Businesses that lacked an internet presence before COVID-19 have learned its value the hard way. Digital outreach allowed numerous firms to prosper in adverse circumstances. As a result, many are clamoring to extend and refine that digital reach. At the same time, customers are reaching out digitally to find them. But the digital landscape is changing rapidly.
Today, digital marketing means a lot more than choosing keywords and sticking up a website. An ever-growing proportion of shopping involves Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram and mobile phones. There are new smarter ways for businesses to target specific niches or local markets.
Perhaps in the future, digital shoppers may even dispense with computers entirely, relying upon smart connected devices, voice recognition, and product discovery algorithms. Without a doubt, these new opportunities will be the making of tomorrow’s successful enterprises.
Here are a few digital marketing areas you might want to consider in the post-lockdown environment.
Opt-in marketing
Even with social distancing in place, COVID-19 reminded us that communities matter. Some communities are geographical, others based on shared interests. Why squander marketing effort all over the world when you can focus on those that want to listen? Websites are considered successful if they convert just 10% of visitors, but five times as many buy when they feel like a member.
To build a community, you must use analytics to find your market, offer engaging useful content, and provide ways for those visitors to engage with you. There is another magical ingredient – the personal touch. If you can’t always provide it in person, sometimes A.I. chatbots can help out. Once your social network is established, advanced marketing tools can identify key influencers who are helping to spread your message.
Richer content
When Google announced that its ranking algorithms that would favor sites with “rich content” it resulted in a lot of vacuous material. The mistake many web developers made was to write for Google instead of customers. Customers don’t care about keywords, they want advice, help, reviews, instructions and insight. They are strongly influenced by video demonstrations, material submitted by other customers, and real-time interactions.
They will spread your name far and wide if you offer something useful, for example; manual downloads, useful calculators, interesting videos, surveys and expert articles. Genuine content goes hand-in-hand with community building.
New technologies
Mobile-friendly websites are already indispensable, but the trend away from the desktop won’t end there. Many people already connect through hands-free devices such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. Local businesses can put themselves on the map, literally, by sending GPS alerts to nearby prospects, or create funnels to their outlets using augmented reality.
Nowhere is the landscape more complicated and competitive than London. If you are ready to go beyond old-style web design & Digital Marketing based Blue Flamingo are the people to talk to. Every campaign is tailored to the client, product, budget and market. In today’s digital landscape that is the only way to succeed.
