There’s a reason why there are nearly 700,000 marketing specialists found in the United States. The days of traditional print, radio, and television marketing are quickly coming to an end.
These days, it’s all about specialties, like digital marketing. The reality is that most of your audience is online now. So, if you aren’t taking advantage of digital marketing trends to meet them where they’re at, you’re losing out on a valuable demographic.
To help you get started we’ll go over some digital marketing advice on the trends this year. That way you can craft a digital marketing strategy that works for you. Let’s get started!
1. Personalization Is Key
In the past, many marketing attempts focused on appealing to as broad a target audience as possible. But, that’s no longer effective. These days, people want to feel like a person when they visit a site.
And, that means reading content that specifically matches their interests. Before you start making this personalized content you first need to identify your target audience. This means considering things like your customer’s:
- Age
- Income
- Buying habits
- Hobbies
- Education
- Interests
- Gender
Once you create a distinct segment of the population to target you can begin making content that appeals specifically to them. The more precise you get here the better.
There are still lots of untapped markets out there waiting for content that’s personalized to their tastes.
2. SEO Remains on the Rise
Search engines remain one of the main highways that connect consumers to business. So, it makes sense that you’d want to distinguish yourself from the competition by ranking higher on relevant search results.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is still the best way to do this. But, keep in mind that it’s changed since the early days. In the past, you could game the system by taking advantage of the search algorithm.
However, these days you need to combine good SEO with dependable UX or user experience. Creating good content for a well-designed website is the only way to naturally boost your SEO these days.
3. Short-Form Video is Booming
Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to deny the influence that TikTok has had on social media in the past few years. It’s recreated a love for short-form video content that hasn’t been seen since the Vine boom in the early 2010s.
Its influence can be seen everywhere, from Instagram Reels to Youtube Shorts. The good news is that this type of content represents a valuable marketing opportunity.
If you offer a niche product, then it’s a great way to connect with a hyper-specific market. It’s also a great place to show off your products or services.
For example, if you’re a restaurant or food truck, you can bring in a lot of new business by filming short clips of trend-worthy food.
4. Influencer Marketing
Influencer culture has been on the rise since the late 2010s. But, it’s only recently that many businesses have realized the marketing potential of influencers.
By hiring influencers to make ad posts about your product, service, or platform, you get instant access to a segmented audience. What’s more, the audience also trusts the reputation of the influencer.
Just make sure to choose an influencer that makes sense for whatever your business offers. For example, if you’re a makeup company, then choose a social media presence that specializes in beauty content.
5. Content Syndication
There’s nothing worse than working hard on SEO content only to find that it’s not getting shared. Often the problem is that it’s only being shared on the publisher’s website.
Instead, of only publishing it on a single source consider content syndication. This is the process of republishing content on third-party websites and blogs.
This typically involves articles, but it can also include videos and podcasts. Ultimately the goal is to maximize the reach of any content that you create. Make sure to check out this guide if you want to learn more about content syndication.
6. Increased Automation
Many parts of digital marketing still require hands-on work. But, there are also repetitive tasks that can be automated. This saves you valuable time that you can devote to making great content.
So, what areas of your small business digital marketing should you automate? We recommend starting with your email strategy. You can easily automate your email marketing to target specific demographics.
You can also send emails to people who accidentally abandon their carts on your website. This can help save a sale that would have been lost because of customer forgetfulness.
7. Hybrid Events
The COVID-19 forced many companies to get creative with how they handled events. Since people couldn’t meet in person, the virtual event quickly took over. Sometimes, this just took the form of a live stream.
But, there were also more creative digital marketing ideas. For example, there have been music events on video game platforms like Minecraft. There have also been VR components to tradeshows.
As the world returns to normal, companies should take note of the value of hybrid events. By creating a virtual component to an in-person event you can appeal to an even larger demographic.
Enjoy Learning About Digital Marketing Trends? Keep Reading
We hope this article helped you learn more about the digital marketing trends happening this year. It’s important to keep up-to-date on these trends because what works one year might not work another year.
So, if your marketing strategy isn’t evolving with your target audience, then you’re slowly isolating yourself. But, as long as you follow the advice on this list, you’ll be good for this year.
Can’t get enough content? If the answer is yes, then you’re just like us. That’s why we regularly release great new articles for our readers about the latest trends. So, keep exploring until you get your fill.
