Running a successful digital marketing campaign means keeping up with all the latest industry trends and updates. It’s not just about increasing the efficiency of the investments you’re making in your digital marketing. It’s also about not getting outcompeted. You see, the majority of your competitors are going to follow new trends and change the way they’re pursuing some of the old industry standards. You can’t afford to be left behind.
So, what new does 2021 holds and is there a way some of these changes will impact your current digital marketing strategy. Let’s check out some of the best digital marketing trends in 2021.
Influencer Marketing
In terms of influencer marketing trends for 2021, a lot has changed. This is not necessarily due to changes to platforms and social networks that these influencers are represented on but rather due to our changed understanding of this field.
Micro- and nano-influencers
Micro-influencers are people who don’t have that many followers but have a loyal fanbase or have enough authority in the field. For instance, while launching a new line of supplements, a recommendation from a nutritionist carries a lot of weight even if they don’t have a particularly large following. This is why even nano-influencers can make a difference.
Performance-based deals
The reason why methods like PPC are so popular is that they are performance-based. If the ad doesn’t get clicked on, you don’t get to pay that much. A similar thing should be applied when dealing with social media influencers. This way, there’s a higher chance that you’ll get your money’s worth.
Influencer collaboration
In order to provide more value, influencers are bound to start teaming up more often. This is a trend that’s present in other spheres of digital marketing, as well but in influencer marketing it may make an even bigger difference. Social media influence is the best example of a non-zero-sum game, seeing as how every single member of one’s target audience can follow multiple influencers.
UX Past the Website
Your user experience doesn’t end with your website. Chances are that your audience is interacting with your business via an app, emails and even SMS. So, what you need to figure out is the importance of a proper follow-up and the development of a holistic approach.
Start with your landing page
Even though you’re not putting all the focus on your website, the majority of other interactions will end on your web design, either way. According to veterans behind a prestigious web design agency, a responsive landing page is the best way to effortlessly raise the credibility of your brand in a digital environment. Long waiting time makes you look unprofessional. Also, a good CTA button and intuitive navigation can be of tremendous help.
Improve your app
Any app you make needs to be efficient and non-imposing. Sure, notifications are one of the greatest things about apps but if they become too frequent or too imposing, you risk annoying your target audience. Also, the efficiency of navigation determines the duration of visits to your app. This is definitely something you should work on.
Email marketing
While email marketing is incredibly cost-effective (ROI of up to 4400%), the thing is that emails can appear a bit suspicious. So, your first step is building credibility. Second, people don’t have too much patience for emails, which is why you should send the main message within the first 55 words. These are your first 2 or 3 (short) sentences. Past this, you risk losing the bulk of your audience.
Chatbots
Chatbot marketing is a concept where a platform either uses an AI or IFTTT system to automatically converse with one’s audience. The advantages of chatbots are numerous, from relieving your workforce all the way to resolving some of the simplest issues.
Improving your entire organization
The advantages of a chatbot are that it helps save money and time for your staff. It also speeds up the payment process, which results in a better cash flow. It is designed to fit any business and it provides an enterprise with so much data for analysis. The best thing is that a chatbot can be customized to fit any business and any industry out there.
Detailed customer reports
By listening to the feedback generated by your chatbots you are helping your customers feel more self-reliant and, therefore, more empowered. This way, you can harvest the data from reports in order to improve the FAQ for your business, improve your conversation tunnels, test your chatbots during future updates and do much, much more than that.
Better sales process
One of the most important (if not THE most important) task of digital marketing is to drive sales. Chatbots can do this with much greater efficiency. For instance, they can enable customers to place direct orders, deliver customer support and even track these orders. By also dubbing as customer support, they can manage the entire process without much (if any) human input.
Focus on Cost-efficiency
The first thing you need to bear in mind is the importance of cost-efficiency and ROI of your digital marketing spending. You need to start by figuring out how much your digital marketing costs. How does this translate? Well, you need to start by focusing on cost-efficiency. Generally speaking, 10%-50% of your average annual revenue will go on the marketing budget. The majority of this (if not all) should go to your digital marketing.
Assessment of your current status
In order to see whether you can justify your target marketing spending, you need to be aware of your current standing within the industry. Next, you need to figure out your marketing goals. Third, you should determine your average annual revenue, seeing as how based on this, your costs will be calculated. The cost of marketing services is relatively easy to research, so try to compare them to your current marketing budget.
Stop wasting money
Let’s face it, some of the things you spend your money on aren’t giving desired results. The best thing about digital marketing lies in the fact that it doesn’t take that long for the investment to start showing effects. So, if months have gone by and you’re not seeing the ROI you’ve wanted, it’s time to stop wasting resources.
Negotiate everything
The bulk of your work regarding digital marketing will be outsourced. Each of these agencies can be negotiated with. Now, keep in mind that you need to have some industry-relevant knowledge when you go into these negotiations. You can’t reasonably expect that an agency providing high-quality services will do this for you below what is considered a fair market average. However, you can customize the service bundle and add, exclude some services from the list. This way, you control the price.
In conclusion
At the end of the day, the question of digital marketing is something that you’ll have to resolve as soon as possible in order to keep running a profitable enterprise. The ROI of every single dollar that you spend counts, seeing as how using non-efficient methods may have an adverse effect. This is what the concept of opportunity loss is all about. By minimizing it, you will optimize all your digital marketing spending.
