Marketing is an industry that has been around forever, however, continues to produce fresh and new ways to capture an audience’s attention. Over history, marketing has progressed in forms alongside emerging industries such as technology, allowing businesses to effectively communicate the value of their product or service through unique positioning towards consumers.
With this year starting off in a bit more of an unorthodox manner due to the viral pandemic that has seemed to take over the world, use of digital marketing within your business is crucial. This is a way for you to continue to keep revenues stable as it allows you to engage all those people sitting at home scrolling through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram day in day out.
Top Digital Marketing Trends We’ve Found In 2020
Regardless of what type of business you are, digital marketing trends are not something that you can not ignore if you wish to keep up with competitors, let alone grow.
Using Social Media in Marketing
Social media isn’t anything new these days, however, the way businesses are attracting audiences through unique platform-based marketing strategies is. Business presence on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Youtube are key indicators for how well a business is managing its digital marketing campaign. Although these platforms are essential forms of engagement towards consumers, the manner in which you promote your products and brand can often be very different across these platforms.
The ability to capture someone’s attention in a split second can be a powerful tool. Instagrams explosive presence among the social media market has totalled up to approximately a billion active users as of January 2020 (Business Instagram) with 500 million of those users regularly posting to their stories.
The thought of being able to simply post something reflecting or regarding your brand and have that message reach such a large audience with little to no effort is something that all businesses should take advantage of. With 90% of users on the application actively following multiple corporate instagram accounts, it is a sure-fire way to build brand awareness through creative and trending topics.
It is important to work from a platform’s strengths. It might seem a bit absurd to think of Facebook as a more ‘formal’ page, however in comparison to Instagram, it is. Almost 70% of Instagram’s users range from the ages of 18 – 35, leaving it with a very young demographic. As a marketer, you should use this to your advantage and display your brand in a way that will leave an impression upon your followers.
Although we discussed Facebook as a more formal method of marketing, it is by no way meant to be utilized as a formal report structure. Brands can use Facebook as a long-form method to market their product. Where Instagram captures the audience, Facebook informs.
From start-up, SMB to enterprise, a publically listed page on Facebook is a great way to connect with millions of people around the world. Again as a Brand, you should utilize facebook’s strengths as a means to market your product or service, allow Facebook to be a central hub for new and interesting ideas based around your business.
Facebook has a unique user base with every individual having certain tastes. Targeted Facebook ads can guide your marketing KPI’s in a way that achieves results, reaching out to users that are more likely to be interested in your business than others.
YouTube
In recent years strategies like content marketing have gained a lot of attraction in the marketing sector as it revolves around content creation and sharing online information as a means to stimulate interest for a brand. In 2019, SmartInsights listed content marketing as its number one digital marketing tool and this is due to the growing popularity of social media-based marketing.
In particular, using platforms like YouTube has been a great way for businesses to leverage their products or services upon viewers organically. Organically because YouTube is owned by Google and Google controls search results. This means Google always favours YouTube content. It’s why specialist agencies such as PetriDigital are popping up globally. With YouTube being the 3rd largest website on the internet to date (BusinessInsider), its unique ability to capture an audience and increase awareness upon your business could result in immense growth potential.
With all that traffic on one website, your content can often struggle to rank in regards to others, however, the need for millions of views and subscribers in order to stand out is a common misconception among people. Optimizing your content in a way that stands out from the general public can be a very powerful tool for businesses in order to generate not only brand awareness but revenue.
There are often 2 common problems when it comes to effectively marketing your business on a platform like YouTube. Either you are gaining a sufficient amount of attraction towards your content, yet your click-through rate is poor, or, you are just struggling to gain any attention and engage a sufficient viewer base. These problems can often be attributed to a lack of video optimization.
Using Webinars in Marketing
Online education has become more and more prominent with all types of brands, brands inherently understand the importance of educating prospects and users that ultimately builds brand resonance. technology continues to advance, so too does our ability to reach out and connect with people in a live format. Additionally, the implementation of social distancing upon many countries around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a boom in online-based learning.
Webinars are a very useful tool for businesses to showcase their expertise and create interest towards particular goods or services. Approximately 30% of people who attend a webinar become a potential customer says ReadyTalk. Highlighting just how effective these sessions can be in generating sales for your business.
With the extensive amount of qualifications people have the ability to attain in 2020 online, webinars can allow businesses to engage potential customers in a more unique way than ever before.
A great example of how brands are utilising Webinars is from the Online Creator Institute, whereby we have webinars running every 15 minutes automatically with the option for direct responses throughout the webinar. You can find the example here.
Using Podcasts in Marketing
Podcasts are a growing trend among the world today as we continue to develop online based interaction methods. With a growth rate of more than 100% in the last 2 years, podcasts can allow your business to connect with your stakeholders about your products and services and gain insights through a more natural method of communication.
Podcasts are a medium that strengthen your brand awareness without forcefully promoting or pushing for sales. These allow for you as a brand to connect with your customers in a unique way that can accompany them in a vast majority of settings, from exercising to working.
Reasons to Use Podcasts as Your Marketing Tool
- They Strengthen Your Brand
- They are Different
- It’s a Growing Trend
- You Reach an On-the-Go Audience
- They are Readily Accessible to Anyone
- Speaking is Quicker Than Writing
Podcasts should be used in a marketing approach that is a much more casualised way of creating brand awareness, however, podcasts can engage listeners and potential customers in a way that cannot be matched with regular forms of marketing. They are a great way to discuss recent news or topics related to your niche. If you are attempting to be a leader in your market, your audience will want to hear regular up to date information from you. In time this can often build a form of trust and reliance from your audience to you and encourage your audience to recommend you to a friend, family, co-workers etc.
Connecting to your customers is an important task as it allows a business to gain an outside perspective on what their products or services do right or wrong. Podcasts can help your business create a stronger customer relationship through feedback, customer based topics and even including customers on your podcasts to have a general discussion about relevant topics.
As technology is developing, businesses must adapt their marketing strategies in order to maintain customer relationships and cement their brand awareness. Hopefully some of these trends can get your business on the right path to creating a solid digital marketing foundation.