Marketing Best Practices For 2021

30-Second Summary

• Digital marketing and online lines of communication have enabled businesses to reach customers, maintain sales and keep their businesses ticking over through digital means.
• The core aim of digital marketing is to connect with your audiences and build a reputable, trusted brand.
• Core strategies for 2021 centre around being agile to industry changes and new opportunities.
• Check out my top three tips for the following areas: email marketing, social media and mobile marketing now!

 

As we enter another year, businesses, marketers and customers across the country are gearing up to see what 2021 will bring for digital marketing. 2020 showed a fundamental shift in how businesses approached their marketing, with digital initiatives taking president as the world locked down against coronavirus.

Digital marketing and online lines of communication have enabled businesses to reach customers, maintain sales and keep their businesses ticking over through digital means. As 2021 comes into view everyone is ready for a fresh start and some sense of normality, however, one thing is for certain – digital is here to stay. So, it’s time to fully embrace the power of digital marketing and invest in the incredible tool.

If you’re looking to implement new digital marketing strategies, or give your current digital marketing services a refresh, contact myself or an expert member of the Absolute Digital Media team now on 0800 088 600.

 

What Is Digital Marketing Best Practice?

Digital marketing best practices encompass a vast range of niche industry guidelines, expert advice, and service-specific processes and sometimes it can be a bit difficult to see the wood for the trees! At its heart, the core aim of digital marketing is to connect with your audiences and build a reputable, trusted brand. To reach this primary goal, all digital marketing pursuits need to be centered around well-researched approaches, content with authority, detailed audience knowledge and data lead strategies.

With these core aims guiding our campaigns, how will digital marketing practices need to adapt in 2021? It is certainly true that agencies and businesses across the globe are going to have to embrace the need for agility, as the fate of 2021 still hangs in the balance.

To embrace a truly agile approach to your marketing practices you need to follow three key principles: preparation, acceptance of change and fast reactions.

 

 

Preparation

2020 taught us what true disruption means and threw businesses large and small into complete chaos. Now as we embrace the fresh start of 2021, let’s start with a strong sense of preparation and confidence in your ability as a robust business. Get ahead of any exciting industry ideas or opportunities in the market by actively looking for areas where you can grow and expand your business. Remember, true growth comes to those who keep their eyes on the horizon and ears to the ground.

Acceptance of Change

Marketing strategies and business plans can face different stresses and pressures throughout the year, and understanding when to make a change and when to stay steadfast is an important skill for developing a successful campaign. This is especially important for businesses who still feel their industries and economies are unstable; as marketers, we need to look for the opportunities for change in these turbulent areas and deliver innovative ideas to fill new market gaps.

Move Fast

You’ve got the skills and industry know-how to confidently assess changes as they come – if you see a good opportunity arise from this don’t be afraid to take it!

With the core principles of digital marketing best practices assessed, let’s take a closer look at some digital marketing services.

 

Email Marketing Best Practices

1. Personalise Your Emails

Email personalisation makes your consumers feel valued and helps increase your open rate. Make your emails stand out in your customers’ inbox with simple personalisation tactics and eye-catching subject lines.

2. Target Your Email Lists

Split your email lists up into smaller, targeted consumer groups based on their customer information and demographics. This way you can tailor your email content to specific topics relating to the group, for example younger customers by be more interested a specific product line and are therefore more likely to engage with your email campaign.

3. Create Automated Responses

Send the perfect message to the right people and the right time. Automated emails will help guide customers to your website and also demonstrate your interest in building a strong customer relationship.

Top automated emails include:

• Welcome emails
• Cart abandonment reminders
• Thank you for our purchase emails
• Birthday campaigns

For more information on building a successful email campaign, check out my top tips here.

 

 

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

Brands with effective social media marketing channels know that social is the ideal tool for building brand awareness, encouraging value filled customer relationships and expanding out to new audiences. With both paid and organic social tactics available to boost your business. Here are three core social media best practices:

1. Polished Content Schedule

Keeping a content schedule will ensure you never miss a trick with your social posting. Building a fantastic content schedule is the keystone to social media success as it gives you time to create a brand aesthetic, target key days and events and schedule content which resonates with your targeted audience.

2. Don’t Neglect Stories

Stories and Fleets are fantastic social media assets which directly engage your following with useful and relevant information for 24 hours. Social marketers are seeing an increase in engagement with these quick content bursts as they are more readily available to followers and are not as drastically effected by social media algorithms, so make sure you’re utilising these tools.

3. Build A Valuable B2C Relationship

Social is, predominately, a means of building connections with you audience. Keeping your social media platforms social is often lost by businesses constantly trying to sell their products or services. Yes, the ultimate aim of social is to drive traffic to your website and boost sales, but this is a result which comes from building a relationship with your audiences so that they feel valued, included and supported by your business. Think about why your followers should engage with social posts and what makes you stand out as a business and channel this into your social media posts.

 

 

Mobile Marketing Best Practices

Mobile search now accounts for half of all search queries, meaning that optimising your digital marketing for mobile is now a crucial aspect of your digital marketing strategy. You need to captivate mobile searchers, deliver a smooth mobile website and capitalize on mobile traffic.

1. Mobile-Friendly Design

Make sure all your design elements for your website are optimised for mobile devices and work on smaller mobile screens. When designing your website and any digital assets you need to be considering how they will look on a mobile screen and if they will work in this format.

2. Near Me Searches

Mobile device search results are heavily location-based and when users in your area are searching for your industry you need your business website to be appearing in their search results. Update your location pages, add your location to your social media and keep your Google My Business page up to date to capitalise on location-based mobile searches.

3. Fast Loading Speeds

Mobile search users are much more likely to abandon a search page if it has a slow loading page. Give your page the best possible loading speed by optimising any large content, such as images, videos and animations. You can also crawl the page for any loading errors which slows down your loading speed. Remember, Google recommends having your page loading speed between 1 and 2 second so time really is of the essence!

 

 

So, there you have it, some quick easy and crucial digital marketing best practices to take into your 2021 digital marketing strategy. For more information, call a member of our expert team today on 0800 088 600.