Is Digital Marketing Going To Be Saturated In 2022?
Whether you are just starting out or you decided its time to up your digital marketing strategy, it can be difficult understanding where to begin. You might be wondering, is there a “perfect”, one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy that will be an ideal strategy for everyone? The answer, obviously, is no.
It’s officially 2022, and with a new year comes budget and marketing planning. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most effective digital marketing strategies you should consider before commencing on your digital marketing campaign.
This Is What To Keep In Mind For 2022
It’s true, 2022 is going to be the most saturated environment ever in the history of digital marketing, as Neil Patel states. However, there are some important aspects of marketing to keep in mind in order to differentiate yourself. First, it’s so important to spend more time updating your content that is already published, rather than writing new content.
By updating old content on your website, you can get Google to crawl your site more frequently without needing to publish newer content more often. The more Google crawls your site, the more likely your most recent information will show up in search engine results pages (SERP) after publishing, which gives you an advantage in your search engine results rankings.
UPDATE OLD CONTENT TO HELP WITH YOUR RANKINGS
Tweaking and editing content on an old blog post takes far less time and energy than writing something completely new. It’s vital to boost the quality of your blog, making it more relevant to your target market, and your post will be easy to promote on social media. Overall, if your old post already has some authority, you can almost guarantee that it will rank higher for searches after you spend some time updating it.
INFLUENCERS
Believe it or not, influencers are becoming a huge part of marketing in this generation and time period. People are becoming more and more active on social media platforms and people are looking up to those who have a high follower count. Brand awareness is one of the main reasons why marketers use influencer marketing. Influencers tend to have a high follower count on their social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
They have a great power to increase brand exposure for your specific company by reaching a large amount of people in one feed post. If their followers are legitimate and not fake followers and they have a high engagement rate (which you can check beforehand through their social media insights), it is likely that recommendations and products they post about will be noticed and taken into consideration by their followers. This can help make more people aware of your products or services that you are selling.
Adding an influencer to a brand helps blow things up- even if the influencer is a local influencer from your town or from your state. If you can combine influencers with your marketing, you will notice your conversion rates going up. Overall, increasing the number of likes, comments, reposts, and shares you receive on social media posts can sometimes be a struggle, especially if your brand is new to the market and not known by many people yet. Working with influencers can help you create some really engaging, eye-catching and unique content, which will lead to increased engagement on your channels.
TAKE AN OMNICHANNEL APPROACH
Omnichannel marketing is the integration and implementation of various channels that companies use to interact with their target consumers. While multichannel focuses on engaging customers, omnichannel on the other hand, focuses on improving customer experience. Instead of only offering support on its desktop website, for example, a company would offer support through Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, live chat, email, and phone. The overall goal of this is to create a consistent brand experience. Omnichannel marketing enables consumers to engage with brands on their own terms, leading to a better customer experience overall. Today, consumers have more options than ever before to gain information on whatever it is they want. For example, while using SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn are all important, you should never solely rely on just one of these platforms for all of your marketing.
It’s true, some platforms may not perform as well as others or even drive as much traffic and volume as others, but that’s totally okay. If you decide to take an omnichannel approach to your marketing, you will end up performing better in the long run and won’t have to worry about algorithm changes. Thus, When you have a marketing strategy that implements the same message over multiple channels, you are strengthening your brand and becoming a leader in your industry. Through taking an omni-channel retail, marketing, or service strategy approach, you’ll be reaching your customers where they are. They no longer will have to search to find you.
ALWAYS TRACK YOUR ACTIVITY
For example, once your ads are on a digital platform, you need to track how well they are performing. Or, if you post something on your social media platform and want to determine how well this post is performing online, you can navigate to that platform’s insights section to view this information.
First, determine what activity is considered a success for your company. A purchase? Likes on a social media page? An email? Or, activities such as visitors sharing their contact information on your website, purchasing your products, and claiming special offers show that your customers are responding to your ads! However, metrics that show a high bounce rate, minimal purchases, and unopened emails tell you that your approach needs to change. When tracking activity on your website, take advantage of website usability records- livestat or heatmaps. Website usability records allow you to view your website through the eyes of your customer. This is the best tool on the market for understanding your customer experience and for optimizing your website for usability. You have the ability to watch every click and every scroll of the mouse to learn what’s working and what is not on your website.
CREATE SHOPPABLE CONTENT
The world of shopping has greatly changed. In today’s time period, people can buy a product through an Instagram post. Because so many people search for products and inspiration on social media, shoppable content has become an important marketing tactic in today’s time period. Shoppable content is a digital asset, such as a social media post, image, video or ad, that consumers can click through to make a purchase. Believe it or not, storytelling is key to creating shoppable content that people actually want to purchase from. All effective shoppable content should follow the ABCD framework:
A– Attract attention from the start-preferably with a hook.
B– Integrate your brand early, naturally and meaningfully
C– Connect with the viewer emotionally and through storytelling
D– Be clear on what you want people to do- ask them to take a specific action
For example, if your brand earned a specific award in relation to the products or services you are selling, you may want to elaborate this to your viewers. How can this benefit them? Why should they specifically be interested in your products or services compared to your competitors? Consider how you can make your content story-driven to make it more shoppable for viewers. Make sure you stay true to your brand and what you claim. Remember, you can be both, a great storyteller and a great seller.
Traditional Face To Face Marketing
Face-to-Face Marketing is the act of directly marketing to prospective customers through in-person communication and interaction. Face-to-face marketing can include scheduled meetings, product or service demonstrations, or exhibitions and events such as trade shows. As thousands of ad campaigns are delivered to each potential customer online every day and hundreds of social media posts are published on a yearly basis, digital marketing strategies can often get lost in the noise – emails may not be opened, content can be missed or ignored, or ads may not be seen. Meeting a prospective customer in person, delivering a smile, and shaking the person’s hand is an engaging and effective way to market and sell your product or service by developing a personal connection that is not achieved through virtual communication.
FACE-TO-FACE MARKETING IS A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE FOR THE PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMER
A face-to-face meeting is an opportunity to create a personalized experience with the customer that leaves them feeling appreciated and special and even increases the probability of making a sale or gaining them as a customer.
MORE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION THROUGH FACE-TO-FACE MARKETING
Written words over a text message or an email are open to misinterpretation. The tone of an email can often be misread or leave the reader feeling confused. This is because you may interpret something one way, and your customer may interpret the same thing in a completely different manner. A conversation in person is more natural and effective due to the fact that we can use a tone of voice, body language and facial expressions to convey our message and understand the responses of the customer. Human interactions such as handshakes and natural conversation help to build a rapport, makes the customer feel more understood and portrays an emotional connection between the customer and your business.
INCREASED TRUST THROUGH FACE-TO-FACE MARKETING
In-person communication through events, dinners or meetings with prospective customers offers a platform to showcase your business, speak about your story, and make your business more visible, thus increasing brand awareness whilst helping to develop a sense of trust. Customers feel more secure when they recognize a brand and are able to speak to someone in person. The communication is proven to be done better in person versus over a phone call, a video call, an email, or text. Customers can have their questions clearly answered in person and communication can run more smoothly. Trust is developed through this personal connection at face-to-face meetings and will without a doubt encourage long-term loyalty.
Storytelling In Digital Marketing
All successful brands create a narrative, something that positions them as a unique, and one-of-a-kind company that creates an emotional connection with the customers. A brand story tells the motivation for starting the business, and why you get up and do what you do every day, why customers should care about what your business has to offer, and why they should trust you over your competitors.
STORYTELLING ENABLES FOR A DEEPER CONNECTION WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Jumping into the storytelling mindset allows for more traditional marketing methods. Storytelling enables marketers to develop a deeper connection with their audience. Storytelling is a fundamental human experience that unites people and drives stronger, deeper connections. For example, shaking hands and having face-to-face interactions- a more personable approach to consumers. Storytelling was a method used by cavemen to communicate, educate, share, and connect with each other.
STORYTELLING ALLOWS YOU TO LEARN
Another aspect why storytelling should be a priority for marketers is because Storytelling is a very powerful method for learning. Stories are captivating to the human brain. We use stories to share information, express ourselves, pass down our values and relate to one another through our experiences. In business, storytelling has the power to set your business apart from your competitors. As a marketer, we must make it a priority to learn more about the world we live in, the brands that we represent, and the consumers that we serve through our company. One of the things that is unique about stories is that they transmit knowledge and meaning. We as human beings learn from observations and experiences. Storytelling can be a powerful tool. It enables marketers to understand what is going on in the marketplace, and what that means for the customer, consumer, society, brand, and company.
STORYTELLING CONVEYS A PURPOSE & STICKS WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Storytelling conveys purpose, and businesses with purpose are the ones that ultimately stand out among other similar businesses. Stories are so easy for people to process because they are condensed, memorable, meaningful and can convey a variety of emotions. Facts and statistics can be interesting as well, but people also forget them very quickly. They are able to catch people’s attention and remain with them for long periods of time, especially when they are using your products or services. This will ultimately result in customer loyalty.