With all of the changes of 2020 due to the pandemic, many marketers are wondering if email marketing is still an effective strategy? Additionally, social media and other channels have made email marketing seem archaic and unnecessary. But the truth is email marketing still is an effective strategy if you do it correctly.
If done correctly, email marketing can generate $38 for every $1 spent, getting you an amazing 3,800% ROI. But, if you’re not seeing results with your email marketing you may be falling into one of these common email marketing pitfalls.
Common Email Marketing Pitfalls
Here are a few of the common mistakes email marketers make.
Many email marketers fail to correctly segment their audiences to provide relevant information for them. This is determinantal because if you are not providing relevant, timely content then users will just hit delete, and eventually, unsubscribe.
Additionally, all too often organizations think they need to be in constant communication with their email recipients. 78 percent of email users will cancel email subscriptions because they receive too many messages from that company, according to HubSpot.
Finally, if you do not have a clearly defined email marketing strategy with objectives of what you want to accomplish, then your email marketing will be like shooting in the dark – most likely to miss the mark.
Success in Email Marketing
Success in email marketing is typically due to understanding your audience and providing relevant and timely communication that meets their needs. You should segment your audiences by location, loyalty, or according to their place in the marketing funnel. As you segment audiences, you can provide relevant and timely content to get them to engage with your brand.
Don’t send emails too often. Try sending emails twice a month, and if that is successful then you can try increasing to weekly emails. But, always monitor your performance to see what emails are engaging your audiences.
Additionally, try A/B testing, or sending different emails to two halves of your list to test what kind of messaging, layouts, and length works for you. Just try testing one thing at a time so you can correlate the results. For instance, try testing the length of your emails for one month, and the next month try testing different layouts to see which gets higher engagement.
Email marketing still is an effective strategy for your brand to communicate with customers and keep them engaged. However, many marketers make the mistake of sending too many emails, or not planning content targeted at their audiences. Try segmenting your subscribers and testing content for them to get the most success with your email marketing.
2020 has been the year of online shopping. While people have been quarantined at home, more and more of them spend time online, on social media, and shopping. US online sales are estimated to increase by 18% to $710 billion this year. And that trend is likely to continue after the pandemic. If you’re not marketing your business online, then you are missing out on critical business traffic.
Here are the top five digital marketing strategies to try in 2021.
Google Ads Automated Bidding
Automating Google Ads can save you time, money, and help your digital ads be more effective. Google Ads marketers will constantly work to find the best creative assets, for the best bid, on the best sites to maximize your ROI. You set your marketing goals and Google Ads will automatically adjust bidding to best meet your needs.
Voice Search
Since consumers are spending more time at home now, they also are relying more on their voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Home. Over 3.25 billion people use voice search worldwide.
So, when you’re creating content you also need to think forward about how it will sound on a voice assistant. Currently, Google’s algorithm doesn’t consider voice search queries; however, it’s likely they could in the future. And even if you are ranking on Google results, you may not be ranking on voice search unless you purposely plan content for voice searches.
Visual Search
Besides voice searches, visual searches are also becoming more popular. You should include photos and videos on your site that relate to specific searches online. To help your visuals rank, always include alt text, include keywords in the image file name, and use top-quality images and videos.
Interactive Content
Interactive content can better engage visitors to your site and provide value. For instance, if you are an accountant you could add a tax calculator to your site. This will get visitors engaged and more likely to spend time on your site.
You may want to try any of the following interactive content on your site:
- Assessments
- Games
- Polls
- Surveys
- Contests
- Calculators
Local SEO
For small businesses, local SEO can be even more powerful than general SEO because it connects your business with people in your geographic location who are more likely to interact with your site. You should use Google My Business and claim your business online. You can then update your hours (which is especially important due to COVID-19 restrictions in flux), add photos, and include business contact information.
Pro-tip – you want to make sure your business shows up when people search for your business type and “near me”. For instance, if you’re an accounting firm, when people search “accountants near me” you’ll show up. Do this by including your city as a top keyword on your site.
Conclusion
In 2020, many companies have adapted to new ways of doing business. Consumers are online now more than ever and in 2021 you need to make sure that your business is prepared with these digital marketing strategies.
The ongoing pandemic in 2020 has triggered some dramatic changes in digital marketing. Experts say that these changes will continue to affect us through 2021, too. It is important to ensure that your business remains up to date with the latest digital marketing trends. Read on to uncover how digital marketing will evolve in 2021.
Voice Search Will Still Be A Must
Voice search has become more and more popular, providing a top-notch user experience which allows people to search hands-free. In 2021, voice search optimization will be essential. Keep in mind that optimizing text search and optimizing voice search is different. The best approach to ensure that your business is optimized for voice search is an updated Google My Business profile. Most users use Google voice search feature and only businesses with an active GMB presence are featured in these results.
Marketing Automation Will Be the Premium Digital Marketing Trend
Another trend that will be seen more in 2021 will be marketing automation, creating a solid strategy to automate marketing efforts. Automation can increase leads and return on investments. Most online users appreciate businesses that provide such services. It can contribute to a premium user experience and more accurate communication with clients.
Video Advertising Will Be the Best Visual Promotional Solution
Visual cues are vital for digital marketing efforts. Still, it is more than obvious nowadays that videos will become the ultimate trend to follow. Sending a message with a text or photograph can be challenging. This is the reason why video can help your business in ways you wouldn’t expect! Video advertising offers a powerful visual and audio story that will establish an emotional communication with the viewer. Video campaigns can be your ally on social media advertising in order to boost impressions, engagement, and brand awareness.
Mobile Phone Optimization Will Be Vital for All Businesses
We all know the importance of mobile optimization, but reports say that only 25% of online businesses invest in professional mobile optimization. In 2021, this will become key to ranking higher in Google search results. It is best to ensure your website is both user-friendly and mobile-friendly in order to attract new customers based on the excellent mobile experience. Use Google’s optimized mobile testing tool to discover which layout of each page needs improvements.
Chatbots Will Be More Frequent In 2021
Traditionally, clients have to wait by the phone to receive an answer to a question. But thanks to the growth of artificial intelligence, you can eliminate this hassle and implement chatbots for your business. It is estimated that by 2022, chatbots will handle up to 90% of essential business activities.
Everything in our modern age is connected to the digital world. Communication happens promptly and rapidly, especially when it comes to using our phones. Smartphone usage has completely changed the way that businesses operate —or at least, they should have. Mobile apps are no longer just about games, they’re about convenience. Customers use mobile apps to order food, hail cabs, interact with family and friends, and purchase nearly anything and everything. There’s no denying the importance of mobile apps for businesses —but read on to discover just how useful mobile apps can truly be!
Useful Marketing Tool: Customers are connected to their smartphones nearly every second of the day, whether for business, communication, or everyday life. A mobile app is a great opportunity to increase brand awareness for your company. Push notifications sent directly to a user’s phone can be a useful tool to reinstate interest in your product. Sometimes just a small reminder of your company’s existence and the benefits that you can provide users is enough in order to prompt purchasing action.
Expand Your Brand: Having a broad, wide-reaching brand image is essential in order to increase your potential customer base. Consider a mobile app as just another form of social media that you can use to find new clients. If your mobile app is well developed and uses your brand logo to positively reinforce your company’s image, then customers will view your brand as more reliable. Over time, this reliability generally translates to increased sales.
Better Customer Service: Creating a mobile app for your business can significantly improve your customer service, which helps retain customers using your company’s services. An app ensures instant availability and can easily provide a method of communication to users. Make sure that your customers are satisfied with your customer service at all times by using a mobile app for businesses.
Gather Analytic Resources: Mobile apps for your business can be a great way to gather data and analytics about your customer base, which you can then use in order to develop more precise business strategies. Information on customer preferences and demographics can be highly relevant when making marketing campaigns, so additional information is always better to have. A more specific marketing strategy can result in higher revenue and increased sales for your company.
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The importance of a mobile app for a business should not be discounted, especially in today’s technological era. Every aspect of your business has the potential to be positively impacted by a mobile app for businesses. Don’t miss out on great opportunities to expand your business and improve your brand image —instead, develop a mobile app and watch as your business grows and grows!
Here at Amplify media + marketing, we know it can be a chore for a new business to juggle high impact digital marketing while staying afloat in today’s uncertain economy. That’s where we can save the day! We’re a full-service integrated marketing agency that serves customers all around the world. We have a solutions-oriented team that use technology, data, and analytics to help our clients make crucial business decisions. With a highly scalable team, we’ve got the ability to help your team ideate, strategize, and execute masterful advertising campaigns. We take care of your digital presence so you can focus on your next big project!
In recognition of our success and impact, we’ve been named a top digital marketing partner in Texas by Clutch, a B2B market research firm. Clutch’s team leverages a unique reviews-based methodology to compare and contrast leaders in a number of service sectors. Their findings help companies pair with the best firms to fill their latest business needs.
Our clients played a huge part in helping us earn this distinction. First, they got on the phone with Clutch for 15 minutes in a review call to evaluate our performance. From there, we were graded on elements such as quality, attention to project timelines, and overall project management acumen. Then, that conversation was transcribed and edited lightly for length and clarity by the Clutch team. Finally, a finished case-study-like review is published on our profile. We’re happy to say we’ve earned a lovely five out of five stars so far! Take a look at our most recent review below:
Interested in learning more about how Amplify media + marketing can help your company achieve it’s goals? Drop us a line today, and we’ll walk you through our award-winning process!
It may sound cliche but having a cohesive marketing plan can strongly help boost your customer retention. According to Forbes, integrated marketing is a “way to solidify your brand and demonstrate your intentionality and stability as a company.” What this means is that through strategizing and optimizing your marketing efforts, customers can easily find more reasons to connect with you.
In almost a decade, we’ve made it our mission to provide our partners with the most effective strategies and campaigns that will increase their ROI. However, one critical aspect of the way we approach things is personalization. As a medium-sized company ourselves, we understand how vital empathy is in terms of forming relationships with customers.
As such, we appreciate it whenever we receive feedback from our collaborators. These testimonials help us see things from our partners’ perspective, allowing us to grow better as a team. Just recently, one of our clients whom we’ve been working with for five years now left us a review on Clutch, adding to the total of six reviews we’ve acquired on the site.
If you’re not familiar with what Clutch does, it is a leading ratings and reviews platform that connects businesses of all sizes with the best-fit service-providers. Clutch is hugely respected in the B2B space for their team’s unwavering commitment to providing readers with reliable company lists and reviews, sorted by industry and location. Knowing that Clutch exerts an incredible amount of time and effort to evaluate what goes in on their site, we feel immensely honored to receive recognition within their platform.
In the recent review of our project, the client, a junk removal company, details how their biggest challenge was to inform and educate the general public about what they do. Because they seemed to be running out of luck in their individual efforts, they sought our help to improve their digital presence. After some discussion and strategy building, we proceeded to implement the integrated marketing plan into their digital processes. From then on, a partnership that will last for years to come was found.
If you want to know more about this project, head over to our Clutch profile to read the entire review. We’re also featured on The Manifest, Clutch’s sister site, where you can find valuable business tips and advice.
Lastly, we want to thank all our clients who have left us positive feedback. They enable us to grow and improve our methods.
Speaking of improvement, start improving your brand presence today! Call us now to learn how we can help you come up with a solid marketing strategy that will boost your engagement.
