The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing. The techniques and strategies that used to work no longer do and new ones are always evolving. For marketers to create user loyalty, stay ahead of the competition and boost brand awareness and sales, they need to keep abreast of current trends, strategies, and technology.
Here are eight online marketing strategies and tactics to consider when creating a digital marketing plan for 2019. While the mode of execution and the level of importance they play in a marketing plan will vary from company to company, they will help any brand build its online presence.
1. Explore New Content Mediums
Exploring new marketing platforms is essential to improving the effectiveness of your digital marketing program. It’s no secret that good content boosts traffic and engagement. Good content doesn’t just need good crafting, it also needs uploading the message in a format and channel that’s appealing to your target audience.
To find out which channels will improve ROI and drive your business, just ask your customers the platforms they are active on and look for opportunities to expand on those channels. Some content marketing platforms you can try out include Facebook advertising, Facebook Live, IGTV, YouTube Ads, Podcast or Webinars.
2. Reorganize Your Website
Search engines have recently changed their search ranking algorithms, instead of favoring metadata and keywords, they now look at other factors that help in understanding the authority and relevance of the content in a website. These factors include:
- Domain authority (DA) – this is a search engine ranking score that predicts a website’s ability to appear on search engine results pages. DA ranges from 1 – 100, with higher scores representing a greater ability to rank.
- External/internal ranking factors – search engines rely on signals created by a brand’s website as well as other websites. Factors that are under the control of webmasters include inbound links, the relevance of referring pages, duplicate content, keywords, and domain trust to name a few. External factors include external backlinks, average customer reviews, the number of shares and the current number of ranked pages.
- On-page SEO – optimized individual web pages is another factor that search engines use to rank a website. On-page SEO techniques you can consider include using social share buttons, incorporating multimedia, optimizing images
If your brand has dabbled in the digital marketing space or you simply need help re-organizing your website, contracting an experienced digital marketing agency is a great idea. You can also consider web hosting plans when organizing your site. Be sure to choose web hosting servers that are fast, have few users per server, and have no limits on databases, parked domains, hosted domains, subdomains, mail accounts or FTP users.
3. Video Marketing
Video content is another digital marketing essential you shouldn’t miss in 2019. Many marketers are prioritizing video content over other types of content and for good reason. Numbers show that 64% of customers are more likely to purchase a product after watching a video. Additionally, 70% of consumers say that they have shared a company’s video and 72% of brands say video has improved their conversion rate.
For higher engagement with your video marketing, think beyond YouTube. You can make a video post or live stream on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a perennial digital marketing strategy that has a relatively low cost to produce. While this strategy is key to a successful marketing campaign, things have changed over time.
Today, consumers prefer emails with a simple design. Heavy imagery and extraneous design elements burden emails to the point many consumers don’t want to open it. Your emails should also be optimized for mobile since more than half of email activities come from mobile devices. Also, be sure to provide tailored content that matches your audience’s personal needs – the message should resonate with the previous interactions they have had with your brand.
5. AI and VR Will Help A Lot
Several years ago, marketers were reluctant to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) into their digital marketing strategies. Today, marketers have gained confidence in using AI and VR since its ambiguity has been cleared up with respect to the outcomes it can provide.
A survey conducted by Salesforce on 3,500 marketing experts showed that 51% of marketers are already using AI and VR with a further 27% planning on incorporating it in 2019 and 2020.
These tools hold exceptional opportunities in the field of digital marketing. They enable predictive analysis, content creation, personalization of user experience on a website, and targeted marketing.
6. Transparency
Marketing and advertising have for years had a negative stigma around them. Sales reps and marketers are perceived as deceitful due to their unethical advertising/sales techniques and exaggerated promises. Consequently, consumers are becoming more skeptical and reluctant to believe the pitch.
Marketers should remember that there is an abundance of places where customers share their experiences. This means consumers are more clued to the shortcomings and less flattering aspects of brands and products.
Now more than ever marketers should adopt the approach of pure transparency. This includes ensuring the reality lives up to the marketing promises, admitting where there are faults and addressing negative feedback directly.
7. More Local-Based Focus
Local-based marketing is a powerful strategy that can drive more targeted customers to your store. It uses contextually relevant content based on a consumer’s geolocation to display relevant brand messages.
Done successfully, location-based marketing boosts engagement and improves response rates by up to 5x. It also deepens a brand’s connection with its target audience, attracts more customers and improves ROI.
8. Use a Marketing Tech Stack
It’s almost impossible to build anything with only one tool, especially your marketing and sales pipeline. A marketing software stack is a set of software subsystems or components used to streamline daily marketing activities and increase efficiency.
Tools like Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Nutshell can help marketers manage interactions with current and potential customers while platforms like Hubspot Lead Generation Software, OptinMonster and CoSchedule Headline Analyzer help turn visitors into leads.
Marketing trends, strategies, and technologies change very quickly. Some of them reshape the industry while others are just a passing fad.
As a marketer, it is important that you look for new strategies and capitalize on every opportunity. Also, be sure to employ these eight essentials in 2019 as they will help you stay ahead of the competition and succeed in your marketing efforts.