The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies and marketers to re-think strategies, offer products and services in innovative ways, and stay connected with team members amid social distancing. Although 2020 is coming to a close, a shift has been made in how companies conduct business. To ensure a successful new year, take a look at five marketing trends to focus on in 2021:
1. Marketing Trend: Pursue Accurate Online Listings
Online listings inform your customers of your business’ essential information such as addresses, hours, photos, phone number, email address, and available promotions. With over 60+ search platforms available in which you can list your business, it is vital to verify your listings and ensure they are accurate. This is incredibly important for businesses that aim to reach people in their local community such as pediatricians, coffeeshops, and churches. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, your customers need to know your updated hours, location, and services.
Additionally, relevance is a priority for search engine algorithms, so it’s vital to implement a geographically defined service area to put down digital roots in your local community. This will increase your visibility on search engines when local people browse for a solution to their problem.
Conduct a quick “near me” search. If you’re a dentist, type “dentist near me” into your search engine of choice. Is your company listed on the first page? Is the information accurate? If not, our listings management service can change that. Our team can help you ensure accurate and verified listings via our listings management service.
Here are a few of the ways listings management will improve your business’ online presence:
- Allow you to take full control over all your listings
- Ensure your business information is accurate and easy to find
- Remove inaccurate listings
- Review and approve consumer suggestions
- Receive monthly analysis and reporting on your listings
- Make real time updates to your listings
2. Marketing Trend: Engage Customers Through Interactive Content
Content expectations continue to transform. It’s no longer all about writing for search engines, but rather for customers – with keywords and key phrases added naturally throughout the content. When you write for people instead of search engines, your content is more inviting, natural, and believable. In 2021, let’s take your content to the next level – let’s make it interactive. According to DemandGen, “Interactive content gains 2x more engagement than static content.” By implementing interactive content on all your platforms, you can more than double your current engagement and win over new customers.
Interactive content can keep people on your website longer, essentially using your company as a resource to fix their problem. Consider these interactive content examples:
- Assessments
- Calculators and Tools
- Contests
- Games
- Image Sliders
- Interactive Film & Video
- Interactive Infographics
- Interactive Maps
- Interactive Webinars
- Polls
- Text & chat feature
- Quizzes
3. Marketing Trend: Retain Existing Customers Via Segmentation
The best (and most cost-efficient) marketing practice is word-of-mouth referrals, as happy customers will gladly tell their friends about your products or services, leave a great review, and essentially be your spokesperson in their personal world. To retain current customers, implement the marketing practice of segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Let’s break it down:
Segmentation – Divide your current audience into distinct segments (examples – demographic, behavioral, psychographic, and geographic).
Targeting – Decide which segment you want to focus your marketing efforts.
Positioning – Push products and services that will appeal to that specific segment.
The process of segmentation, targeting, and positioning your products or services to better align with you client’s needs will make your marketing dollars stretch further and produce profitable results.
4. Marketing Trend: Engage & Retain Social Followers
2020 will forever be remembered as the digital year, as businesses and consumers flocked to their online portals to stay afloat. It cemented the importance of an online presence for both engagement and retention of social followers. On social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can show your audience different facets of your company, such as:
- About the Company
- Employee Spotlights
- Giveaways
- Local Events
- Products & Services
- Quizzes
Now more than ever, social media is a powerful tool in which you can engage and retain customers during a mostly digital world. More than just creating and publishing posts, social media has transformed into a staple element of a company’s marketing strategy. With a well-thought-out social media strategy in place, you can engage with your current followers, respond to reviews, drive customer responses, and attract new business.
5. Marketing Trend: Keep Morale High Within Your Team
Many companies will have their employees working from home or participating in an office/home hybrid situation well into 2021. Because of this, it’s vital to keep the morale of your customer-facing teams high. Great customer service can keep customers coming back for more of your products and services, even if their experience is digital instead of in person.
Partner with M&R Marketing in 2021
2020 demanded change from every company across America. It made us re-think how to help our customers and meet them where they were, which was mostly at home. Moving forward, let’s take what we learned in 2020 and create a strong, strategic marketing plan for 2021. Partner with us, and we will help you evaluate these elements of your business so you can be confident in what the future brings. Send us an email at hey@mandr-group.com for a free consultation.