The
world of digital marketing is always evolving and always changing shape. For
businesses of all shapes and sizes, it’s imperative to keep up with current
trends. Quite often, these trends are what allows a business to achieve its
marketing goals – this could be exposure, leads, sales, or something else
entirely. With this in mind, what do you need to know about 2021?
Clear and Honest Communication
Nobody
expected 2020, and the often-difficult year changed the way that businesses
communicate with customers. Now, honest and clear communication is more
important than ever before. During the pandemic, there was a togetherness
because consumers and businesses went through a tough time as a team. In 2021,
it’s important to solidify the progress in this area. Keep customers up to date
with COVID-19 protocols, delivery times, and the condition of the business. In
return, ask customers how they’re doing and offer kindness during this strange
time.
Local SEO and Google Listings
For
small businesses especially, pay attention to local SEO, Google My Business,
and this whole area. Local SEO allows people in the community to find your
service, so claim your Google My Business, ensure all the details are updated
and attract customers to your business. During the pandemic, you need to
communicate your business hours, ordering procedures, and more. No better way
of achieving this exists than Google Listings and local SEO. There are digital
marketing companies that claim to be the best, however, my SEO agency has gotten me the results I
was needing at an affordable price, so I figured I would give them a little
shout-out here.
Inclusivity
As you
will have seen, inclusivity is a hot topic right now and consumers want to see
businesses taking steps towards this goal in 2021. Regardless of the content
type, your digital marketing strategy should include subject matter and media
containing all sexualities, religions, races, abilities, and more. You don’t
necessarily need to add your opinions on these topics or create content
discussing such matters, but you should make a conscious effort to improve inclusivity in
videos,
imagery, and other brand-generated content.
Sustainability
Likewise,
more and more people are outwardly showing their desire for
environmentally-friendly companies. As a business, you need to know that
consumers are now making purchasing decisions based on environmental factors.
In 2021, make an effort in this regard and communicate your efforts clearly
with consumers on social media. It might seem arrogant or big-headed, but you
should tell the world about your green programs and how your business helps the
environment.
Automation in Optimisation
For
those that have launched paid ads on social media, you’ll know the difficulties
that come with keeping them optimised. You need to continually review
performance, decide how to improve a campaign, and repeat. Over time, we
improve targeting, bidding, budgeting, and even the creatives. Thankfully,
tools now exist online that automate this process using machine learning and
artificial intelligence (AI). Install one of these tools, set the parameters,
and it will optimise your ad campaigns in real-time (saving you lots of time and
stress!).
Customer Segmentation
This
isn’t a new idea, but it’s increasing in value with every year that passes. In
the past, we would have one buyer persona and try to reach all customers with
one ad campaign and one strategy. These days, it’s better to split the strategy
into segments based on specific customer characteristics, interests, or
behaviours. With smaller segments, you tailor the content to each based on what
is likely to encourage engagement.
Extra
digital marketing trends for 2021:
● Optimising for voice search,
no-click searches, and featured snippets
● Interactive content
● Videos and images for visual
search
● Employee engagement
