Whether you have just set up a business or have been running a company for several years, it may be time you thought about new marketing strategies. How you choose to advertise your business ultimately enables you to generate new leads and catch the attention of potential customers. If you are on the lookout for the latest digital marketing trends for the coming year, you have come to the right place. This guide will give you all of the key strategies you need to be aware of in 2021 to give you an edge over competitors. Take a look at the pointers below:
Social media
More than ever before, social media has become a key trend for 2021. Research has proven that businesses should be paying more attention to social media marketing in the coming year. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has encouraged individuals to spend even more time on social media as they had very little else to do – this has been of real benefit to businesses who have marketed their products or services on these platforms.
Have you ever considered the idea of using brand ambassadors to promote your products on your behalf? This gives your business the human touch and boosts credibility and trust, generating leads. You can use brand ambassador software to collaborate with potential brand ambassadors and connect with customers.
Also check: How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business
Virtual events
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, throughout 2020, companies discovered that hosting virtual events (as opposed to physical events) was a viable option. Standard face-to-face events could not take place for health and safety reasons, and many people faced travel restrictions within their own countries, let alone travel abroad. To combat the restrictions, companies decided that virtual events were the next best option and could promote their brand to a wider audience – both nationally and worldwide.
This not only reduced costs in terms of hiring venues and equipment but reached more individuals than ever before – benefits that had not been considered previously. Online events will therefore continue to be a trend in 2021 and beyond.
Podcasts
Podcasts were one of the most used forms of entertainment over the last year, and their popularity is only set to grow in 2021, making them the perfect platform to get involved in to boost your digital marketing.
For the unaware, a podcast is essentially an on-demand audio show, and anyone can make one and talk about a wide array of topics. It’s a good idea that businesses should consider creating their own podcast series that’s related to their industry. There a couple of reasons to do this. The first being that you can use this podcast to grow an audience that you can start directing to your business. The second is that creating informative podcasts can help make you an authoritative voice within a particular niche, and optimizing your podcasts with good SEO through targeting keywords in your titles and podcast description can help your ranks too.
There’s also the option to have staff within your business to appear on other podcasts as a guest to offer insight and cross-promote, and you can also create adverts that can play during other podcasts. Podcasts can help a lot and are definitely something your business should get involved in to boost their digital marketing.
Also check: Best 5 Self Improvement Podcasts
Email Marketing
Email marketing is nothing new; it’s been a tried and tested form of digital marketing for years now. However, there are some emerging ideas regarding email marketing that businesses should consider putting in place for 2021.
Previously, the main objective for email marketing was to keep previous customers in the loop and engaged with the business so that they might be enticed to shop again. This was most commonly done with a newsletter, but now things have changed a little bit.
Instead, one of the better options is to turn your email marketing campaign into an exclusive club for your members. Here you can send out discounts, promotions, and special offers, which should entice an increase in conversions. As well as this, you can also use your emails to educate and inform on new trends and updates within your businesses’ niche. To excel at email marketing, you need to create an email campaign with value and one that looks good too, and you do both with MailChimp Software.
Interactive content
While interactive content has been popular for several years, this form of marketing has only recently been acknowledged as a leading practice. It has the ability to not only promote engagement but also increases the user’s satisfaction when dealing with your business.
Some examples of interactive content include quizzes, giveaways, surveys and polls, which increases the amount of time that users spend engaging with your brand.
This form of marketing ultimately lends a personal touch in the eyes of the consumer, as it gives them a voice and the chance to connect with the brand on a personal level.
Competitions, for example, are an extremely useful way to boost your visibility and reach and promote your brand to an entirely new audience. You could also take this further by encouraging referrals to a user’s social circle, with the pledge of a desirable reward to those who have drawn in the most interest to your campaign – this could be a free gift or even a cash sum.
Also check: Your Guide to Start a Travel Blog in 2021
Voice Search Optimization
Voice search is becoming a more and more legitimate and well-used form of searching for content online. With the high influx of home assistants such as the Amazon Echo and the Google Dot, not to mention the continued support for Apple’s Siri, optimizing for voice search is a really clever thing to do, as it can help your content get recommended to more people.
When optimizing for voice search, there are a few things you need to do differently. The first is that you should target long-form key phrases that mimic what a person might actually ask. It’s also good to target questions when optimizing for voice search, and a good way to do that is to include an FAQ page on your business websites. Voice search is set to grow in usability and is definitely an emerging trend for 2021 and beyond.
