The future of digital marketing: 5 ways to prepare for it

As with anything else, the past couple of years has seen a lot of changes in how businesses operate and promote themselves online. The Covid-19 pandemic significantly disrupted the digital marketing landscape, forcing marketers to go back to the drawing board.

Are you looking for new strategies to implement in your digital marketing campaigns in 2021 and beyond? This post is exactly what you need. We’ll go over five effective ways to help your business attract new customers, retain the current ones and boost revenues.

Siri ushered in a new era of voice search in 2011, arguably the easiest way to research online information online. According to Google, over 20% of search queries are currently done through voice. With the introduction of devices like Alexa and Google Home, users are finding it more convenient to request information via voice search, with this figure expected to rise in the years ahead.

The first step to implementing voice search effectively is to create content that adopts conversational terms and phrases to improve searchability. This includes focusing on ranking for long-tail keywords, ensuring you practice proper on-page SEO for mobile devices, and taking advantage of the FAQs section.

Leverage artificial intelligence

Your digital business can greatly benefit from the correct use of artificial intelligence. AI offers marketers valuable insights on user behavior, trends, and campaign performance. These combined can help you optimize the overall communication and transform how you engage with customers.

Once AI tools collect the data, it’s possible to understand your audience better and offer more personalized content. Besides, these tools can help to boost your business’s productivity by automating the majority of repetitive tasks to save both time and money. For example, you can implement Python and related programming languages to help with market data collection and analysis. Not sure how to do that? These Python lessons will take you from a complete beginner to a master coder within weeks!

Another area where AI can come in handy is in the e-commerce space. Website owners can display their products and services relevant to users based on searches, purchases, views, and previous behavior. By leveraging this AI digital marketing strategy, marketers can easily target the right audience with the deals they can’t refuse. The result? Higher ROI and reduced cost of marketing.

Invest in short-form videos

Short-form video is the new norm as people look for entertainment to reduce boredom. It is no coincidence that TikTok is taking over as the most preferred platform for Gen Z. Recently, Facebook launched Instagram Reels and Snapchat was redesigned to corporate event catering to short-form video content.

Given the demand for quick and catchy videos, marketers targeting younger customers must spend a part of their budgets in the Invest in short-form videos. TikTok launched a business section earlier this year to expand its paid promotion and advertising options. It’s wise for marketers to start studying up on this platform now.

Keep in mind that short-form videos may seem simple, but a lot of work goes into customer research, creativity, and strategy. It’s high time you start communicating your brand purpose, values, and CTAs in a simple, short and snappy way.

Generate more interactive content

Interactive content includes polls, quizzes, assessments, surveys, trivia, and pretty much anything that requires user input. Creating custom experiences for your ideal customer can allow your brand to connect better with users, which is vital for successful marketing.

Polls and quizzes in particular have a higher engagement rate than most interactive content types. Yet, they provide an opportunity for you to collect information about your customers, such as email addresses, in exchange for access to their preferences or assessment results.

This information can be helpful for your lead generation, but you will also gather some helpful analysis about what kind of information and products your customers want to see. Interactive content marketing helps your brand stay relevant, whether you are offering fun quizzes or professional assessments.

Use chatbots

Chatbots, sometimes referred to as talkbots, are a perfect example of the use of AI technology. These online tools are controlled by computer programs to mimic human speech and text. They play the role of virtual assistant and can help you engage with customers in a better way.

Although this technology is far from being perfected, bots can reply to a conversation with the most similar wording pattern. Some are so intelligent that they can suggest new ideas and even demonstrate emotion and humor. These tools can influence users on a massive level as they offer a highly personalized conversation with numerous people. Messaging platforms such as Slack, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter now heavily rely on chatbots for their customer relations.

You should consider adding chatbots to your websites, apps, emails, and text messages. Adding these to your digital marketing strategy will take a huge amount of work off your hands, especially if you have a small customer care team.

Additionally, businesses can store personal information from chatbot conversations with users to customize user experiences. When you understand a customer, it’s easier to recommend personalized offers and convert them to purchasing customers in less time.

Which other new trend do you predict will influence the future of digital marketing? Share your feedback with us in the comments below.

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