The 6 Marketing Trends You Can't Ignore for 2021

Marketers and business owners use a variety of marketing tactics and strategies to achieve their marketing goals. Although there is not a “one- size-fits-all” approach for every type of business, here are some of our favorite Marketing Tactics & Strategies to achieve your business’ goals: 

Link to our webinar with all this information can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfQx1-a4CyA&feature=youtu.be

RETARGETING

Retargeting is an essential piece of almost every business’ marketing funnel. Have you ever visited a company’s website, then later on you start seeing ads from that same company? You were likely seeing that ad because that company has a retargeting/ remarketing strategy in place.

• People who have already visited your site have already shown interest in your product/service. Retargeting allows you to keep the conversation going after they leave your site.
• Retargeting can turn virtual “window shoppers” into sales. People may have left your site to browse your competitors’ offerings in their research process. Don’t you want another chance to sell them?
• It is the supreme version of targeting. Rather than putting your ads out there to try to find the right person, retargeting ads are served to people who have already expressed interest in your services/products.
• Only about 2% of traffic converts on the first visit to a website. (Hubspot) Retargeting allows you stay in front of the other 98%.
• You can set up a recency schedule and frequency cap on your retargeting campaigns. For example, if someone visits your site, you can set up your retargeting to serve that person 20 ads over the next 14 days. Best practices are to coordinate this with your average
• sales/conversion cycle.
• In addition to digital display retargeting ads, similar remarketing strategies are also very effective on social media platforms, online video, and Connected TV.
• “Search” retargeting (differs from site retargeting) is the ultimate complimentary piece to your SEO and SEM strategies. This form of retargeting refers to serving digital display ads to people based on their search behavior and a pre-set keyword list.
• In addition to retargeting being a cost effective & high ROI strategy, the campaigns are measurable to KPIs, like conversions or clicks.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

SEM (often referred to as pay-per-click search advertising or AdWords) increases the visibility of your online presence on search engine results pages through paid search advertising.

• Even though a majority of searches are done via Google, you might not want to completely exclude Bing and Yahoo (especially if your target audience is a little older).
• SEM leverages the search engines to reach your potential customers at the perfect time and perfect place based on their search intentions.
• SEM (search engine marketing) vs SEO (search engine optimization): SEM uses paid search advertising, while SEO refers to how you are showing up organically in search results. SEO can be somewhat confusing for marketers because Google uses complex and everchanging algorithms to determine which website is best suited to address the keywords typed into a search browser when listing organic search results. SEM takes some of the guesswork out of that process. A properly set-up paid search strategy should work cohesively with your SEO to make sure that you are consistently showing up when people need your products and/or services.
• The Pay-Per-Click model has its benefits because you get free branding and exposure towards people who are looking for your offerings, and you only pay when someone takes an action.
• SEM allows you to geo-target your search ads, so you can be very strategic in pinpointing your key geographies.
• You can also create search ads that are triggered to show up when people are searching for your competitors. This will allow you an opportunity to convert customers away from your competitors in an effort to gain more market share.
• SEM is very measurable. You can easily evaluate and monitor your campaign to identify what needs to be optimized to improve your campaign’s performance.

FACEBOOK AD CAMPAIGNS

Facebook’s advertising platform offers effective options for nearly every type of business.

• You can target your ideal audience with a paid ad strategy as their platform has a robust amount of targeting options to choose from. Facebook has been decreasing business’ pages organic visibility in news feeds, so organic posts alone do not provide the necessary reach needed to obtain your marketing goals in most cases.
• You don’t need a huge budget to get bang for your buck while running paid Facebook ads.
• You have the ability to run ads tailored to your specific campaign goals. You can optimize your Facebook ad campaigns to specific objectives such as reach, web traffic, lead generation, video views, conversions, and more.
• Facebook’s advertising platform allows you to retarget/remarket people who have already interacted with you.
• One of the biggest advantages of running Facebook Ads is their detailed reports and analytics. You won’t find analytics like these when you run ads on other social media platforms.
• And the obvious: people still spend a ridiculous amount of time on Facebook even with the variety of other social media platforms available. Facebook has over 2.6 billion monthly active users. (Statistica)

EMAIL MARKETING

Many people think that email marketing is dead, but it is still a very effective, efficient, and affordable way for marketers to communicate with their loyal customers and prospect new ones.

• Keeping a database of your existing customers and communicating with them regularly with relevant content is an affordable and effective way to stay in front of your primary audience. COVID was a great example of how businesses used email as the main communication tool to push out content and relay your PR messaging to your core customer base.
• You have the ability to personalize your messages in an email by addressing them by their names. Also, if you have your email database broken down by geographies, behavioral categories, etc. you can make your content personalized and targeted.
• In addition, emails can be used as a great customer review and feedback tool. Sending an email to your customers for reviews, feedback for a testimonial, surveys, etc. can improve your online reputation as well as improve your customer service, products/services, and processes.
• Whether you are an e-commerce business, a non-profit, or a brick and mortar retail store, email marketing is a conversion generating tool. There are multiple ways to utilize email marketing to convert regardless if you’re trying to drive web traffic, collect leads, sell a product/service, or promote an event.
• Email marketing is a revenue generator! According to Campaign Monitor’s 2019 report, email marketing boasts a 4200% ROI; that’s $42 for every $1 spent. (Campaign Monitor)
• Email marketing is very measurable, so it’s pretty easy to see where there may be a disconnect between you and your audience. If your open rates are low, adjust your subject line. If your click rates are subpar, address your copy and offerings. If your conversion rates are low, tweak your landing page.

VIDEO

When it comes to creating compelling content, VIDEO IS KING! Ads and content in the form of video deliver your message with sight, sound, motion, and emotion. This makes it the most attention-grabbing form of media, and many people prefer to consume their content through video.

• People lean on video for both entertainment and to get answers to their questions. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet behind Google. (Global Reach)
• A lot of people would much rather learn things through video versus reading. 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. (Hubspot)
• 78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online videos every day. (Biteable)
• Make sure that you are incorporating video on your landing pages. Including a video on your
• landing page can boost your conversion rate by up to 80%. (Unbounce)
• Including video within your website will help you improve your rankings on search engine results pages too. A website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if it includes video. (Biteable)
• Utilize video in your email marketing as well. Using the word video in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65%, and reduces unsubscribes by 26%. (Vidyard)
• Video is also essential for your social media campaigns. Engagement is highest on Facebook posts that include videos at 13.9%. Tweets with video see 10x more engagement than those without, and Promoted Tweets with videos save more than 50% on cost-per-engagement. LinkedIn users are 20x more likely to share a video on the platform than any other type of post. Pinterest users are 2.6x more likely to make a purchase after viewing brand video content on the platform. (Social Media Today)
• And don’t forget about reaching people on their big screen televisions. Even though traditional television viewership has been declining in recent years, total TV usage has remained steady thanks to DVR recordings, video on demand, YouTube, and the rapid surge of streaming video on Connected TV.

CONNECTED TV

Connected TV combines the user experience and impact of television advertising with the precise targeting and affordability of digital advertising!

• Connected TV (CTV) ads are delivered to targeted audiences on their televisions while they are streaming their favorite programs through an internet connection on platforms such as Hulu, Sling TV, ESPN, and HGTV. You can target people based on their age, gender, hobbies, interests, occupations, zip code, online behaviors, and more.
• Unlike traditional television advertising, CTV advertising allows you to regulate who sees your ads by predetermining your target audience. With Traditional TV advertising you are buying a specific program or daypart. With CTV advertising you are buying specific audiences. This difference allows you to cut some of the budget and waste out of your TV advertising if you want to be more strategic.
• People view Connected TV content from smart tv’s or televisions with streaming players such as Amazon Fire Sticks, Rokus, or gaming consoles.
• There are over 212 million monthly Connected TV users in the United States. Roku has 84.7 million users and Amazon Fire TV has 71.2 million users. (eMarketer)
• CTV Retargeting is a great complimentary piece to your Connected TV and digital campaigns. CTV retargeting refers to serving digital display retargeting ads to people who have viewed your CTV video ads through cross-device mapping.
• Connected TV campaigns are also very measurable, and campaigns can be easily optimized. TV ads are non-skippable and more than 95% of the CTV ads are viewed through to completion.
• BENEFITS OF CONNECTED TV ADVERTISING

TARGETABILI TY

ENGAGEMENT /ATTENTION

MEASURABILI TY

INCREMENTAL REACH

FASTER CAMPAIGN RESULTS REPORTING THAN LINEAR TV SCREEN SIZ E

SHORTER CAMPAIGN ACTIVATION LEAD TIME THAN LINEAR CO-VIEWING

WHY FOLLOW THE EYES?

A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

There are so many tactics to choose from to formulate the perfect strategy for your business. Marketing directors & business owners do not always have the time, resources, or personnel to implement and perfect the strategy they really want to execute.

Are you looking for that new big, disruptive, and creative idea? Are you trying to capture more share in your marketplace? Are you looking to revamp your marketing strategy and try something new?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, let’s chat!

Matthew Heck, [email protected], 317-607-8313