To say that we live in changing times is an understatement.
As a business owner digital marketing has grown significantly over the last few years.
The growth of social media channels, the significant development in technology that puts everything in the palm of everyone’s hands, the disruption of many industries as faster and more agile companies start and grow.
It appears that change is becoming faster and faster.
As a business owner it is important that you gain a knowledge of the advancements in digital marketing that you should be using to keep your business top of mind for your ideal clients and prospects.
Here are 5 digital marketing actions you need to start within your business:
Connecting the dots between multiple channels ensuring consistent user experience and encouraging the consumer to engage with your brand at every touchpoint across multiple channels is called omnichannel marketing.
Marketers now need to provide a seamless experience, regardless of channel or device. Consumers can now engage with a company in a physical store, on an online website or mobile app, through a catalog, or through social media.
They can access products and services by calling a company on the phone, by using an app on their mobile smartphone, or with a tablet, a laptop, or a desktop computer. Each piece of the consumer’s experience should be consistent and complementary.
Omni-channel marketing is viewing the experience through the eyes of your customer. It is understanding how the customer experiences your business across all channels. It needs to be seamless, integrated, and consistent.
Omni-channel anticipates that customers may start in one channel and move to another as they progress to a resolution. Making these complex ‘hand-offs’ between channels must be easy for the customer.
Omni-channel is multi-channel is giving the customer an easy experience across all channels that the customer uses.
Here’s a chart from Telco 2.0 Research, illustrating the frequency of multi-device paths to purchase:
2 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence is the branch in computer science that is all about teaching the machine to think and act like a human being.
Machine learning is usually what runs behind AI algorithms.
While AI is all about basically teaching the machine to replace human beings, machine learning is about teaching the machine what a human brain cannot grasp, e.g. complex data mining and future predictions based on current patterns.
Core Elements of Artificial Intelligence Marketing
There are a few key elements that make AI marketing as powerful as it is today, including bid data, machine learning and the right solutions.
Big Data
Big data is a pretty straightforward concept. It refers to a marketer’s ability to aggregate and segment large sets of data with minimal manual work. Marketing teams can then use this data to ensure the right message is being delivered to the right person at the right time, via the channel of choice.
Machine Learning
Machine learning platforms come in handy when marketers try to make sense of this huge data repository. They can help identify trends or common occurrences and effectively predict common insights, responses, and reactions so marketers can understand the root cause and likelihood of certain actions repeating.
Powerful Solutions
Artificial intelligence marketing solutions truly understand the world in the same way a human would. This means that the platforms can identify insightful concepts and themes across huge data sets, incredibly fast. AI solutions also interpret emotion and communication like a human, which makes these platforms able to understand open form content like social media, natural language, and email responses.
3 Voice Marketing
The emergence and fast adoption of digital home assistants, like the Amazon Echo, the Google Dot, and Apple’s Homepod, is causing the new searching behaviour, i.e. voice search (or conversational search).
With voice and on-the-go searching ability, online search queries have become longer and more specific.
But in reality targeting long-tail queries is only the tip of the iceberg. Google had been preparing its algorithm for natural-language searching for ages now.
Thanks to machine learning, Google understands intent and context much better now than it used to which means keyword matching useless. These days keyword research is a more complicated process.
According to Google, nearly 20 percent of searches on Android devices are done through voice. Smart speakers are proliferating, but we should also consider the computer in our pockets. Our phones are actually much more capable than voice-first devices. They are visual, connect us to people and content and tell us where to go.
When developing a strategy, don’t overlook mobile. That means thinking more critically about context. When and where will your customers be searching for you? How can your mobile experience change and evolve to accommodate voice? Where there’s an interface, there’s an opportunity for voice. As the technology gets smarter and people get more comfortable with it, we will see greater adoption. You should not only optimize for it but also have magical and easy-to-use mobile experiences that consider voice.
Voice is not the next big thing, but it will be a bigger deal as voice devices proliferate, 5G comes online and the user experience improves. Don’t be standing still when that happens. Kids treat virtual assistants like friends. They are your future customers.
4 Personalized Marketing
Personalized marketing means providing individualized user experience targeting each separate user of your site or subscriber to your email list.
According to Evergage, nearly 96% of consumers agree that personalized marketing fosters relationship building with the brand. Forrester has found that almost 80% of consumers have recommended, or paid more for a product thanks to a personalized service or experience.
Despite what you may have heard, increasing security and privacy concerns are not going to kill personalized marketing. Today’s consumer expects to receive personalized experience and is ready to give away their personal data in return.
BigCommerce has found that younger generations of consumers don’t mind sharing their personal data in return for perks and personalized experience:
Sites like Netflix, Amazon, and Pinterest, not to mention Google and Facebook, all use personalized marketing campaigns. They mine your search history, what you liked and didn’t like, and provide recommendations for similar products you didn’t even intend to buy.
It’s becoming abundantly clear that consumers want a richer, more personalized shopping experience, whether in-person, online or via mobile.
Research shows they’re willing to provide the personal data necessary to allow for those personalized experiences. In fact, 54% of consumers expect to receive a personalized discount within a day of making themselves known to a brand, and 71% express frustration when their shopping experience feels “impersonal.” Further research shows that 63% of consumers are interested in personalized recommendations and are willing to share their data to receive benefits like credits for coupons and loyalty points, exclusive deals, and special offers on relevant items.
Understanding what consumers want is the key to creating more engaging and effective campaigns.
5 Video Marketing
While YouTube is what many people think of first, video marketing can be utilized across social media platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram stories and Snapchat.
If your videos are short, concise, and entertaining, people will be more likely to share them on other social media sites.
This can have a more substantial impact if an influencer is well-known on the platform, and can put their hat into the ring. These leaders of the industries can help spread the word for your products or content quickly.
Know your target audience, find where they are, and get to work.
The single most important strategy in content marketing today is video. Whether it’s video on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Youtube, the content you need to be thinking about creating and marketing on social for your business is video. Period.
No matter what you’re selling, no matter what your company does, if you don’t have a video marketing strategy for the biggest video platforms, you are going to lose.
And in case you haven’t noticed, the platforms of distribution for video content online have shifted drastically, over the last 18 months. Facebook is getting more daily minutes watched than YouTube, Snapchat’s daily views are now in the billions, and video on Twitter has taken listening and one to one branding to a whole new level.
Live streaming:
There are huge benefits to live streaming (think Facebook Live, as an example.) For one, it has very low production costs. There’s no editing or post-production work required, and as far as equipment goes, you only need a phone or tablet — something most of us already have in our pockets.
Live videos also build brand authenticity. They increase transparency and make companies more relatable and relevant. They also encourage interaction and engagement, and they’re a little bit fun and spontaneous, too (and how many brands can boast that?)
Finally, live videos also offer a two-fold boost in awareness. First, there’s the initial live streaming, which comes with push notifications and live interactions from followers.
And second, there’s the staying power. Live videos stay on the platform after the fact, meaning followers can come back and view them later or potential leads can dive in and learn more about you as they discover your brand. You can also continue to share the videos on your various social feeds for months or even years to come.
E-Learning:
By offering seminars, classes, how-tos and instructional videos, companies can prove themselves to be leaders in their respective industries. They can become the go-to source for advice, guidance and even media commentary in the space.
These e-learning videos are also a great way to monetize your team’s expertise. You can create subscription-based classes or for-purchase modules that add an easy, consistent income stream for your business. You can also use them to cut costs and increase efficiencies internally.
Videos are great for training employees and transmitting company-wide news and information.
360-degree videos
This type of video marketing allows you to deliver full-on experiences for your customers. Also known as spherical videos, they allow the user to physically engage with the content they’re seeing. They can control their view and rotate around, exploring any and all facets of what you’re showing them.
These videos are ideal for generating interest and sparking curiosity. Run a ski resort? Let users explore the view from your highest slope using a 360-degree video.
Have a daycare facility? Let potential parents click around your playspaces to see if it’s the right fit for their kiddos.
In the end, 360-degree videos can help consumers make more informed buying decisions, as well as help spur engagement and overall interest in a brand.
Demo and how-to videos
Videos can also be used to provide more value for your existing customers. Instead of including a lengthy brochure with each product, create a demo video instead.
Show buyers exactly how to set up, install or put together the product they’ve just bought, and walk them through the ins and outs of using it.
What Next?
Moving forward, even though 2020 offers significant challenges the opportunity exists for every business to interact and engage with their customers on a more personalized level.
With today’s technology a business can see the results of a marketing campaign within at least 24 hours if not hours. This leads to more efficient and effective marketing campaigns.
The ability to test and to test fast cannot be undervalued in its strategic importance to a business. A business can allocate their resources, both human and monetary, in a more productive and efficient manner.
No longer will staff be tied up with poor leads but can be directing their attention to more qualified and reliable leads.
No longer do you have to wait days for the results of an advertising campaign.
No longer will you have to wait for someone to send a response to a customer as marketing automation allows you to respond immediately to a customer’s enquiry or action.
A clear and consistent marketing message can be delivered to all potential leads giving a business the opportunity to segment potential leads based upon the actions of the lead.
All in all embracing the disruption and change and implementing responsive and dynamic marketing activities will ensure the future survival for a business.
Photos Supplied By:
Photo by Domenico Loia on Unsplash
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Photo by Tim Bennett on Unsplash
