Top 7 Digital Marketing Strategies You Need For 2021 - Baer Performance Marketing
2020 was a year we will never forget. It has put businesses through many hardships, from having to close doors to incorporating new ways to interact with customers. 2020 has forced businesses that were on the fence about going online with a digital presence to adapt of or, unfortunately, be brushed aside. The digital world has also seen many new marketing tactics move into a more prominent role. In this article, we are exploring the top seven tactics you should consider incorporating into your marketing strategy.
Micro-Moments
Over the years, there have been many trends regarding new and improved ways to target and show ads to potential customers. Traditional advertising channels, such as the newspaper, phonebook, and radio, relied heavily on putting messages out to the masses and showed ads to everyone, regardless of their want or need for the product or service. Those methods are now taking a back seat to other technology-based media due to the increased usage of laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. Now more than ever as marketers, we can put our ads in front of potential customers at specific micro-moments. Micro-moments are stages in a customer’s buying process.
Customers act on their needs within these moments, and their expectations are high and patience is low. This makes the relevance, quality and user experience more important than ever.
How should you make the most out of these micro-moments?
Improve Google Search results
Google introduced a new BERT system, which is designed to help Google in its effort to understand the natural language that people use in search queries. This means, even if your company was ranked steadily at “number two” in organic search results, following this update, it’s possible you won’t be found until page three or four! We are not trying to scare you; we are just simply stating the worst-case scenario. The update isn’t penalizing your site for SEO issues; it is, however, finding more relevant results for the searched keywords. This means that rather than chasing the latest SEO trends, as a business, you should focus on your site speed, useful links, and well-written content.
For more on this please reference our blog post on May’s Google algorithm changes.
Content Marketing – Blogging
Based on our last trend with the update of the Google platform, content marketing/blogging can play a huge role in your company’s marketing strategy. Stats from Content Marketing Institute:
With Google placing a higher value on well-researched, regularly updated articles, many leading businesses will continue to invest heavily in content marketing long past 2020.
Long-Form Content
In 2020, short posts don’t cut it with Google or your audience as posts with at least 3,000 words attract the most traffic. This allows content creators to brand themselves as experts and allow more space for targeting keywords. A study from Search Engine Journal indicates that long-form content gets 77% more backlinks than short articles, which is critical for driving organic traffic.
Omni-Channel Marketing Strategies
As mentioned above, consumers are inundated with hundreds if not thousands of advertising messages each day. According to www.clicksz.com, for your company to cut through the noise you must incorporate a consistent voice across all mediums, including store signage, website, social media and catalogs.
UGC – User-Generated Content
Does your business want to target the elusive Millennial and Gen Z markets? By encouraging your audience to share unique content by offering them an incentive, discount or partnership, you can quickly increase brand engagement and drive conversion rates. Utilizing your consumer base will help ensure people discover your products and services. These generations trust others like themselves more than they trust companies. A recent survey found that 90% of shoppers reported that UGC influenced their decision to purchase more than any other form of advertising. Ninety-seven percent of 18-29-year-olds said their peers had an “extreme influence” on their purchasing decisions.
This content can be anything from comments on social media to blogs about products to testimonials and videos. We are seeing more engagement from businesses looking for those “real” consumer influencers.
Video Marketing
Out of all of the trends we’ve listed above, video may be the most important and has ties to all of the other trends. With content shifting to more mobile and “on-the-go” devices, new ways to reach your audiences are a must. Video is your answer! Since these mobile devices have relatively small screens, it may be hard to read fine print or full-size articles. More and more companies are using video to explain their products and services. Now, just to be clear: The written word isn’t going anywhere. These videos need skillfully crafted descriptions, titles and script/subtitles, which are all searchable by search engines.
In most cases, when typing in a search in Google, you will be displayed a video relating to your search. Sites that include video are 50 times more likely to drive organic search results compared to text. People find video content more compelling. Therefore, Google pushes pages that include videos up the ranks.
One of the best things about video marketing is that it makes it easy to reformat your content. Instead of just putting it on YouTube, you could also:
Another video marketing trend that is getting increased traction is live video. Live video is popular with a large number of businesses who use it for interviews, product demos and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the brand, such as life in the office, how products are made, company events, etc.
Each one of these strategies can play a vital role in helping your business make it through the current state of our economy. If you are struggling to implement these into your marketing efforts, Baer Performance Marketing can help. Drop us a line or give us a call, and we can bring your online presence up to speed.
This content was originally published here.
