A new year always brings out reports on the latest consumer trends and forecasts, and what will have the most impact on your marketing efforts. As a digital marketing agency, we keep an eye on the horizon, as you should too, but we also remain steadfast on delivering the digital marketing strategies that elevate our clients’ online presence and drive sales. So, we’ve rounded up a short list of what has proven to be effective and what you should consider implementing in your 2022 marketing strategy.
Ecommerce
If you haven’t figured out by now, the pandemic changed everything. Some would say we were already headed to a more online world, but the past two years have accelerated this pace. Online shopping surged and is showing no signs of slowing down. At the same time, strategies for driving e-commerce have become more sophisticated, and new tools are allowing businesses to better tailor their marketing and online stores to meet consumer demand for a more personalized and streamlined shopping experience.
Data & Data Analysis
Each marketing platform—social media, blogs, emails, website—has analytics attached to it that provide insight into how your prospects and customers are engaging with you. When viewed together, the marketing data and analytics from all your channels will help you better target your ideal prospects and customers, further optimize your website, and strengthen future campaigns. A digital marketing dashboard will provide this overview with real-time reporting, tracking, an analysis of KPIs, and metrics to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts across multiple channels. The data in turn allows you to develop and implement an effective marketing strategy that reaches your customers but is responsive.
SEO & SEM
Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), which may sound like the same thing, are essential for growing your online visibility and driving your website traffic. Before we explain why let’s first clear up some confusion: SEO is an approach that uses organic methods (keywords and phrases in your content) to help you rank higher in search results. SEM is similar but uses paid methods (digital ads) to appear in search results.
Both strategies are valid and can be highly effective, especially when used in tandem. The more your content is finetuned to the keywords and phrases your customers and prospects are using in their online searches, the higher you will rank in results and the more visible you will become online. SEO takes time, though, and is integral to your ongoing marketing strategy. SEM, on the other hand, is an effective immediate strategy as it can drive the number of click-throughs in a much shorter amount of time. With SEM, you are in control of how and when you show up in searches, which also allows you to test different strategies or even drive traffic during slower times.
Content
Content is the backbone of your marketing, but it must be fresh, engaging, resonate with your target audience, remain true to your brand, and be consistently delivered across channels, platforms, and mediums. Whew! That’s a lot to expect from your words, images, and videos. This brings us back to data analytics and SEO. Armed with information about your ideal customer, the words, and phrases they are using in searches, and how they like to engage online, you can tailor your content for maximum impact. You can also create a content strategy that aligns with your business and marketing goals and that will effectively deliver your content to your customers and prospects.
Social Media
Like it or not, social media is not only here to stay, but has also become a powerful marketing vehicle for reaching consumers. The key is knowing which social media channels your customers are engaging with and what the current trends are on each platform. This is ever-evolving, driven both by social and political climates, as well as advances in technology and shifting consumer preferences. As a digital marketing agency, our job is to stay abreast of social media trends so you don’t have to.
Email, Sales Funnels & Nurture Campaigns
There is a reason inboxes are filled with marketing emails—they work. That said, we should add, they only work when the content and the call to action are on point. Emails are also most effective when they are part of an ongoing campaign. Nurture campaigns or drip campaigns are a series of emails designed to capture customers and prospects and lead them to a conversion point where they make a purchase or continue to engage with you. Automation and specific landing pages can be extremely helpful and can be set up in a way that different response actions by the recipient trigger a different email in the sequence. Email marketing is not as complicated as this sounds and is something we have implemented for many of our clients with positive affect.
The bottom line? There are a number of digital marketing tools and strategies proven to be highly effective at enhancing your online presence and driving business growth. This year marks our 9th year in business, and as our area of expertise remains on digital marketing, contact us today to learn how we’ve been helping B-2-B and B-2-C companies exceed their revenue goals.
