10 Digital Marketing Trends To Adapt In Order to Stay on Top
The future looks bright in the world of digital marketing, not only because of the unbelievable rise in technology but due to the Pandemic, the world is facing. The number of individuals who go online every day is still rising despite the immense internet accessibility. Everybody knows that offline marketing isn't as effective and efficient as it used to be. As we all managed to work and study from home, Covid-19 has brought online technology to more people than we think.
Every other brand has a website or at least a social media presence. Online product/service descriptions and Digital content has become so common that customers depend on them to learn about companies and their products.
To all the companies, marketing specialists, and students pursuing Marketing, it is the time that we know and acknowledges the importance and significance of digital marketing. Forget about the conventional ways of marketing and promoting products and services, the new era has different demands, the world is changing more rapidly than ever before.
Some of the trends to help stay on top are:
1. Position Zero in search engine results:
Position zero is the term used to describe Google’s No-Click
Searches are also known as Featured Snippet, is the answer in a white box at the top of the result page when we search for something.
Searchers don’t click on the article because they get their answers from that top-of-the-page distinguished box. It can be very frustrating for website owners, bloggers, and business owners, but, we have a solution to every problem. Searchers know that you’re providing value when Search engines show your website in featured snippets, add something to these boxes to draw your reader’s attention and persuade them to click on your website.
Updating your page descriptions and titles is one way to do it, making your How-to list interesting and a bit longer, so the details are cut off and people have to click to see the full list. You can also add ratings and reviews to show your authenticity and trustworthiness.
2. Voice Search
The websites using digital voice assistants have proved to be a huge success. The usage of keywords while searching has evolved due to the increase in the usage of voice searches.
For instance, when we have to search about a Cinema, we might type, “AMC”, but while voice searching, we might ask Google, “Where is the closest AMC Cinema?”.
Choose the keywords wisely when writing content for your website, follow the current trends based on the questions searchers may ask from Cortana or Siri. Use this trend and increase your visibility.
3. Visual Search
Searchers, nowadays, also search their queries by uploading an image, instead of tying a description, for example, if a searcher uploaded a photo of a particular place, the search engine will show all the information related to that particular place. Similarly, when a person searches for a product or service, search engines show similar products/services and where to buy them.
Now the question is, how you can transform your digital marketing strategies to drive more traffic to your website?
Consider the following:
Adding an image sitemap will boost the likelihood of dragging traffic to your website.
Using descriptive keywords for images.
You can put high-quality images into your website with proper keywords.
Adding “Alt tags” to all images.
Introducing an image search tool on your website is also a great way to align with new marketing trends.
4. Online Reviews
Everybody knows the importance of online reviews in building or destroying a brand’s image, authentic online reviews define your brand’s trustworthiness, any brand can talk their products or services up, but having many reviews from verified resources can build a competitive advantage for your business.
Google Reviews on Phones are a great way to attract potential customers as it is the most trusted source. Google business listing encourages call-to-action (CTA) and it is the most useful review for businesses. Providing the customers with a direct link to your Google business listing is an effective way to increase the number of reviews, the companies with fewer reviews despite the quality of reviews, get lesser conversions as compared to the companies with 200+ reviews despite the quality of the reviews. Another excellent source of online reviews is Facebook.
5. Interactive Marketing:
Interactive content plays a vital role in providing value to visitors. Get your customers engaged with your website through:
Interactive Storytelling – Marketers can seize opportunities to be as dynamic with content as possible; this may mean adding animation or infographic to a blog post or creating native ads rooted in storytelling that incorporated mixed media elements.
Personalized Content – Use advanced technology to gain insights into customers’ demographics, geographic data, lifecycle information, and more to deliver personalized, relevant content and offers. When you know as much as you can about your customers as individuals, you can create the most meaningful experiences for them. Customers will relate to the content more fully when it is personalized appropriately, and they will be more apt to interact with the content by sharing it.
Layered Information – Educating customers has become a top priority for marketers, and interactive marketing is a smart way to layer in information for consumers by delivering detailed content in increments. Marketers have the ability to tell brand stories by providing snippets of information in easy-to-read quick takes and then delivering more detailed, informative content in other layers to audience members who want to know as much about a topic as possible.
Two-Way Interaction – Two-way interaction initiatives are at the heart of interactive marketing because they give consumers a vehicle for active participation. For example, interactive tools such as quizzes, calculators, branching content, games, and interactive videos provide a more powerful experience for the audience.
6. Shoppable Posts
For those owning an online store, shoppable posts are a great way to ensure success. If you’re a verified presence on Instagram or have over 10,000+ followers, linking your online store address in your bio, posts or stories is an effective way to increase sales, provide value and convenience to the customers as today’s shoppers want to skip the long process of sales funnel. Selling and buying via Social media has never been this easy. Popular social media sites have introduced the shoppable posts feature over the past few years. They’ve made online shopping convenient by letting customers shop products directly in your posts.
7. Social Media Marketing:
Social Media Messaging Apps
Messaging apps through social media provide quick face-to-face interaction between buyers and sellers. Facebook, WhatsApp and WeChat all offer communication through messaging which provides an easy and cost-effective way to produce direct and personalized service to your customers.
Social Media Stories
Social media stories can play a significant role in making your online presence attractive. Stories on Instagram is no doubt an effective way to build a strong digital marketing presence. Stories, having fleeting nature create curiosity and customers don’t want to miss updates like discounts, special offers, prize winners, limited edition products and much more.
Some easy ideas for adding value to your social media stories are:
Reposting tagged content on your business page’s story
Uploading Livestream videos
Creating attractive images and short videos showcasing the features of your product/service.
Utilizing Instagram polls, Q&As, and quizzes feature to build interest in customers and encourage their involvement.
8. Employee Engagement
Having passionate, committed and active employees can play a vital role in your online and offline presence. Your employees are one of the most valuable assets. The employees should also mention and tag the company for which they work to encourage loyalty from customers and build an online community.
For instance, you have a company page where you post all the related content, when the employees of the company comment and share these posts it leads to effective engagement and more traffic to your site.
9. Influencer Marketing
An influencer is someone that people trust in a specific field, such as professional athletes, scientists, and even successful dog trainers. These people have a following online to promote their business, services, or message, and influencer marketing is tapping into these communities that are often large, active, and very loyal to the influencer they follow. Some examples are paying a local chef to post about using produce from your organic, urban farm, or sending your new sneakers to a basketball player to wear in pictures they post.
For effective influencer marketing, you should look for the influencers that align with your company's values and morals so that he/she can provide value to your company and their audience. You should not always look for a person with a huge following, note that an influencer you choose for your brand’s promotion should have active and loyal followers.
10. Mobile-First Websites
Nowadays, the majority of people use their mobile devices to search, the decline in desktop usage has led to the greater importance of making mobile-friendly websites that are smooth and easy to use on any device.
Add streamlined navigation menus
Touchscreen-friendly navigation
Less heavy content on your website to avoid hanging while displaying on phone screens
Ensure proper conversion funnels to keep users going done a path of action
We must recreate and transform our digital marketing expertise that should completely align with the current demand of the market to continue to achieve a competitive advantage and to get the most out of our digital marketing efforts, we should always be evolving and innovating our marketing strategies.
If you’re interested in discussing this more or any other topics on digital marketing, feel free to contact me to keep the conversation going!