Did you know that 84% of marketers don’t have a proper marketing strategy?
What most of them do is simply go on with the trend.
That’s where the problem is because trends change and so do people.
Their likes and choices change as well.
So if you don’t have a flexible digital marketing strategy in place, you’re doomed.
A proper digital marketing strategy can bring a whopping 25% improvement in marketing effectiveness.
Digital marketing operations include the use of capabilities, development of the new process, coordination of new technologies that will change the shape of a business.
Savvy marketers will always think about the customers, what they want and how they behave.
The speed of customer change is already outpacing a marketer’s ability to respond and adapt to it.
As we inch towards life after the pandemic, we believe that customer change will be more fluid and fast.
Changing your digital marketing operations will be the real savior of your business.
Even though digitization had already started across different businesses, the last year witnessed it grow exponentially.
For the businesses that had to close their operations, their only option was to shift to digital/online marketing.
Businesses used AI and other advanced automation technologies to bring more personalization to their services and products.
As we move ahead in time, digital marketing will be the only way to grow your business.
More and more companies are investing in it to retain the existing customers, get higher ROI and increase sales.
Here are the best ways how digital marketing operations are transforming business in 2021.
1. The Dominance of Artificial Intelligence
If you haven’t already realized it yet, the dominance of AI is already here.
AI is going to be the heart of a lot of businesses very soon.
For instance, Microsoft and Uber are already using Knightscope K5 robots to patrol parking lots and different outdoor areas to predict and prevent crime.
These robots can report suspicious activity, read license plates and collect data to report their owners.
Here are the main reasons why businesses are adopting AI.
Another example is, Mastercard which created a Facebook Messenger bot.
It uses natural language processing software to understand what the customer needs and responds like a real person.
Chatbots play a vital role in digital marketing.
We want an immediate response and also, the response has to be conversational.
Thus, brands are using the power of Chatbots with conversational marketing to build connections with their customers.
2. The Growth of Programmatic Advertising
In simple terms, programmatic advertising means using AI to automate ads.
This is done to target a more specific audience. It also optimizes real-time bidding.
It is changing the face of digital advertising.
Did you know that 86% of the digital display ads in the US are programmatic ads?
Here is how programmatic advertising works.
3. Video Marketing has Come into Play
Video marketing is no doubt one of the most (if not THE most) important digital marketing operations these days.
Here is how most people want to check out new products or services.
It’s not only about YouTube, there are different ways to engage with your audience using video marketing.
You can create a video and post it on social media, go live on Insta, Facebook, and LinkedIn, create short reels, create 360-degree video content, and more.
YouTube and other videos get displayed on the search engine results page.
Thus, video optimization is important. You can use text overlays and closed captions to add to the description.
If your website has a video, it is 50X times more likely to get organic search results compared to only text.
- 70% of the consumers share a video
- 72% of businesses say that using a video has improved their conversion
- 52% of the consumers watch product videos before buying any product or choosing a service
4. Influencer Marketing is the trend
Using micro-influencers in your niche to boost your brand awareness has become a trend these days.
And this works in a great way!
Mostly it is the Instagram or YouTube personalities with high niche following that can help you spread the word about your business.
The best thing is influencer marketing is not just a trend.
- 63% of the consumers trust the opinion of the influencers
- 58% of the people bought new products or services by listening to the recommendations of influencers
5. Social Messaging Apps are Now a Marketing Tool
If you still think that messaging apps are merely used for sending messages and emojis, then you are highly mistaken.
Here are some stats on how many active users are there on the social messaging apps.
- Facebook Messenger sees 10 billion messages from people and businesses every month.
- WhatsApp has 1.6bn active users and every day 55bn messages are sent out.
- WhatsApp, FB Messenger, and WeChat are the top three most used social messaging apps.
And the numbers are increasing!
Since people use social messaging apps so much, they have now become a weapon to send messages to your customers directly.
This adds value to the user experience.
6. Increase in Visual Search
Visual search is taking the search experience of the users to a whole new level.
You can now upload an image to conduct a search.
Pinterest Lens, Google Lens, Bing Visual search are some of the most popular visual search options available.
Again, if you think that it is not important, then here are some numbers to change your mind.
- 62% of the Millenials are more interested in a visual search than text search
- 19% of the search results on Google offer images
- 600 million visual searches happen every month on Pinterest.
This is an important digital marketing operation that is changing the way businesses need to think.
7. More Use of Voice Search & Smart Speakers
Voice search and smart speakers are also dominating digital marketing operations.
- More than 50% of searches in 2021 happen through voice
- 55% of the US homes have a smart speaker
- Voice shopping will jump to $40 billion in 2022
Thus, it is clear that people will use more and more voice searches in the future.
Therefore, businesses need to optimize the content for voice searches as well.
The key is, companies have to realize that voice search is not just another channel to force sales messages.
Instead, it is important to develop a unique strategy for customer interaction.
You should use voice search for a better brand experience.
8. Use Your Content for Marketing and Optimize it for Google
Google introduced a new page experience update last month.
It’s called the Core Web Vitals that will measure the content stability, site interaction, and site load time.
All these will impact the overall search rankings.
Anything that annoys a user will impact the Core Web Vitals and lead to lower rankings in search results.
According to John Muller from Google, “Instead of chasing the latest trends in SEO, it has become more important to make sure that the website has fast speed, useful links, and good content.
88% of the marketers agree that creating content makes their audience view their organization as a trusted and credible source.
Here are some stats on content marketing:
- The cost of content marketing is 62% less than outbound marketing and it garners 3X more leads.
- Lesser up-front costs and higher long term benefits
- Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those that don’t have blogs.
- Content marketing increases conversion by 6X times.
Google will continue to value the well-researched articles. Thus, it is a powerful way to get more traffic and customers to your website.
9. Interactive content
Speaking of digital marketing operations, interactive content is one of the most important digital marketing operations.
In 2021, we are already seeing a shift from traditional text-based content to much more dynamic and engaging content that offers users a much more immersive experience.
You can opt for the:
- Polls & quizzes
- AR ads
- 306-degree videos
- Embedded calculators
Did you know that 91% of the buyers actively search for interactive content?
The main reason for this is the interactive content makes them feel much more connected to the brands. They feel more involved in the buying process.
10. The growth of Augmented Reality (AR)
According to Gartner, 70% of enterprises shall experiment with immersive technology.
Yes, it is true that virtual reality (VR) gets everyone excited, but when it comes to a marketing standpoint, AR is much more implementable.
Also, experts predict that AR will outpace VR when it comes to market share.
Here are some examples of how brands are using AR to increase customer experience.
L’Oreal acquired ModiFace which includes Sephora Virtual Artist.
This is a ModiFace technology that enables you in seeing how the different colors and various forms of makeup will look on your face.
You won’t have to visit the store physically to check all these.
Another example is IKEA. They have their own app know as IKEA Place with which you can take a picture of your home and test IKEA’s furniture.
You can shift the furniture and check how it looks from different angles.
11. The Use of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
The progressive web apps are almost like websites that work as mobile apps.
They function similar to a native mobile app including faster load times, push notifications, offline working, using device hardware, and more.
Also, they are not limited to one platform (Android or iOS).
With more than half of the world’s population using smartphones, mobile marketing is more crucial than ever.
12. Big Data & Deep Learning
It’s 2021 and the world’s big data industry is continuing to evolve exponentially.
This is great news for marketers if you have the idea to harness the power of big data.
A large segment of this task comes down to the use of the tools.
According to Forbes, 78% of the institutions have either developed or developing a customer data platform to leverage their data.
13. Long-Form Content
In 2021, shorter posts will not get you any results – whether it is with Google or your audience.
Typically, posts with at least more than 3000 words attract more traffic because they offer readers a higher in-depth exploration of topics.
According to Small Biz Trends, 56% of bloggers can generate higher ROI when they spend more than six hours creating a single blog post.
This might seem to be excessive but if it generates more traffic, increases organic search ranking, and boosts on-page time, it is a useful business investment.
14. Using Retailer Media Networks
In recent times, Amazon also diversified its advertising portfolio by including Sponsored Video Ads, OTT ads, and Sponsored Display Ads.
Amazon has got a fully enclosed ecosystem that supports the whole marketing funnel, right from product to purchase.
Marketers can also make use of the OTT and sponsored display ads for building awareness, engage and educate visitors to drive more transactions.
15. Emnracing B2B2C
In 2021, we are continuing to see remote work which also impacts B2B marketing as well.
Email marketing also suffered due to inactive email addresses.
However, that might be a bright spot for LinkedIn InMail campaigns which have high click-through rates and open rates.
Wrapping Up
There you go! Here are the 15 digital marketing operations that are transforming businesses in 2021.
For anyone involved in digital marketing operations, you have to remember that change is an integral part of it.
You have to keep looking ahead and also strive to embrace new technologies, strategies, tools to get an edge over your competitors.
That’s how you succeed with the evolving digital marketing operations.
