In business, good marketing is about ensuring a company connects with its target audience at the right time. In the modern world, this means meeting customers on the platform where they spend a lot of time: the digital space. This has given rise to digital marketing, which encompasses all the different forms of marketing that are carried out using digital means.
Digital marketing is essential for businesses of all sizes, whether it’s a start-up with a few employees or a medium enterprise with multiple locations. This is because technology continues to develop at a rapid pace, meaning that companies must keep up with the latest developments if they want to succeed. Several options are available that any digital marketer should consider implementing.
Artificial Intelligence
Technologies and programmes built using Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to permeate the business world, giving rise to marketing tools such as chatbots. These automated tools can interact with customers like human agents and are useful for answering frequently asked questions (FAQs), providing updates, and making custom offers.
Additionally, the use of AI allows businesses to gather data that can improve marketing and customer service experience. Data gathered through human inputs and sensors is aggregated and analysed to provide insights that are used to improve the customer experience.
Voice Search
With more people willing to use smart speakers in their homes, voice search is steadily gaining popularity. The use of voice search represents enormous possibilities for businesses, many of which are optimising their websites with unique keywords and phrases. Another way businesses can optimise their sites for voice search is by implementing responsive websites that don’t have resource-intensive themes and plugins.
Data-Driven Marketing
More data is available to businesses than ever before, necessitating the use of analytics to power a marketer’s strategies. Even new start-ups can leverage industry data to gather insights on what has worked before. Analysing past data can help them to understand trends and performance indicators that are useful from a marketing perspective.
The use of analytics enables marketers and businesses to make informed decisions. The results of data analysis can, for example, define the typical customer journey on a company’s website. This knowledge can help the business understand where to place sign-up/purchase motivators, ensuring a greater conversion rate for website visitors.
Video Marketing
Video is one of the media forms that users in the internet age have a great affinity for. Astute marketers understand this, leading them to market their products and services through videos. While product copy and articles still make sense, more customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. Indeed, many businesses are resorting to video to provide demonstrations and insights into their offerings, resulting in improved lead generation.
Podcasts
Podcasts are a content format that individuals can plug into at their convenience and through their mobile devices. More people continue to listen to their favourite podcasts, many of which are created to serve specific needs or topics of interest to listeners. To marketers, podcasts represent opportunities to create awareness about their brands.
Beyond getting featured in podcasts that relate to their brand’s theme, successful marketers go the extra step to set up their own podcasts. Doing so allows them to take control of the message and provide interesting, authentic content to their listeners.
Stay Informed
Making use of new marketing trends and content formats requires a marketer to stay informed on the latest developments and new tools. Successful marketers such as Razi Salih have found success by staying updated and gaining knowledge of digital marketing and advertising trends.