One element of future-proofing your business is to jump on the digital bandwagon. Technology is the magnum opus of this century. And digital marketing is a sprout of it we cannot afford to miss. It is volatile, dynamic, and powerful. A single wrong move can make or break your entire empire!
But to fail is commonplace amongst business owners. Type “failed businesses in the past,” and you will find hundreds of them. In fact, 88 percent of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 do not exist anymore. That’s a crazy number!
Some failed to innovate and others suffered bad fortune. Whatever the reason may be, the bottom line is, their customers lost interest. Their stories help business entities of today learn important lessons. The life expectancy of companies is shrinking and entrepreneurs need to be more vigilant than ever before.
Given you are on this page, it is plausible to assume that you are looking for ways to make the most out of digital trends. Of course, you do not want to end up like the unfortunates. It is this inspiration that counts. And Paul Young puts it quite brilliantly, “Inspiration is the most important part of our digital strategy.”
In this blog, I have rounded up a list of three digital marketing trends that will own 2021. Follow them and watch the wonders unroll in your favor!
Let’s have a look:
1. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is the new buzzword in the digital arena. It builds a passage for brands to target new customers and promote their products/services in a whole new way. It involves reaching out to influential social advocates and celebrities to use and review your brand. It has proven quite favorable in the past year. Around 63 percent of the marketers in 2020 expanded their budget to accommodate public influencers.
Strategy
You can incorporate videos and blogs by these influencers in your portal. The former has been extremely useful in driving sales and will continue to rock the marketing fronts in 2021, as well. Along with video endorsements, you can also work to build blogs written by the influencers, where they express their positive opinions about the product/service.
Outcomes
Fans of these influencers will readily try out your product/service if the marketing is convincing enough. You get the attention of hundreds and thousands of prospects organically.
A piece of advice: Try securing buy-in from micro-influencers. They are medium-sized influencers and focus on a narrow niche. Plus, they have a decent number of followers. You can reach out to the exact demographics you were looking for. A study from Adweek reveals that micro-influencers had a 60 percent higher engagement rate and were 6.7 times more affordable than mega-influencers.
2. Social Commerce
Social media will continue to provide lucrative opportunities for brands. According to Digital Report 2020, the number of social media users across the globe is 3.5 billion. Social Commerce involves allowing customers to buy directly via social media platforms. It started when Instagram integrated a Checkout option in its app, which was warmly welcomed by the public across the world.
Strategy
Social commerce is a streamlined process where you can enjoy perks like autofill payments, chatbot checkouts and delivery details. You can recreate your whole store on your Facebook and Insta page. Install messaging tools like ManyChat. Make sure the content you post is compelling and make the process as simple as possible.
Outcomes
Shoppable social media posts will reduce the number of abandoned carts. Besides, at least 54 percent of the users of social media use these posts to research the product. Therefore, adopting social commerce is a win-win for you.
A piece of advice: Besides having aspirational product images and remarkable content, work on providing more payment options. When customers have a variety of payment methods to choose from, they will pick the easier one for them and immediately move to purchase.
3. Direct Messaging
The forever constant, direct communication won’t go out of trend in this decade. Customers love it when a brand is more personable in its customer touchpoints. Technology chips away at our attention spans and our patience so you cannot afford delayed responses to the customers. When they post a query, get back to them ASAP. The more you delay, the higher the chances they will dismiss your forum and opt for a competitor.
Strategy
By using messaging apps like Whatsapp, Viber, Skype, and Facebook Messenger, you can build a strong connection with your customers. There’s also the option of communicating through private messaging options on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can even have a voice call with customers in some cases. Whatsapp’s Business Catalog is an interesting development in this regime. Users connect with the relevant businesses and view their product range without leaving the platform.
An alternative strategy could be to offer exclusive deals and coupons to the customers who have lodged a complaint or showed commitment to your brand.
Outcomes
In 2020, eMarketer forecasted 2.52 billion people across the globe to use the mobile messaging app at least once a month. This habit will continue being a popular trend among users. DM’ing customers is an effective way to forge long-term relationships, to attend to customer complaints, tailor your offering to their requirements and encourage them to convert.
A piece of advice: If you want people to locate and message you directly, make sure the username you pick is easy to find. It has to be relevant, exclusive, and straightforward.
Wrapping Up
To conclude, 2021 is going to be the year where customers demand more transparency, flexibility and a wide variety of options. Your task is to ensure you cater to these fluctuating needs. According to GlobalWebIndex, shoppers are increasingly making use of multiple channels when buying online. So, hop on all the relevant channels to give your venture a competitive edge.
Remember, customers are the lifeblood of your business. Keep them in the loop, adapt, and rise exponentially.