COVID-19 turned 2020 into a major nightmare for businesses. There are many ways COVID-19 forced businesses to pivot their marketing strategies. In this climate, your business needs to be both visible and convincing. Now more than ever, it’s important to have a robust digital presence. Many buyers shop from their home offices or living rooms.

2021 digital marketing strategies seem to revolve around two concepts so far. These concepts are distinct but almost contradictory. The first is a general humanization. The second involves technical and mechanical optimization. Take a look at these digital marketing strategies below.

Target Featured Snippets in SERP

The goal of SEO is for your website to rank in search results (or search engine results pages – SERPs). This has been the case for years. Many brands are able to leverage SEO for business growth. In 2021, though, the end goal is more visibility in “position zero.” You may wonder to what position zero in the SERP refers. It’s Google’s featured snippets.

Featured Snippets are high search result listings that appear just above or below the normal search results. They’re generally fields of data that attempt to offer solutions to a user’s question. The most common formats for these featured snippets tend to be on the first page of SERPs above other organic and paid ads. In order for them to reach that first page, though, they must have excellent relevancy and be highly relevant to the search query that they’re placed under.

With a featured snippet, users get answers to their questions without having to click on a link. While foregoing a website visit may seem counter-intuitive, a single click/visit is outweighed by your recognition as a thought-leader by search engines.

Improve Your Customer Persona Targeting

A customer persona is a fictional version of a perfect customer for your business. It usually includes demographics (e.g., age, gender, place, and occupation) and psychographics (e.g., interests, emotions, likes, and dislikes).

The practice of making fictional people based on the characteristics of your ideal customers help in the creation of content marketing strategies. Use this fictional data to provide a more personalized experience to your consumers. This data also helps with customer retention. For example, use customer personas to help in your customer service efforts by providing personalized service and support. You can also use this data to increase your sales and profit.

Once you’ve identified the characteristics of the ideal customer, focus on things that need improvement. For example, improve the way your products and services are presented to your customers. Also, make sure the service or product you offer to customers is something they find useful.

Explore Customer Segmentation

Customer segmentation is the process of determining to what group or groups a particular product or service will appeal. Conduct market research, determine your target market, and then determine which demographics they fall under. Customer segmentation in online marketing is usually based on three third-party data sources. Data providers often provide pre-defined segments, like “demographics for automotive.” But even for most marketers, it might not be sufficient. For highly targeted ads, they must make a custom segment specifically targeted to an upcoming project. After the segment is created, the campaign begins.

Begin your campaign by looking at some of the most common reasons people buy and purchase items on the web. For example, if you run a clothing site, you may want to target men or women who are 18 or older. These are the individuals that usually shop for clothing. Other advertising categories, such as food and grocery shopping, are lucrative markets that target many people at once. However, this can be hard to do for smaller websites or online retailers, especially if your products and services don’t fit into one of these categories. Instead of targeting a large audience, target the individual target market. The next step is to set up a marketing campaign that will bring them together.

Improve Telemarketing Campaigns

Convincing new potential clients over the telephone may seem like an easy task. Learn how to make the prospect on the other end of the call feel comfortable. The problem with many unsuccessful outbound calling campaigns is they don’t communicate the USP of the company’s product to the prospective client.

Generally speaking, a telemarketer must communicate the value of the brand over the phone. However, many telemarketers fail to do so. They then end up with a customer that doesn’t want to buy from them. Another major problem is telemarketers may get connected to machines when calling prospective customers or clients, wasting valuable time in the process. Besides ensuring your sales team step up their game, one way to solve these telemarketing problems is using predictive dialer systems. These systems ensure your sales staff only get connected to a live answer. They use call metrics to predict the ideal moment to make a call.

Get Familiar With Non-Linear Customer Journeys

The non-linear customer journey has completely changed the face of business. Traditionally considered a linear, sequential process—from knowledge to action to purchase to satisfaction—it’s transformed into an increasingly interactive, dynamic environment, where customers interact directly with businesses on a smartphone, tablet, or another mobile device.

The good news is today’s customer relationship management has evolved beyond its traditional functions. It embraces the emerging changes in a customer’s journey. In fact, the digital customer relationship management (CRM) software developed for the enterprise customer relationships enables organizations to connect seamlessly with customers across any kind of communication channel.

Getting familiar with customer journeys that are non-linear as a marketer and business owner will allow you to:

• Influence a customer’s decision by identifying opportunities
• Track and evaluate the touchpoints through the buying journey of a customer
• Deliver brand experiences effectively across channels and devices.

Keep in mind customers are more demanding. They demand better deals, a quick response time, and a seamless customer experience. Customer satisfaction is now the driving force behind every business, not only to increase profits but also to improve customer relations. That makes the use of an 800 number ideal for delivering customer service. Such a toll-free number allows customers worldwide to call you for support without accruing any charges on their phones. It also helps with brand recognition, makes your business look professional, and exposes your reach nationwide.

Optimize For Visual Search

Voice and visual searches help you create more engaging experiences for today’s growing number of internet users who are eager to use the power of the internet in their everyday lives. Get an edge over competitors by using voice and visual search optimization techniques. As the world becomes increasingly digital, it’s critical to be competitive in the global market. If you want to gain an edge, consider voice and visual search optimization.

There’s an increase in the number of visual searches. To capitalize on them, ensure successful video and image SEO campaigns. Here are the basics that you have to apply:

• Use top-quality (including HD) images and videos
• Include alt text in the descriptions of your images all the time
• Include target keywords in your image’s file name
• Create one dedicated image sitemap or add images to your existing sitemap.

If you have an ecommerce brand, familiarize yourself with Google Lens. Successfully take traffic away from your competitors every time shoppers search for barcodes or products using pictures if you handle visual search optimization right.

Optimize Website Content For Mobile

Mobile optimization is the process by which you adjust your website content to make sure those who access the website from mobile devices get an experience optimized to their particular device.

Mobile optimization means your customers can view your content without having to leave their devices. This way, they can easily find the information that they’re looking for. When people access your content via a mobile device, they’re looking to see more than a static version of your content. They want something to read, something to look at, and, more importantly, something to play.

You can make your website mobile-friendly by following these tips:

• Flash animations can slow page-time down so skip it. It isn’t even accessible in many devices.
• Eliminate slow-loading page elements to boost the speed loading time of your page.
• Do away with pop-ups and text-blocking ads that block your page’s view.
• Go for large (at least 14px) font sizes but make sure to stick with standard fonts.

Use Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool. Take note of everything that needs to be changed on your website. How each page of your site looks when viewed using a mobile device will be displayed by the testing tool.

Make Use Interactive Content

Interactive content is a great way to make your online website more user-friendly. It’s important to note that different types of interactive content may be used for the different stages of the funnel process or sale journey. These are referred to as ‘modes of presentation.’ They all have their own set of benefits. Use interactive content for more of the ‘proximity’ type features, such as creating a video to accompany a product or service demonstration. There are also more advanced interactive content features, like a list of testimonials from satisfied customers and other useful information.

Besides promoting more engagement, interactive content also improves user enjoyment. Interactive content like calculator widgets, polls, giveaways, contests, open-ended questions, and quizzes increase the time duration users engage with you. As a result, your standing in algorithm-based feeds and searches improves. More importantly, posting interactive content often results in the improvement of your user experience simply because being engaged is what people want.

Video Marketing

Video marketing involves using, creating, and distributing to promote your company’s products or services to the targeted audience. It’s one of the best ways to drum up views up on different platforms including Youtube, social media like Facebook and Instagram, and your own website. Especially right now, visual-based platforms are top of mind and use. You’d be remiss not to explore an Instagram video content strategy or explore Tiktok marketing.

Implement Local SEO

Local SEO plays a major role in the success of any business in today’s highly competitive world. Whether it be a large chain restaurant or a small family-owned bistro, having your business listed in local search results can increase foot traffic and conversions. However, there are many factors that go into a successful local search engine optimization campaign. It may not always seem obvious, but the success of a local business SEO campaign largely depends on how well your business fits with the community and its demographics.

When local SEO is considered, it’s often more geared to appear in local search results than national searches. While national SEO mainly focuses on ranking in local searches around the nation, local SEO prioritizes showing up in SERPs within a certain geographic area. This approach relies on local marketing to increase your exposure and popularity within the local population. In addition to advertising online, many local businesses and owners also do social media marketing to connect with customers. Getting verified by Google by signing up for GBM or Google My Business can also help. These marketing strategies can be effective in increasing your online presence locally.

Final Thoughts

The Internet in 2021 presents near-endless opportunities to reach more customers for your business across various channels. There many digital marketing strategies available if you want to generate more sales. From featured snippets, interactive content, to local SEO, the possibilities are endless.

Keep in mind that a definite formula for creating a digital marketing strategy doesn’t exist. Continuously adapt, change, and develop to be successful.