In this day and age, it is crucial for any business to have a strong presence online in order to succeed. Thus, in your marketing plan, you must have a solid strategy that takes into consideration the current digital marketing trends. It’s important to look ahead and utilize new tools and technologies to have an advantage over your competitors.
By not implementing a digital marketing strategy, your business will suffer from reduced online brand visibility and the likelihood of getting more clients and thus, generating more sales.
Let’s take a look at what a successful digital marketing strategy should focus on in 2021, and beyond.
Have a Chatbot on Your Website
Chatbots are an increasingly popular element of digital marketing. And the trend shows no signs of slowing down.
This technology is based on Artificial Intelligence uses instant messaging to chat with your customers or website visitors in real-time, 24/7. Some benefits of having chatbots on your site include instant responding to inquiries. Also, round-the-clock service, and answering simple questions.
In fact, many people prefer interacting with virtual assistants as they are always responsive while giving prompt answers. It makes placing orders easy, precisely recalling the customers’ buying history and meeting their expectations. And they never lose patience! The chatbots offer superior customer service and can automate repetitive tasks for you. So that, you can focus on your most important work.
Personalize Your Marketing
Personalization of your marketing is a must if you want your business to stand out this year. That means creating customized products or services, personalized online content, emails, etc.
For example, according to Uplers, personalized emails that are based on people’s behavior are three times more effective than batch-blasted emails. This is because most consumers find personalization appealing and get very annoyed by generic, mass-produced advertising blasts. It’s been proven that people will be more likely to do business with you if you offer a personalized experience.
Create Voice Search Optimized Content
Remember to optimize new pages as well as existing content on your website for Voice Search. No matter the size of your company or the industry you’re in, investing in Voice Search optimization is a smart move as there are over a billion voice searches each month.
By optimizing for Voice Search, you greatly can improve your brand’s online visibility in search engines for conversational voice search results. That means people who are using voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, or Google Voice Search will be provided a unique, valuable, and optimized experience that strengthens customer relationships and creates brand loyalty.
Learn the language, i.e. the long-tail keywords, that potential customers might be using when searching for products or services that you offer.
Get Started with Video Marketing
One of the most important marketing trends these days is video marketing, and it’s likely to stay for good.
You should incorporate video into your digital marketing strategy and embed videos on your website. It has been shown that it’s possible to increase organic search results when compared to text as much as 50 times. This is because Google pushes pages with videos higher in the SERP.
Vyzowl statistics show that over 50% of people prefer watching videos. Consumers find videos more persuasive and they make them feel more confident in making online purchases. 96% of people have watched a brand’s video to learn more about their product or service. And 84% of people have been convinced to place an order by watching a video.
Besides YouTube, there are many ways to drive higher engagement with your video marketing. You can create a video post or start a live stream on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Make Use of Social Messaging Apps
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat are the three most popular social messaging apps that have more users than YouTube or Facebook combined.
People spend more and more time messaging each other. So it’s worth promoting your products or services on platforms where your potential customers are socializing.
Most customers are more likely to return to a company that uses instant messaging on social media platforms. Also, consumers expect companies to have a presence on messaging apps as it is a direct and easy method to interact with them.
You might use social messaging apps to send direct and personalized messages (e.g. with offers, promotions, or discounts) to your customers. Thus, adding value to the user experience.
Some of the reasons for your brand to use messaging apps include fostering customer relationships; providing information, support, and assistance; regaining potential customers; and boosting sales.
Dominate Your SEO with Content Marketing
Content marketing is the new way of doing business. Most marketers agree that having blogs on your website will make your audience see your company as credible and trustworthy.
Paid ads require a continual cash flow to keep getting results. But content marketing doesn’t need any extra money.
Content marketing is not only a cost-effective option, it also helps to generate more leads. According to DemandMetric, it has been estimated that content marketing generates about 3 times as many leads and costs 62% less than traditional marketing!
Paid advertising and promotional messages are being forced on consumers, they are pushy, intrusive, and interruptive. Thus, people generally don’t respond to them anymore. Content marketing is a perfect way for consumers to engage with businesses.
Blogs are going to provide your site with 434% more pages indexed on Google than other companies that don’t do blogging. As a result, you’ll have tons of little pathways all over the internet that lead back to your website. And the more articles you create on topics around your services or products, the more chances you’ll have to increase organic search traffic and generating leads.
I have listed only some of the most important digital marketing strategies that a company should focus on in order to succeed in 2021 and beyond. For more tips, listen to my podcast episode here.