The New Year provides an opportunity to review past performance and plan ahead for what’s next. The digital marketing landscape is ever-evolving, hence the need to take stock of new technologies and trends to ensure your business remains on target in ensuring continued good customer engagement and revenue-boosting.
With the right digital marketing strategy, a business can remain focused on its key goals and will allocate sufficient time, effort, and resources to achieving them. There is a greater understanding of what your target market wants and how they expect it to be delivered. It also aids in giving a competitive edge in the market. But to keep deriving these and more benefits, it is a must to regularly review what is happening in the digital marketing arena and make suitable adjustments that will keep your business on top.
As the year comes to a close, it is the right time to define what efforts need to keep being sustained, and what may require a change or be eliminated entirely.
What to Do
1. Online Shopping Support
We are still a long way off from returning to normal lifestyles. People are still stuck at home and will continue to indulge in online shopping as a convenience and necessity. Businesses that have not made this accommodation must do so to survive. Those that are already doing so need to up their game by providing an even better online experience for consumers. From more detailed product descriptions to advanced voice search functions, making it easier for shoppers to find what they need will be vital.
2. Machine Learning and AI Adoption
Machine learning and AI have proven instrumental in making customer online shopping experiences more personalized. By learning from the online users’ activities, these technologies help to guide them right to what they want, enhancing lead generation and eventual sales. From chatbots to recommended products, this technology use needs to be enhanced by businesses that hope to drive more sales and wish to collect valuable data that will further aid their marketing efforts.
3. Mobile Friendliness
As people are now by default having to increasingly operate remotely, it pays to have a highly responsive website design. More so one that is mobile friendly. People are making more and more use of their smaller devices to access information and businesses online. So you need to ensure that even on such small screens, they can still easily navigate and view what they want.
4. Up Your Speed
People are less patient when working off of mobile devices. If your site takes too long to load, they will quickly go back or simply close the window and move on. This decision can be made within 2 or 3 seconds. Make whatever changes you can to such areas as resizing images, updating site scripts, and changing your host provider to ensure your site speed is optimal.
5. Video Marketing
Video marketing is expected to gain even more traction in the coming year. Videos offer much more visual detail than images, which is more helpful to consumers at a time when they cannot go out and check out merchandise in person. Do invest in informative product videos that will stir interest in online users.
6. Enhance Social Experiences
Social media platforms continue to dominate in the marketing industry. Businesses will however need to do more to exploit these channels. Rather than just use them to marketing new products and respond to feedback and comments, they should also make them a shopping platform. Making it easier for online users to complete their transactions from this point will be a big help in boosting sales. People do not like having to shift from one platform to another, so making this accommodation will be a boon.
7. Mobile Apps
There has been a sizable increase in app usage in 2020. This is unlikely to abate. Businesses need to adopt and encourage this use amongst their customers. It will help in product promotions, manage loyalty programs, and even support efforts to go paperless. Try to include as many value-adding functions that will encourage downloads.
What Not to Do
8. Allow Pop-Ups
Sure they are a good revenue source and can help capture some marketing data. But they can be very annoying. More so on small devices like smartphone screens. No one likes having to struggle to try to close a very small ad that is blocking your view of the content you want. It makes for a negative customer experience and can discourage repeat visits. If you must have them, keep them to a minimum and have highly visible close functions.
9. Compromise Consumer Data
As businesses collect data on their online users it is important that they address privacy concerns. Recent scandals have resulted in calls for stronger data privacy frameworks, both within organisations and with third-party providers. Businesses will need to undertake more stringent measures in the coming year to avoid disruptions and damage to their reputations. Building trust with online users will have a significant impact on their bottom line.
2020 has been a tough year for many businesses and people around the world. By putting the right frameworks in place, we can all help to ensure that 2021 is a year to remember for the right reasons, for businesses and people alike.
The team at SB Digital wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.