Digital marketing is where your customers are and where they want you to be – in other words, the old marketing playbook is broken (not dead, just broken) and consumer behaviour is rapidly changing, says Saoirse Blaney, business development executive at Sendmode.
Digital marketing represents the coming together of technology and psychology in a unique fascinating way. If, at heart, a marketer's goal is to create campaigns that speak directly to a given audience in a way that is both authentic and effective, technology offers powerful new ways to learn more about what an audience really wants and what will really matter to them.
Rather than tuning into traditional marketing channels – newspapers, yellow pages, and print ad – your customers are tuning out as they are deep in the world of all things digital.
So if you're not represented in this space, it's time to figure out why and how to get there – and fast.
An increase in influencer marketing
Small businesses face massive challenges when it comes to marketing their business. Let's face it; the Internet has changed the way the world buys and sells information.
The goal is no longer selling a product but rather making a meaningful connection, and creating a community around your brand. Consumers will do anything in their power to block, skip, and avoid disruptive advertising, with e-marketers predicting there will be a 24% increase in consumers downloading ad blocking software in 2018. Ad blocking is paving the way for the creation of organic, natural touchpoints to reach consumers – giving influencers a platform to work with brands.
What used to be a matter of identifying needs and communicating benefits now requires us to build immersive experiences that engage consumers.
Content, content, and more content
Traditional disruptive marketing practices are becoming less and less popular as the goal for brands has shifted from selling a product to creating a meaningful connection with the consumer. Brands are now creating relevant and useful content to help customers and potential customers solve issues they may have.
Your content helps attract your reader, educate them, and exchange some information or a special offer for their personal information. Content marketing means the buyer is the expert and the one proactively reaching out to brands and businesses for help. They have done the research before they have reached out to you meaning that they have narrowed down their decision.
The use of augmented reality integrated through social media
As our mobiles are getting more powerful and social media apps are better integrated with AR, brands will more than likely us AR to better engage with consumers.
For example, using your location, brands could trigger sponsored AR content.
More SEO landing pages
Historically, SEO landing pages were large blocks of text, which were meant to satisfy the search algorithms. We are seeing more SEO landing pages with advanced design elements.
Now that Google is favouring user experience more, marketers can no longer except these text-heavy pages to rank. People only read 20% of a page's content, so use design elements to choose that 20% and guide your visitors.
Over the years, Sendmode has incorporated many of the above into our marketing strategy in a bid to find what works for us. Digital marketing can, at times, be frustrating and we've learned that the same strategy may not always work for every company. You have to find what works best for you and your customers.
For more information, visit www.sendmode.co.za. You can also follow Sendmode on Facebook or on Twitter.