Marketers in India Turn to Social Media and Email

According to Octane Research’s January 2012 “Gearing Up For Growth: India e-Marketing Outlook 2012” report, marketers in India expect to increase the use of social media and email to reach their customers in 2012. Almost 69% of marketers said they planned to adopt social media marketing in the coming year, and 53.1% plan to invest in email marketing. Forty-six percent of marketers also plan to pay more attention to developing company websites.

Types of Digital Marketing They Plan to Adopt According to Marketing Professionals in India, 2011 & 2012 (% of respondents)

Many marketers are shifting strategies, as a recent Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ruling limits the number of promotional SMS messages marketers can send per day.

eMarketer estimates that internet penetration in India will remain in the single digits, but marketers are steadily increasing their attention to digital media as online usage grows. Even with low penetration, 103.6 million people will go online in 2012, and the number of users is expected to more than double to 221.6 million by 2015.