The marketing landscape is changing, particularly the digital landscape that is continually responding to changing algorithms and new technologies. Practices within digital marketing are also changing to incorporate new insights and better methods into content creation, audience engagement, and campaign strategies.

Staying competitive is vital in today’s marketplace, so marketers need to keep up with key marketing strategies to equip their businesses for success.

Maybe you are a startup business or brand, or perhaps you’re one that’s been around for a while but hasn’t achieved much growth. You might want to consider your key marketing strategies and evaluate whether they are in line with today’s best practices. This can make all the difference to the efficacy and effectiveness of your campaigns and sales figures. Why not review them now to see if improvements can be made.

Marketing Automation

When you assess your brand or business, how important is efficiency? Is it a priority for you to keep your cost as low as possible while maintaining the highest possible standard of service? There are several ways of doing this, but the process is also becoming much easier as we move into a new decade with better AI and more automated software solutions. These automation options open up new possibilities for innovating businesses of all sizes.

Today many businesses are utilizing marketing automation to streamline repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media marketing, as well as running entire campaigns, such as ones for leak detection tools. Software solutions such as Hubspot and ActiveCampaign eliminate the need for personnel and build more efficiency into the strategy using automation processes, but they also contribute more value by providing a more personalized customer experience using the power of big data.

Marketing Automation has improved significantly in recent years, but there are some downsides. Companies who implement automated strategies do notice an improvement in customer retention in the middle of the sales funnel, but there tends to be less effort made to generate new leads to work with. Perhaps it is a side effect of automation, where marketers would rather buy lists for the software instead of bringing in new customers with traditional methods. Despite this, automation software is a roundly successful business strategy.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is not a new idea; it has been around for as long as video. What has changed is its use and effectiveness in the online world. Video has proved itself to be an excellent cross-platform tool for increasing customer engagement and increasing leads. With video, a company or brand can impart relevant information in a personalized and engaging way; furthermore, customers enjoy video and can access it on several devices.

Without realizing the true benefits of video, marketers have been quick to take advantage of the medium’s seismic growth. In recent years youtube, the world’s second-largest search engine, has matured with individuals and companies taking full advantage of the platforms set up dedicated brand channels that work in tandem with blogs and other online interfaces. These channels are excellent advertising tools and revenue streams.

Video has now moved from the periphery of digital marketing strategy to the center of any campaign. If brands are not building their digital strategies around video these days, then they are missing out. Since video probably takes the most time and money to develop, it makes sense, for this reason also, to develop that first, then break it up into digestible content such as blogs, ads, and social media posts. This nebulous content creation strategy, built around video, is now trending and likely to be popular for some time to come.

Interactive Content

Interactive content is traditional content that has been adapted in some way or augmented to make it more engaging for audiences. This type of content can include blog posts with interactive features such as games, quizzes, polls, and activities, or infographics that are played like simple video games. The idea is to engage users with the content more immersively, creating a deeper connection with the brand and giving different campaigns more value.

Interactive Infographics are one way that marketers are using interactive content to engage audiences. An interactive infographic might offer the customer some useful information in the headline, but in order to access it, they will have to play a short animated game. The game will be lighthearted and enjoyable, imparting useful information at various points. This visual and kinesthetic approach engages the customer in several ways rather than one, bringing more value to the strategy.

Interactive blog posts are another excellent innovation in content creation. The idea is not to operate at the cutting edge of technology but to utilize the many excellent technologies already available and apply them to traditional formats in interesting ways. You might come across more blog posts with embedded video content, quizzes, games, and activities to support the written content and encourage community engagement with the blog or product.

AR/VR

Virtual Reality is a technology that has been with us for some time. It has a long a checkered history that reaches back to the 1960s, further if you want to include the very idea of virtual simulation. But as a technology for artificial Reality, it has only really been taken seriously since the 2010s. Despite its lack of success throughout the years, it has shown a certain persistence indicating it has something to offer that perhaps we have been missing.

There is a difference between AR and VR. AR stands for Augmented Reality and refers to the process of placing content into the real-world environment. So it is only a partial fiction you see. With VR, the world itself becomes a fiction. Both technologies are very useful for marketing strategies and are likely to be more popular in the coming decades. One example of an effective AR strategy was the success of Pokemon Go, a game that lets users catch small creatures in real-life locations.

AR and VR marketing are very effective strategies that have several advantages over traditional methods. Firstly, they offer a unique experience with the brand, opening up a novelty factor for them; but this experience is also affecting and creates a deeper customer bond with the brand. Furthermore, it is a very effective way around AdBlockers, the popularity of which has escalated in recent years. Even if the AR/VR experience is an Ad, it’s likely to be far enough removed from the gameplay for audiences to be receptive to the content.

Chatbots & AI

The evolution of AI has accelerated in recent times resulting in new algorithms, software, and devices. One of these developments has been Chatbots, which has delighted customers and companies alike. Chatbots are an AI customer service solution and marketing strategy for brands who want to improve customer engagement but lower personnel costs.

The emergence of Chatbots in 2020 signals a new way for companies to interact with their customers. There are benefits to both sides. Companies love the standard of engagement and lower costs, while customers appreciate the non-invasive and always active service that’s provided. This would not have been possible without significant developments in AI technology.

The AI used in Chatbots can answer common questions and concerns and direct you to appropriate places, but only if you choose to engage with the AI service. There is lots of Chatbot software on the market at the moment and choosing the best one for your purposes is important. Consider the type of customers you have and what kind of AI service you think they will benefit from most.