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3 Digital Marketing Trends You Need To Know About in 2021 - read the full article about Social Media Marketing trends 2021, Social Media Marketing and from ThinkLions on Qualified.One
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2020 May have thrown your business, a curveball, but Im going to show you how to knock your marketing strategy out of the park in 2021. After this video, youll know exactly what you need to do to explode your marketing results and position your business to WIN! Im sure there are hundreds of videos on YouTube right now, discussing post-pandemic trends in the marketing world - but just knowing about these trends isnt enough. Information doesnt grow your business, application does.
And thats why Im not just going to tell you which techniques are trending - but Im also going to give you actionable steps so that you can apply them immediately. If youre ready to hit the accelerator on your business strap in, its going to be a fun ride. Lets go! Hey guys, Im Mike Sims from ThinkLions, and on this episode of Startups Squared, Im going to show you three marketing trends to boost your brand presence, traffic, and sales in 2021.
Im going to explain the steps you need to take to connect more effectively with your customer in todays market, tell you why its important, and show you exactly how to do it. As a marketer and entrepreneur, I know the impact that the pandemic has had on small businesses and startups like yours. Since March 2020, 100,000 businesses have permanently closed, and some of your favorite businesses may not exist by the end of this year.
Its a scary situation and youre not alone. Over the last month, Ive felt the anxiety of my own clients when they talk about their outlook for next year. And in this video, Im going to show you how Im leveraging todays market trends to completely rebuild their marketing approach.
If you want to grow your marketing results in 2021, the first thing you need to do is perform a customer analysis and reassess who your customer is today. Weve all been through a lot over the past year, and many of us are different people with totally different situations than we were just one year ago.
The problems your customers faced previous to COVID may not be the same challenges that they face today. For example, if your brand sells business formal clothing - it would have been smart in 2019 to promote images of people at business meetings or corporate events wearing your brand. But since we arent back to doing face-to-face meetings yet, your old marketing message probably wouldnt be relevant today.
If you want to reach more customers, now is the time to connect deeply with them, learn about their challenges, and assess their frustrations. Find out how their lives have changed, and how their purchasing habits have changed along with it.
If you analyze your customer well enough, you will likely find new ways to promote your product, to fit directly with what their needs are TODAY.
Now that you know what to do, let me explain how to do it.
And this one is easy because if you want to know who your customer is today - YOU CAN JUST ASK.
You can run customer interviews or launch a survey to get direct answers to your questions.
Or you can find groups on social media where your customers already communicate frequently, and read their posts to learn more about their thoughts.
Well talk more about social media later in the video. The point is, find your customer, find out who they are - and shift your marketing focus to address who they are TODAY. The second trend you should focus on in 2021, if you want to improve your marketing strategy is increasing your online video content. It doesnt matter whether you cut hair or build cars, if you want people to see your product or service, then you should provide them with quality visuals on the platforms where they are the most active. Without a doubt, video has become our preferred way to consume content - and the pandemic has only heightened our demand for video. Consider this.
Around 50% of adults spend more time on social media platforms today than they did before the COVID outbreak, and 39% are watching more video now than they did previously.
Some studies report that by the end of 2021, the average person will spend more than 100 minutes per day, watching videos online. And what are they watching? Well, theyre watching all types of things - but what they should be watching is engaging video from YOUR brand.
Producing great video content doesnt have to be challenging or expensive.
From explainer videos to promo videos, product showcases to video testimonials -- there are many ways that you can take advantage of video content to show off your business, your product, or even YOU as the face of your brand.
For the sake of time, I wont go into all the details of how to create a video content marketing strategy, shoot videos, and promote them, because really - strategies will differ based on things like your industry, your budget, and your resources.
But what I will tell you is - if you want to know how video is working for your industry, find your biggest competitor and look at what type of video content theyre producing, how often theyre posting, what type of videos are getting engagements, and how theyre leveraging those videos for more traffic and sales.
If you analyze their strategy, youll likely find hidden insights that will give you an idea of whats working and whats not.
And heres the key - your video doesnt need to be a cinematic film - with a little bit of research, you can easily learn how to capture quality video right from your smartphone.
I told you that wed speak a little bit more about social media, because really, social media and video content is like cereal and milk.
Sure, theyre fine apart, but when you put them together.
Thats when the heavens really open up.
Before you start promoting your video content, you have to determine which platforms your customers are actually using.
Every social media platform has its own personality, its own rules, and its own culture. Things that are acceptable on Twitter, might get you cussed out on Reddit. For business-related videos, LinkedIn might be the best platform to promote - while Instagram might be perfect for a company that sells super visual products like apparel or some cool widget - or a visual service like luxury real estate sales for instance. Theres one major tip that I can give you about promoting your videos, its this - find your platform and take advantage of it.
Video content strategies often fall flat because an entrepreneur put too much energy into too many platforms, instead of just concentrating on the one that works. Coming up, were going to discuss a way to immediately showcase your products and services to new markets, and then, Ill give you a bonus tip that helped one of my customers double their digital traffic during the COVID pandemic. But before we get there, if youre looking for tips and tutorials, so you can grow your business exponentially, hit the like and subscribe bottons.
And if youve tested a new marketing strategy that boosted your traffic - let us know about it in the comments below, and maybe well detail it more in our next video.
If video content isnt already a part of your marketing strategy, then tomorrow, you should be thinking about how you can incorporate it with your brand.
And if youre already winning with video today, then you should be thinking about how you can expand that strategy.
Because video consumption is going up - whether its your content being consumed or someone elses. I probably said this 3 or 4 times already, but its worth me stating again - whatever fears you have about marketing in 2021, youre not alone.
And the fact that so many entrepreneurs feel just like you, presents yet another opportunity.
And that leads me into a third trend - partnerships.
Because I feel like many times, only huge brands really take advantage of the benefits of partnerships.
But especially in times like today, when many businesses are looking for solutions, co-branding can help both companies reach new markets and increase revenue.
In business, co-branding happens all the time. For example; Red Bull often partners with GoPro to sponsor different events.
Since they are both lifestyle brands, they serve a very similar market with two products that dont compete with each other.
Apple and MasterCard partnered on a project which eventually became Apple Pay.
So every time you see someone swipe their iPhone across a credit card terminal - thats partnerships in action. And of course, theres the one partnership that changed the world. In fact, this is probably my favorite partnership in history - The Dorito Taco.
Partnerships dont have to result in new products.
They can be advertising exchanges where we add each others brands to our email newsletters, or even some sort of co-branded webinar.
It could even be a discount given to your partners customers for your products, or some other type of co-marketing opportunity.
Really the possibilities with partnerships are endless, but before you go trying to create the next Darito Taco, there are three things that you should ask: First, are there any businesses that serve your market with a non-competitive product? Think about GoPro and Red Bull.
They both target extreme athletes, but GoPros cameras are no threat to Red Bulls energy drinks.
Once youve found a potential partner, you should determine how both of you can benefit from one another - whether thats by way of a product bundle, a co-branded product, a virtual event, or something else. Just remember, its only a partnership if it benefits both parties. Finally, you should figure out what is the best way to reach the founder or decision maker at the brand, and what can you do to persuade them to accept your partnership proposal? So Ive told you that Ill give you a bonus tip, and this is a strategy that I use to help a client double their business during COVID - and its one that I know will benefit your business too.
For the sake of confidentiality, I wont tell you the name of my client - or the service they sell.
Because if I told you the service, youd probably know exactly who the client is.
Anyways. Like many of you, my clients saw their sales drop immediately when COVID hit - and customer acquisition was cut in half just like that.
So instead of focusing on acquisition, we focused on retention, and referrals.
So the idea was to retain our current clients, and convince them to refer us to their networks.
So we pushed deals and discounts out to all their existing customers, we had customer service agents reaching out simply just to thank them for being a customer.
We even offered the biggest referral discount that theyve ever offered before, and we gave major discounts to customers for upgrading their packages.
In other words, instead of trying to get more customers, we focused on the ones that they already had - and not only did they increase their revenue that month - they doubled it.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this video and Ill see you in the next one.
ThinkLions: 3 Digital Marketing Trends You Need To Know About in 2021 - Social Media Marketing