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Thanks to the unexpected changes in the global economy during 2020, commerce, particularly retail, is taking a direction we could not have foreseen a year ago. Digital marketing is adapting to keep up with these changes, which is why you can expect to see the following key trends in 2021.

Marketing trends predictions and expectations

With the rapid growth of online retail and virtual platforms during the lockdowns of 2020, what can you expect to see from digital marketing in the next few months? Here are just a handful of the trends we expect to dominate the coming year:

• Short-form videos are set to dominate social media. People have developed a much lower tolerance to boredom over the past year. They want content they can consume quickly and without the effort of reading, which is why short videos are becoming the best way to reach your market.

• New privacy laws will change the way you target your audiences: California’s new privacy laws, signed into state legislation in 2020, are set to act as a blueprint for similar regulations in other states and at the federal level. These laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), give consumers increased rights and protection when it comes to their online privacy. Online marketers will not be able to target them as easily as they did formerly and will have to adapt their tactics. It is recommended that you acquaint yourself with your state’s privacy laws and shift your tactics accordingly. You should also start creating messaging that explains the value of data collection to your customers.

• Automation will grow in both implementation and efficiency. Automation is here already, but it will become more efficient and sophisticated and will be adopted by more and more marketers, quickly taking over the digital marketing mainstream. You will be empowered to convert leads, generate personalized content and track your results more accurately.

Why will short-form videos dominate this year?

The growth in popularity of platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat is proof that the global market, in general, has an appetite for bite-sized pieces of video content that communicate their points quickly and in an entertaining manner. Marketers looking to capture a large, younger audience will have to start creating content for these types of platforms. Doing so effectively will become an area of specialized marketing expertise in its own right.

User privacy protections – a new marketing challenge

The new legislation in California, and the laws like it that are likely to follow throughout the country andlimit marketers’ ability to collect data as they did before. Automatic background data collection will become a thing of the past, and all information gathering will have to be done with the audience member’s express consent. Naturally, this means that marketers will have to develop ways to solicit that consent while respecting customers’ privacy and keeping them informed of their rights.

Marketing automation and personalization practicalities and affordability

Marketing automation and personalization are becoming the only ways to do digital marketing and social media marketing in the coming year. You may wonder what it will take to make the necessary adaptations.

Marketing automation platforms are nothing new, but they are rapidly developing in sophistication, with new features and add-ons being developed all the time. These developments are likely to pick up speed in 2021. The customer journey is becoming more intricate, with numerous touchpoints and metrics. Marketing teams will have to automate their analytics and responses to keep up. Outcomes and return on investment cannot be predicted and tracked manually anymore.

Automation is closely linked to personalization because the more you seek to create personalized communications for individuals and market segments, the more you will have to lean on machine learning to help you understand and speak to specific customer needs. Personalization and automation are thus growing together. You will not be able to personalize without automation. Customers will not engage with your content unless they can see its personal relevance. You will not be able to convey those personal messages across large audiences without automated gathering and interpretation of data.  

WSI New Media Marketing is a full-service digital marketing and search engine optimization company in Greensboro, North Carolina. Contact us for expert help with your SEO, social media and other digital marketing tactics and strategies.

Drawing traffic to your website can be a tricky affair. At times, you think you’ve hit on the winning formula, only to find that your numbers suddenly start to drop. You’re throwing in every trick in the book – every keyword is perfectly researched, all your social media postings are carefully strategized, your website design has been carefully planned for optimal UX, and yet the traffic dwindles.

That’s okay. It happens. The thing to do is remember that the internet – and thus digital marketing by extension – is an ever-changing thing, and you need to adapt with it. Every so often, you need to regroup, rethink, and try something new. Here are three tips to help you give your traffic a boost.

1. The Celebrity Touch

Celebrity endorsements have worked since the days of newspaper ads – and they still do. Now, we’re not suggesting that you pay your favorite sports star to do a cheesy commercial giving your product the thumbs up. Digital content marketing can be more subtle and more interesting than that. You can draw interest to your site by posting content that features celebrities connected with your line of business, and leveraging off their fan base. It can be as simple as an interview with a star, famous author, or a luminary in your industry. You’d be surprised who’s willing to talk to you if you only ask.

Alternatively, ask a well-known blogger to write a guest blog for you and/or write a blog for their site. In this way, you could be attracting a whole new audience.

2. Social media: LinkedIn, Reddit

LinkedIn is the most effective platform to post business-related content. And, its users have a bigger attention span than those of other social networks. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, it has users that are more likely to click on, and actually read, in-depth articles on subjects that interest them, as well as clicking through and finding out more, provided they see a benefit to them professionally.

Reddit is another way to open up to different audiences, but in this case, you need to be a bit smarter and more targeted. Don’t just post content broadly; identify and research specific sub-Reddits that are applicable to your market, where potential new customers may be found among the readers.

3. Be Adaptable

Ultimately, no matter whether you follow the above advice or any other specific tips, the point is to be willing to shift your opinions and strategies in order to move with the times and undulating trends of the internet. You need a holistic SEO strategy that can help you keep your finger on the pulse all the time and change your approach accordingly.

WSI’s Adaptive SEO™ services will help you keep ahead of the trends, altering the angle of your digital marketing attack, while still maintaining the integrity of your brand. Contact us to start applying the adaptive treatment to your SEO strategy.

With YouTube being the second largest search engine after Google, many business owners and marketers are focused on growing their influence on YouTube. But, how do you do that if you are starting from scratch with zero subscribers? In this blog, we will share some key tips on how to build your business’ YouTube presence.

• Tip No. 1: Get Started

Don’t wait until you have all the skills to create a Steven Spielburg-like video. The sooner you start uploading your own videos, the sooner people will have something to subscribe to. Remember that your first videos will probably be your worst videos. Everyone starts somewhere, but the important part is that you get started.

• Tip No. 2: Tell People About Your Channel

The first people you will want to alert are your friends, family, clients, and employees. Consider a YouTube launch campaign where you send out an email newsletter to your database announcing your YouTube channel and your latest blogs. Be sure to add the YouTube logo to your website and other social media profiles.

• Tip No. 3: Create Compelling Content

As you start creating videos, gaining subscribers, and interacting with them, you will learn what type of content elicits the most responses and engagement from your audience.

• Tip No.4: Share Your Content

Every time you post a video, you need to make sure it is reaching as many people as possible. Share your YouTube on Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, and LinkedIn. Also, create a blog post with an introduction to the video and host the videos on your website.

• Tip No. 5: Optimize Your Videos

Just like you optimize your blogs with keywords and optimize images with keywords in your ALT tags, you need to focus on optimizing your YouTube videos as well. Find smart ways to incorporate the keywords your business is targeting into the title and the description of the video. At the end of videos, include a call to action for viewers to subscribe to your channel.

• Tip No. 6: Create a Content Calendar

Once you have gotten used to video creation, plan a content calendar so that you regularly film and upload videos. Consider filming interviews with key people at your company, product assembly demonstrations, FAQs or anything else that may be valuable to your viewers.

Need help with your SEO optimization and social media marketing? Then get in touch with WSI New Media Marketing, a local SEO company in Greensboro.

Are you keen to learn more about the upcoming digital marketing trends in 2019? Whom can you trust to know exactly what is to come? Well, the top social media agencies, of course. Here are our predictions for digital marketing trends in 2019, as well as some helpful tips for putting them to use within your organization:

• Virtual and Augmented Reality 

Virtual and augmented reality definitely are not newcomers to the digital marketing world – but it really looks like they are here to stay. Did you know that both markets are set to surpass $298 billion by 2023?

• Voice Search 

One of the biggest considerations, when it comes digital marketing, is ensuring the best possible rankings and SEO optimization for your company’s website. That is why we always need to concern ourselves with how our potential clients are searching – whether it is by using Google or other search engines. According to industry experts, 2019 is sure to see a drastic increase in voice search queries. In fact, the figures are already astounding. For instance, one-third of the 3.5 billion searches performed on Google every day are voice searches. How do you cater for this? Simply start including long tail keywords and questions in your content. That is because when people voice search, their queries are usually a lot longer and more detailed.

• Chatbots 

Ask any of the top social media agencies out there, New Media Marketing included, and they will tell you that the most crucial aspect of social media marketing is implementing an ‘always-on’ approach. Now, unless you plan to man your company’s social pages all day and night, the only way to do this is with a bit of help in the form of chatbots and automated messaging. Most website design companies will be able to implement a chatbot as part of your website design. Personalized responses are a big plus when it comes to using the latest chatbot technology. Thanks to machine learning, chatbots can be designed and developed to give people very personalized responses. Many times, people mistakenly believe they are chatting with a real person. While the idea is not to mislead anyone, you can ensure that customers are being helped in a conversational, individualized way thanks to Natural Language Processing.

Another benefit of chatbots? They allow you to gain actionable business insights. With chatbots, you will have digital assistants who are gathering huge amounts of data about your customers. You will be able to pick up on trends and issues in real time, gain actionable insights, and incorporate these insights into your business strategy and digital marketing strategy.

When it comes to digital marketing, including pay per click (PPC) advertising and mobile marketing, look no further than New Media Marketing. We are one of the top social media agencies that will be there to help you embrace each and every trend that 2019 brings with it. Contact us today to learn more.

Preparing for the Winter Marketing Slump

The holiday season is over. It was over before it got here for many, since; we noticed Christmas displays coming down and Valentine’s displays going up before 12/25 even rolled around. Even worse? Once people have finished running around and making exchanges and using their holiday gift cards, things seem to slow down even more. January, for many, can be pretty sluggish. So what can you and your business do to survive and push through?

Maintain Your Momentum

Don’t let slow sales be an excuse for a lack of marketing. If anything, you need to step things up a notch so that you can stay visible and memorable. This is the time for a clever new ad, but not necessarily for a huge-ticket deal. People have just spent a ton of money on the holidays, so they’re not necessarily looking for new deals but might be enticed by something great or creative. Just don’t take the month off and go to sleep because you think people are “over” the holidays.

January is Boring

It’s sort of true. Think about it. You start with Halloween costumes, plan a gigantic Thanksgiving feast, and spend weeks choosing the perfect gifts and decorating your home. Once it’s all over and the lights come down, you’ve got… well… nothing but grey skies, cold, ice, and snow. There’s nothing to look forward to in January – unless, of course, you make something up. And that’s just what you need to do. Embrace the season, push the New Year, and keep your customers excited. It’s a tough job, but we know you can do it.

Your 2016 Marketing Plan

When designing your 2016 marketing plan, be sure to keep your holiday sale plans realistic. The more you undervalue yourself to give a great deal, the less people will want to buy from you in between great deals. Your brand has value and you need to treat it that way all year long. If you didn’t go over-board in December, you should be able to maintain decent momentum into January and beyond.

Debunk the Myths

Truth? Your business doesn’t have to suffer through a January or winter slump. It’s our motivation levels and efforts that usually take a toll after the holiday season and that can have a negative impact on the way our business runs. Analyze your statistics from years past, know how your customers see your business, and tailor what you have to offer to make it appealing for the winter.

Not sure how to do that? Give WSI New Media a call. We’ll help you analyze your marketing campaigns, create new strategies, and keep your customers interested throughout the entire year!

Reviewing Your 2015 Marketing Plan: Planning for 2016

We’re about to exit 2015 and and transition into 2016. While we can never truly stop marketing our businesses, we do need to take some time to slow down, reflect on the past year, really study the statistics, and figure out what changes need to be made going forward. The yearly transition offers just that opportunity.

What Did You Learn?

Start by considering what you learned over the course of the past 12 months? What promotions or marketing campaigns did better than you thought they would? Can you improve upon them in 2016? Which didn’t perform as well as you’d hoped? Can they be revamped or should they be completely replaced?

Look at the statistics you’ve (hopefully) been gathering all year. Where were your greatest returns on investment? Did you meet the written goals you set for the year, both short and long term?

Set New Goals

What will your goals for 2016 be? Are you going to increase sales by a certain percentage? Will you have a certain number of new website visitors sign up for your mailing list? You need to know exactly what your goals will be before you can determine the methods you’ll use to achieve them.

Choosing Your Marketing Channels

What marketing methods have you been using and how long have you been using them? If you’ve been using the same methods for more than a couple of years you may need to really shake things up a bit to get better results. You may want to branch out more when it comes to social media, start video or content marketing, expand or create new PPC campaigns. You can delete the ones that are no longer working, too. Don’t be afraid. You really don’t need to pay for a full-color ad in the yellow pages any longer. That money is money you could be spending elsewhere for better results.

Focus on Mobile

Does your marketing campaign focus on mobile users? If not, you’ve ignored the issue long enough. Your 2016 campaign has to be mobile-friendly. There are no exceptions. Your competition is three steps ahead of you. Hire someone to make your website mobile friendly and find someone who can help you to alter your marketing campaign to include mobile components. You’re losing out on a huge segment of your audience.

So… truth? We know statistics and numbers and marketing plans aren’t what you like to work on. That’s why WSI New Media offers so many packages designed to help entrepreneurs like you. We’ll work on your marketing plan while you focus on what you love – your products and your clients. Give us a call to find out how we can help you in the New Year.

Often overlooked, your web analytics can provide a wealth of knowledge to enable you to convert web visitors into buyers. WSI New Media Marketing can help your business better understand these helpful insights.

Identifying digital trends and adapting them into your marketing plan is a key factor for a successful strategy in the coming year. Use these steps to improve your buyer’s experience and increase engagement here in North Carolina! Call WSI New Media Marketing if you would like to learn more.