The pandemic has re-shaped many things in our life. One of them being confining us to the comforts of our home. While this has been a double-edged sword for some life aspects; when it comes to digital marketing, 2020 has only been about exponential growth. Many businesses have taken their services/ products online to compensate for the dwindling footfall. And this has led to brainstorming digital marketing strategies so as to compensate for the offline presence and attract more customers.
And there are some that need to be on your priority list for 2021. This article takes a look into 7 digital marketing strategies that can make your business flourish, both online and offline, in 2021 and beyond.
#1 Social Media Is The Charm
With people spending more time at home, they’re bound to check their social media more often. And social media is an effective channel to boost awareness of your brand. Start with building an audience over 3 to 4 channels (no, you don’t have to work on all platforms at the same time), the ones that meet your business goals the best. Let’s say, for a B2C brand targeting a young audience, it would be Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Different objectives require different approaches, just ensure your content is relevant, engaging, and loved by the target audience.
#2 Set Google Listings & Local SEO
If you own a local business, the very first and priority marketing strategy is setting a google listing and working on local SEO. Everything – from content marketing, social media marketing to audience building – should be primarily focused on it. While setting your business listing, including information like hours, services, geographical locations, and most importantly, set a defined service area so you appear in ‘near me’ searches.
#3 Voice Search as a Digital Marketing Strategy
Siri, Alexa, and Google assistant have soared voice searches in the past few years and the trend will follow in the coming year as well. Voice search queries are different from typed ones and also yield different results. The former, more often than not, is in the form of a question; ‘how’ and ‘what’ being the most common. So, if you want to leverage this search option, build content that has questions included in it, and answer them in a useful way.
#4 Organic Search For The Win
Organic search traffic accounts for 70% of the link clicks by search users, according to Search Engine Journal. Moreover, SEO leads have a higher close rate than those gained by PPC advertising. And we can go on and on so as to why organic search is important for any business. But there’s already enough data surrounding it; plus, it’s free.
Boost your organic search results by first, monitoring Google’s core updates and second, building content that passes EAT (expertise, authority, and trust). And of course, follow the core SEO content guideline like keyword placements, headlines, user experience, images, etc. to boost the organic search traffic.
#5 Focus More On Semantic Keywords
Semantic keywords are words that have the closest relationship with the keyword you’re trying to target. With people putting in more queries than usual, Google tries to rank the content that offers a better user experience and not just what matches the exact keyword. To leverage this metric, include secondary keywords and topics that relate to your keyword in the content. As long as the article offers comprehensive knowledge on the subject, you’re probably okay in this area.
#6 Optimise Website Search & Product Details
Apart from these factors helping you in SEO, they can also contribute to a better user experience on your site, thus sending a strong green signal to Google. As consumers aren’t able to physically view and compare products, they want to take in as much information from the online resources. So, include all the things your customers would likely want to know about your product to offer a seamless shopping experience.
#7 Building your Brand is a consistent Digital Marketing Strategy
Over the years, the one thing top digital marketing experts have reiterated is ‘build your brand’. Why? Because users trust them and what users trust, Google trusts. Brand recognition also gets more clicks on SERP’s. Brands will ALWAYS get preferential treatment by Google, like ranking higher with hardly any links. And we’d really advise making your 2021 resolution to invest in your brand awareness.
#8 Image & Video Searches Will Take Over
Blocks of content in your blog without rich media can be boring. Users like to interact more with good quality images and videos than the written content. Text elements matter, but a combination of both is a killer one to target SEO. But you need to optimize both video and image elements so that Google can easily align them with the keyword and rank your site to the target customers. To capitalize on this technique for images, make sure the alt tags, image file names have keywords and image quality is good.
For video optimisation, upload HD videos and place keywords in file names and descriptions. If it’s easier, upload the YOUTUBE video on your channel and then embed it. Youtube is owned by Google, so you’ll get extra brownie points for embedding from there as compared to other hosting websites.
#9 Personalised Content
How good does it feel when you read your name right at the top of an email or even a promotional message. To make customers feel even more special, the personalisation is going to go up a notch. Marketers will be using artificial intelligence to make data analysis more efficient to allow hyper-personalisation. This will help them connect with their customers on an individual level. Soon, you’d be able to send customers a perfect email that suits their specific details, needs, and preferences. It will also enable you to draft content that fits better into what your customers want more.
# 10 Automated Bidding on Google Ads
While automated bidding made its debut in 2016, the continued changes and improvements by Google over the years have made them much more effective and relevant today. To get the most of your advertising money, you need to constantly adjust the bids and campaigns to attract maximum customers without shelling out a lot of money. This requires hours and management fees being put in.
Enters automated bidding in Google ads which will automatically adjust your bid in real-time. The new advances rectify the earlier errors in setting automated bidding and make it easier to use for anyone with Google Analytics experience. With one important factor being sorted, you can focus on other elements that change the PPC performance and drive a profitable outcome at a lower price.
#11 Old Is Gold
There are some digital marketing strategies that aren’t new to 2021 but would nonetheless reign this year as well. Here are a few of them:
- SEO optimisation: Placing keywords in headings, sub-headings, first 100 words, etc. are still relevant to tell Google what your webpage is about and in turn, rank for the keyword.
- Shoppable Instagram Posts: A post that directly leads your customers to your website increases the conversion rate and streamlines the payment process.
- Micro-Influencers: Micro-influencers are average people who have a very targeted sectioned out market. If you target enough of them, you can achieve attraction as top-level influencers at a fraction of cost.
- Gen Z Marketing: Many of Gen Z has now turned 18 and entered into their purchase bracket. Start strategizing to infiltrate this market.
These are just a few of the digital marketing strategies you shouldn’t ignore in 2021. However, this by no means is all you have to do. Depending on your company, brand message, goals, etc., devise a marketing plan that suits you & your audience well. With the right channels, 2021 can be a game-changing year for your business and we wish and hope that it is.
