more companies are adopting digital strategies for their business.

Let's get an overview of the digital marketing scenario in Bangladesh, learn how to do it, and understand why digital marketing is a good career.

Digital marketing is also known as online marketing. It is the process of marketing or promoting your products or services using potential digital platforms and media. That includes email, social media, web-based advertising, text and multimedia messages, and other marketing channels.

In short, any marketing campaign that uses digital communication falls under digital marketing.

Essentially, your audiences get informed about your products or services and take specific actions. Here the actions can be lead generating, getting more video views and subscribers, or selling your products.

Given the rising number of internet users, digital marketing is currently the easiest and most effective marketing approach to spreading awareness of your goods and services.

The significance of digital marketing is clear to those who are familiar with the marketing process. The basic goal of marketing is to get a company's goods in front of customers. More individuals will be motivated to purchase the product, and the more your product sells, the easier it is to advertise it to more people.

However, the primary goal of marketing is to raise consumer awareness of the product through product promotion. If you are an expert marketer in this situation, you must discover how simple it is to find customers. A creative marketer's duties include promoting a service or product in an area where more people are passing by and remaining for longer periods of time.

It can be assumed that the rise of digital marketing started when people began using search engines to extract information and made it a habit, as the primary responsibility of a marketer in the marketing department is to spread and promote the services or product through the potential customers of that product.

Learn: What is CTA in Digital Marketing?

It has been proven that any business, no matter how big or small, can use digital marketing for advertising its products to its target market quickly and reasonably. You can do it at home using a device such as a computer, smartphone, or tablet, reducing the need to visit a third party.

The Internet allows any business to build its brand, which is very difficult to do with any other method. Analyzing the targeting of clients of various ages based on location makes it possible to use digital marketing. One of the easiest ways to advertise your website, business, e-commerce website, or social media profile only through digital marketing. Since the product may be directly ordered online from home, promoting it is simple.

With technological growth and development, Bangladesh is forwarding from every angle. With more and more people getting connected with the internet, companies are leveraging the power of digital marketing.

Let's check out the below statistics conducted in between a year difference to see the change.

Internet Users in Bangladesh 2023

As of January 2023, there were about 66.94 million internet users in Bangladesh.

Another report from BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) shows that as of 2021, there is a total of 123.82 million internet subscribers in Bangladesh. This indicates that you can quickly grab huge audiences' attention online using digital marketing.

Social Media Users in Bangladesh

According to DataReportal, there were around 44.70 million social media users in Bangladesh in January 2023. It also indicates that the number has increased by 4.6 million ( +10.1 percent) compared to 2021.

This means you can use the power of digital marketing across potential social media platforms to reach targeted audiences.

Mobile Connections in Bangladesh

According to BTRC, there are around 113.73 million mobile internet subscribers in Bangladesh. Also, GSMA intelligence data shows 179.9 million cellular mobile connections in Bangladesh at the start of 2023.

Hence, targeting those users using the right digital marketing approaches is possible.

But why digital marketing over traditional marketing? Let's find the answer below.

Learn More: How Digital Marketing Affects Consumer Behaviour?

Before going ahead with any marketing tactics, it's necessary to have the basic concepts regarding marketing approaches. On top of that, you should promote your business with the right strategy to the right audiences.

Let's know about the key differences between traditional marketing and digital marketing:

Cost-Effective

Traditional marketing needs a lot of investment and resources. While for digital marketing, anyone can do this marketing without having a limited budget. A much more cost-effective solution for all kinds of businesses.

Digital marketing only needs an internet connection, internet-enabled devices, and a strategy to use your product appealingly to bring in more customers and leads.

Time-Saving

Digital marketing takes much lesser time to reach targets, unlike traditional ones. They are a much faster approach to increasing your sales and bringing in more organic traffic.

Precise Target Audience

In the case of traditional marketing, it is tough to target and interact with your desired customers. While for digital marketing, you can now directly promote your products and services to your targeted audiences. And thus allure them into making the final purchase.

Good for SMEs

Digital marketing is a feasible option for all types and ranges of companies. On the other hand, traditional marketing is only for high-end companies with a lot in their pocket, not a budget-friendly option for startups or small businesses.

Result-Driven

Digital marketing is an updated and accurate advertising strategy. In contrast, traditional marketing follows the conventional way of advertisement. Hence digital marketing brings results immediately and you can see the results from the very first day.

Measurable

Digital marketing is easy to measure, while the traditional approach is non-measurable. You can find analytics and data regarding your sales, revenue, and expenditures.

1. VISER X 
2. SmartSites 
3. Manta 
4. BrainyZat 
5. TOP SEO Center 
6. BrandViser 
7. DigitalVast 
8. OnZ Solutions 
9. Dcastalia Limited 
10. WebAble Digital 

There are several ways to conduct digital marketing. Let's know how to plan for a digital marketing from scratch:

1. Set Your Goals

When planning, it's crucial to identify and define your goals. Each business is different and has its targets and protocols to follow. So, your strategy will be different depending on your goals.

For example, if your ultimate target is to increase brand awareness, you must concentrate more on leveraging social media to reach new audiences.

Similarly, to boost sales of a specific product, you must focus on SEO and content optimization to get users to your site first. Additionally, if driving sales is your main objective, you might test out PPC campaigns that use sponsored advertisements to drive traffic.

Whatever the case, once you've identified the main objectives of your business, developing a digital marketing strategy will become the simplest task.

2. Choose Your Target Market

One of the most significant benefits of digital marketing is the ability to target specific audiences. However, you can't take advantage without determining your target audience.

It's also vital to remember that your target market may change based on your platform or goal(s) for a particular product or campaign at any moment.

Let's see an example:

You have noticed that most of your Instagram followers are younger and love watching funny memes and short videos.

On the other hand, your LinkedIn followers are typically older professionals seeking more practical advice.

So you cannot target both of them with the same strategy. To engage various target markets, you must cope with the trend and thus change up your material accordingly.

3. Set a Budget for Each Digital Channel

Like anything else, your established budget typically depends on the specific aspects of digital marketing you plan to incorporate.

For example, you need less budget if you focus on inbound techniques for an existing site, such as Search Engine Optimization, Social networking, and Content production.

Here, the basic goal of inbound marketing is to attract customers by producing high-quality and relevant content they want to read and know about. The only investment you will need to make is time unless you wish to hire someone to complete these tasks.

However, for outbound marketing, you might require more budget and resources. So plan accordingly.

4. Maintain a Healthy Balance Between the Paid and Free Methods

A digital marketing campaign needs to use both paid and free digital methods to be effective in all aspects.

For example, you can plan based on buyer personas to determine your audience's demands and concentrate on providing great online content to attract and convert them. This way, you are more likely to get significant results within the first six months without spending on advertising.

The outcomes can be rapid for paid advertising. However, for long-term and sustainable growth, experts focus on growing organic (or "free") reach by utilizing Content, Search Engine Optimization, and various social networking platforms.

Whenever in doubt, try both and refine your process. With time, you will discover which one works best for your brand.

5. Conduct Keyword Research

Effective keyword research is necessary to reach specific audiences with tailored content. It also ensures that people can find your company on search engines.

Furthermore, social media keyword research can help promote your goods and services across various social media platforms.

List the most powerful and effective keywords that describe your products or services. You can consider long-tail variations for driving in more specific results and prospects.

6. Create Engaging and Relevant Content

Once you've identified your target demographic and established a budget, it's time to start developing content for the various channels you will be using. This may include social media posts, blog articles, PPC advertisements, sponsored content, email newsletters, and many more.

Since marketing content aims to improve lead generation and raise brand awareness, any content you create should be interesting enough to engage and keep your target audiences glued to your site.

7. Make it Mobile-Friendly

Another crucial component of digital marketing is undoubtedly mobile marketing. As mentioned, there is a whooping number of mobile phone users worldwide. And you'll hardly find anyone without a smartphone these days.

As a result, optimizing your digital content for mobile, including your web pages, social network photographs, and advertisements, is crucial.

Optimizing it for mobile is a must if your business has a mobile app. This will help people interact with your brand or shop for your products more conveniently.

8. Monitor & Iterate Based on the Analytics

Finally, monitor the results and pivot based on various data and statistics to develop a long-term digital marketing strategy that works.

For example, you observed that your Instagram followers are no longer as engaged in your posts as before but still enjoy your Twitter content. It could signify that you should review your entire Instagram approach. Further, it indicates that your audience wants to access branded content through a different channel like Twitter.

Similarly, you can discover older web pages receiving less traffic than before. Here, to ensure that visitors are finding the most recent and relevant information, you can either upgrade the page or get it completely removed.

Learn More: Digital Marketing for Financial Services

The answer is "Yes."

Digital marketing involves developing buyer personas to determine your audience's needs and producing valuable content. But that doesn't mean that all organizations should similarly employ a digital marketing strategy.

Over the past few years, digital marketing has skyrocketed. In Bangladesh, over 30 million active social media users and almost 81.66 million people use the internet.

Since 2017, the percentage of social media users who are active has increased by 15%. Mobile usage has increased by nearly 14%. The number of active mobile social media users has increased by approximately 27%. There has been a 13% to 25% growth in laptop and desktop usage.

Through either business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) digital marketing, they are entering into this brave new world:

B2B Digital Marketing

If your organization is business-to-business (B2B), your digital marketing initiatives are likely to drive a lead with the ultimate goal of getting someone to speak with a salesperson.

Here the goal of your marketing strategy should be to use your website and other supporting digital channels to attract and convert the best prospects for your sales team.

Besides your website, you must also pay attention to your business-focused platforms like LinkedIn, where your target audience is most active.

B2C Digital Marketing

If your company engages in business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, your digital marketing initiatives are probably aimed at hooking visitors to your website and finally converting them into potential customers.

As a result, you may focus less on "leads" in the traditional sense and are more likely to pay attention to accelerating the buyer's journey. It means your product should appear in your content earlier in the marketing funnel.

Also, you must use stronger calls-to-action (CTAs). In this regard, channels like Instagram and Pinterest are more valuable for B2C businesses than business-focused websites like LinkedIn.

Learn More: Digital Marketing Agency for Startups

Here is a quick breakdown of some of the most popular digital marketing services that are increasing in this modern era:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It is the process of improving your website's "rank" in search engine results. So, your website or service is at the top whenever anyone searches for relevant products or services.

Thus, you can achieve your targeted results by increasing your sales rate and improving your online visibility. Some of the proven SEO strategies to drive targeted traffic to your website may include On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, and Technical SEO.

For enhanced search engine ranking and boosted online visibility, consider leveraging professional SEO services. Many business owners ask, "Does SEO work for small business?" The answer is a resounding yes. Implementing effective SEO strategies can significantly improve your website's visibility and drive more targeted traffic, leading to increased sales and business growth.

2. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) promotes your brand and content across various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc. It is also an effective way to raise brand awareness, increase traffic, and enhance lead generation for your company.

Nowadays, people spend most of their time on these social media platforms more than anything. The ultimate goal is to produce something worth sharing in anticipation that will spread widely among the people on varied social media platforms.

Thus, you may earn more sales, leads, and revenue by targeting them.

3. Affiliate Marketing

In this performance-based advertising, you get paid for promoting other people's goods and services on your website. Here, you don't have to own a product of your very own.

Instead, you will promote someone elses products and get a defined commission when a product is sold following your link.

Big e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay offer to make money through affiliate marketing. In Bangladesh Daraz is one of them offering affiliate marketing.

Several other affiliate marketing platforms include the following:

• Hosting YouTube Partnership Program video ads.
• Allocating affiliate links on various social media platforms.

One highly successful affiliate marketing method is creating a campaign using influencers.

4. Content Marketing

Content refers to various kinds of blogs, videos, posts, e-books, etc. A marketing approach using various forms of content—image, video, audio, etc.—is known as content marketing. Many platforms allow you to do this. Or you can also do it using your website to sell a product or service.

You can do it by uploading it online, blogging, podcasting, posting a slide-based PDF, an e-book, a single-image movie, etc.

On top of that, all digital marketing efforts need content, from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Social media marketing and other marketing platforms. In other words, digital marketing is impossible to even think about without content.

Learn More: Digital Marketing for Nonprofits Organizations

Want to build up your digital marketer career in Bangladesh but are confused about whether it will be a good option or not? Luckily, there is some good news for you!

Digital marketing has become one of the top 10 high-on-demand careers globally. More and more companies are looking for expert digital marketers for their businesses.

As per Glassdoor reviews, the average salary of a Digital Marketer in the USA is $72,147 per year, and it may get higher per the expertise.

So, to be a digital marketer, you must work accordingly and shape up your skills based on the job requirement.

Besides establishing digital marketing agencies in Bangladesh, the demand for digital marketers is increasing. So there is always scope to flourish a career in this job sector.

On top of that, if you don't like a 9 to 5 job, you can work as a freelancer. Online marketplaces like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com allow you to work with foreign clients.

According to The Financial Express, Bangladesh currently has around 650,000 freelancers working and earning approximately USD 500 million every year.

Who knows, you can be one of them!

A digital marketing training program provides a comprehensive understanding of digital marketing ideas, strategy, and execution. This includes planning campaigns for social media marketing, website promotion, email, search engine optimization (SEO), Adsense, Google Analytics & Webmaster, SEM, and integrating digital marketing with traditional marketing.

You'll find many digital marketing courses available online. Or you can enroll a course from a reputed organization to learn digital marketing. Also, you can learn from expert digital marketers from Bangladesh and avail an internship program from the best digital marketing agency.

Learn More: Best Digital Marketing Tools

The biggest challenge to increasing digital marketing in Bangladesh is infrastructure. Getting all of the ecosystem's major actors to cooperate is the biggest obstacle to expanding digital marketing.

In order to overcome all obstacles and realize the dream, it is essential to bring all appropriate people together on one platform, including representatives from the government, businesses, advertising agencies, media, and technology.

Businesses are working hard to remain ahead of the competition or, at the very least, keep up with the crowd as the digital transformation takes full grip. Even those sectors that have historically been slow to adopt change are now catching up.

Consumers interact with various digital channels and devices that use different interfaces, configurations, and protocols in different ways and for various purposes.

Digital marketing is a must-needed thing for every business now. Whether you are a small business, an eCommerce, or a large-scale industry and want to establish your online presence, digital marketing is the option you should go for.

However, you should choose the right digital marketing solutions per your business needs and requirements. And once you can pitch on the right one, the sales and revenue will keep increasing. Be sure to perform everything mentioned above, being fully prepared with proper planning and strategy.

Or you may consult with one of our digital markers to discuss your needs.

Is digital Marketing a Good Career in Bangladesh?

In Bangladesh, the scope of digital marketing professionals is rapidly growing, and most corporate businesses want to hire digital marketers. Numerous digital marketing businesses are being developed in Bangladesh, and the number is growing. As a digital marketer, you both work with an agency or as a freelancer in your comfort at home.

Who is the Best Digital Marketing Strategist in Bangladesh?

Faisal Mustafa, CEO of VISER X, is one of Bangladesh's best digital marketing strategists, with over 10 years of experience in this industry. He is the founder and CEO of the best SEO agency in Bangladesh, called VISER X. He is also an active member of BASIS ( Bangladesh association of software and information services) and leading the Fiverr community in Bangladesh.

Why is digital marketing so important in today's time?

The importance of digital marketing is manifold and cannot be overstated in the modern world. Unlike traditional marketing, it assists in focusing on niche markets with a worldwide reach and generates large returns on little investments. Besides, it is conversion-led, easily trackable, and simple to repair the damage.

How many sectors are there in digital marketing?

More or less, eight key sectors make up the whole of digital marketing. This includes Search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, marketing analytics, and affiliate marketing. Rather than that, professionals use more specific sub-sectors, such as Facebook marketing, YouTube marketing, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and many more.