One year ends, and another begins. The previous year was the year that no one could trust, and 2021 is already becoming unpredictable.
However, all businesses of American size, start-ups, and SMEs have experienced the epidemic’s challenges in the most challenging way. 50% of small businesses are concerned that they will have to close permanently next year if the economic climate does not change significantly.
In 2021, the world, as we know it, is likely to move to the next normalcy, and there will be a development disruption. Already, businesses have been forced to turn to their marketing strategies to reflect changing consumer behavior, and for many businesses, digital marketing has become critical to success.
For SMEs achieving their business goals in 2021, we will explore the key marketing strategies adopted this year.
1. Know Your Audience
Audience identification and understanding have always been central to SMEs’ marketing strategy, and this is true, especially in the epidemic world. Businesses have faced high market fragmentation, and the epidemic has changed the way businesses interact with their audiences.
In this new phase of the normal process, the better you get to know your audience, the stronger your digital marketing effort will be. Without understanding the audience, it is impossible to know what marketing strategies need to be implemented or through which channels we will target consumers in the coming year.
Digital marketing is powered by analytics. It conducts localized market research to learn more about your customers, likes, dislikes, and expectations from the business, which will drive you to market success in 2021. Market research allows a more comprehensive assessment of the market. Consumer markets, which help inform trends and set strategic priorities for SMEs.
2. Exploring The Development of Omnichannel
While omnichannel development seems like a buzz, it actually reveals trends in consumer behavior and changes the look of the e-commerce landscape. Consumers are increasingly expecting a seamless experience from the brands with whom they interact. As a result, in 2021, an omnichannel marketing strategy will be focused on improving the user experience and business results and should be taken into consideration for all SMEs.
To achieve this, businesses and brands need to focus on integrated marketing efforts encompassing all channels to guarantee a seamless customer experience. The curve of technology leads to convenience, and as a result, the future of commercial success is a harmonious relationship between brands and consumers.
3. Include Purchasable Content
Consumers live and shop online, with 60% of people searching for new products on Instagram. As a result, social commerce trends are projected to pick up in 2021, with user engagement on social media directly turning into sales.
Likewise, the days of commercials on television have come to an end. Amazon and NBCUniversal are reviving the old TV market, changing how we consume brands and interact with them. It allows customers to buy those products on their favorite television shows quickly; it allows consumers to shop from their rooms’ comfort.
For SMEs and retailers who want to address consumer shopping desires and take advantage of this emerging trend, the key lies in developing a clear, socially purchasing strategy that is an attractive and dynamic incentive to take action provides so that consumers can use the benefits.
4. Integrate New Technology
As with many Internet options, the epidemic has played a balanced role, allowing SMEs to take on larger competitors. Therefore, now is an essential time for SMEs to gain a competitive advantage through the use of smart technology such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Not only is AI technology developing as speed and processing power, but its application is also becoming more advanced. Research by Quantcast and Forbes Insights found that 52 percent of 500 marketers saw an increase in sales. In comparison, 51 percent saw an increase in customer retention since introducing AI capabilities into their ecosystem.
Businesses have many opportunities to incorporate AI in their digital marketing strategy. For example, AI can be used to support and develop many traditional business practices, including social management, conversational marketing, and remarketing. As such, AI allows businesses to provide better insights into their audience and traffic and enable businesses to provide more personalized digital experiences.
As the market is ever-changing, SMEs will need to acquire their digital ducks one after another in 2021 to succeed. The unprecedented events of the past year have led to tremendous growth in consumer behavior and digitization. As we settle into 2021, and this is the next step in the normal process, small businesses need to know their customers. Look at omnichannel development, integrate innovative technologies to build a strong foundation, and deliver services to their convenience.
5. Optimization for next Google update
With the Google Page Experience update coming in May 2021, new metrics called Core Web Vitals – which measure site load time, interactivity, and content consistency – will affect overall search rankings.
Anything that bothers a page user can negatively affect core web vitality metrics and lower the page’s search results. This means that brands need to start optimizing for core web vitals to be more user friendly than ever before.
Pages and items should load quickly, and users should not wait. Before the first entry, the delay should be very short, allowing users to interact with the pages as quickly as possible. Any unexpected changes to the layout when users load and scroll pages Changes should not occur. If you do not address these items, your site may fall quickly.
6. Prepare for the end of third-party cookies.
2021 will be the year that marketers prepare for two significant changes in 2022: third party cookies expiration and new privacy rules.
We should be comfortable with data collection practice before data security. This means that we need to focus on lint building and one-on-one relationships with customers. Make sure your 2021 campaigns help create first-party data so you can rely less on other people’s data.
Next year provides an opportunity for the market to learn about the ultimate opportunity and prepare for the implications of a cookie-free future. The key measure is to improve the use and efficient use of their valuable first-party data and ensure that agencies have a clear plan to keep and measure campaigns after the change.
In addition to having fun with data security-critical data collection practices, the brand must also build their own data collection infrastructure to meet the standards that will come into effect in 2021.
7. Focus on customer retention
For brands recovering from the events of 2020, it may be wise to focus on existing customers. In an uncertain economy, most brands, especially niche retailers, need to focus on existing customers.
Pleasing existing customers is cheaper than new ones as brands tend to bypass the initial stages of the customer journey and have more data to send personalized messages.
Mobile interactions such as SMS (and even email) directly connect the brand and the customer and bypass third parties. The epidemic has been frightening for small businesses … but it only reinforces the need for small businesses to gain an audience and a stellar brand because they can only leverage them against technology giants.
8. Build trust
Meanwhile, the epidemic has intensified consumers’ tendency to spend money on brands that share their values and brands they trust.
As consumers become more selective about where they spend their money, they want to know that the businesses they support are in their best interests. Building trusts do not require large budgets. You just have to make a promise to your customers and keep it.
Brands need to focus their messages on providing peace of mind to consumers – even after vaccination. The epidemic will have a profound and lasting impact on customers’ mindset, and compassion and trust will not be focused only on the product or service. With our business already focused on security by 2021, it will be a continuing strategy to change our cleanliness and peace message. With your business already focused on security, changing your messages to cleanliness and peace by 2021 would be a better ongoing strategy.
9. Optimize voice search
We can see voice searches in the forecasts at the end of last year. However, 2021 may be the year when consumers use their voice-based devices more while they were at home during the epidemic.
It means that people are more willing to learn what their smart home devices could do, start interacting with them and start learning and trusting them. As a result, brands need to optimize voice-based search by focusing on long-tail keywords that reflect how consumers ask questions or verbally to stay ahead of the curve.