The post-COVID world is just around the corner, but how will things change for marketers? Today, the speed at which businesses and individuals are going digital has been accelerated to the point where we’ve become dependent on online services.
So, what strategies can boost your marketing efforts in the upcoming year? What tools can increase your effectiveness? How to thrive in 2021, as a digital marketer?
Discover ten strategies that will future-proof your business by focusing on your customers, investing in the right tools, and expanding your digital borders
Focus on the customers you already have
During challenging times, you need to communicate and support your customers. They will appreciate your attention, so regular emails with helpful resources, updates, and supportive messaging can give you an advantage.
When your clients are ready to start buying again, they will remember your brand. Focusing on people (both customers and employees) will benefit your business, bringing loyalty, more awareness, increased engagement, and organic traffic.
Move online
It’s no longer a surprise that everything is shifting online. Businesses that lacked an updated online presence are now working to boost their social media campaigns and tailor them for the new home-based employee.
The focus on e-commerce is strong and automating email communication is also a trend. For the new year, invest in good customer relationship management software. Go the extra mile and offer helpful webinars, or support remote working.
By moving online, you’ll be able to remain engaged with your customers and employees, which is crucial for a business to stay resilient and thrive.
Invest in ads
People use social media to engage and shop more than ever, so you can promote your business via these platforms and remind people that you are part of the new normal. Facebook ads are affordable and can help you showcase deals, discounts, or any promotions you might want to offer.
Ensure you have an excellent social media strategy to close more sales.
Run exclusive discounts
As businesses begin to reopen, many are offering exclusive deals and sales promotions to get more customers interested. Social media and email marketing work well in announcing these promotions. This can work for multiple industries and particularly well for businesses that have been hit hard by the coronavirus—restaurants, for example.
You can offer incentives to your customers, such as freebies, discounts, and similar saving options.
Rethink your communication strategy
This year has demonstrated that people’s priorities and schedules can change unexpectedly, so any previous communication strategies may not be relevant anymore. To stay competitive, you might need to rethink your campaigns, as well as your approach to customers.
It is also a perfect time to focus on informative content that provides answers, reassurance, and useful information about the current situation.
Improve your engagement
Consumers don’t rely on one single channel to make purchase decisions: in fact, 70% of people use three or more channels when researching a purchase. A multi-channel approach enables you to meet clients wherever they are, giving your brand better chances to reach your target.
Expand your borders
People are turning to safer ways of accessing products and services, digitally. Social commerce is on the rise and more consumers are buying based on influencer recommendations.
Expanding your digital borders will enhance efficiency and also promote social distancing. As more people are shopping online, you need to rethink how you connect to your customers.
Your strategies need to enable rapid response to opportunities or threats and creating useful shopping experiences will be crucial in 2021. This also means redesigning your customer journeys for people working from home and shopping at different hours of the day.
Focus on e-services
A trend for next year will be creating new e-service platforms as more businesses seek advice online. Partner ecosystems, public and private, are booming. Marketers can partner with e-health platforms to cross-promote products to wider audiences.
Companies will need to deliver their messages to customers’ devices. So, ensure you can reach your clients’ phones, tablets, and TV screens. Rethink your media mix for the new economy.
Manage your local activity
Tailor your messages to different audiences in various neighborhoods, support local businesses, and community centers. Marketers will need to rethink and create a more granular presence at scale. It will take a new approach based on personalization and renewed strategies for scaling content supply chains and managing performance.
Make a difference
Last, but not least, you can support a cause and choose your projects and partners. You can also determine how to treat your employees and customers. Back up your statements with action and most importantly, ensure you make clear commitments to causes you believe in.
As the world changes at unprecedented speed, to keep your business competitive, never stop optimizing. Optimization is the best way to improve your marketing efforts and get better conversion rates and rankings.
2021 will be all about the speed of reaction to the news, changes, updates, and any fluctuations that may challenge your brand. So, make sure you are well-prepared.
