Aaron’s Top Nine Digital Marketing Trends For 2021

Without question, so much has happened this past year. Many of these events have drastically altered the Digital Marketing landscape. From changing consumer habits due to the pandemic to Google updates, those changes are surely here to stay. What worked early last year may not work today. The same could be said when working with different types of clients.

With that being said, Digital Marketers should take note and work to adjust to these changes. In Digital Marketing, it’s all about adapting to constant change and being flexible in changing your online outreach strategy. When it comes to trends, there are nine trends we as Digital Marketers need to get ahead of. Let’s take a look at these, shall we?

Voice And Visual Search

Today’s consumers are looking for easier ways to find what they’re looking for online. At the same time, they’re also looking for more convenient ways to do that as well. They would really love it if they didn’t have to type or leave their couch. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that voice search has become more important by the day.

The same can be said about visual search. The infamous saying that ‘a picture means a thousand words’ has become truer today than it has in the past. When it comes to visuals, marketers need to focus on image alt-text and sitemaps to ensure success. As for voice, they need to focus more on conversational keywords as opposed to computer text. For more tips about optimizing for voice search, check out my previous blog post here.

Experience Marketing

Experience Marketing (EM) has also become an evolving trend to look out for in 2021. This talks about how customers define how businesses respond to them and not vice versa. Every customer touch point – online reviews, web chats, surveys – turns into opportunities to discover vital insights to enhance the customer experience (CX).

That’s why you want to go further than just traditional feedback methods than just metrics like the Customer Effort Score (CES). While these do tell you how happy customers are, it doesn’t tell you what to do with that information. EM does that via these three ways.

It deepens the reach of data mining across customer reviews and survey responses.
It develops insights in seconds via machine learning.
It alerts the right people and uncovered patterns in customer data.

This helps teams to move quickly and make more informed choices on how to improve that CX.

User Generated Content (UGC)

When it comes to content, online consumers are much likely to trust that of regular folks than they do traditional advertising. Consumers today crave experiences with brands that are enjoyable and inspire them to take action. They also want proof before they buy and want to make sure that they’re making the right choice.

UGC helps build communities, relates to regular folks, and allows brands to meet their customers where they’re at. On top of that, it goes a long way in helping brands generate lots of content. UGC not only helps provide that social proof brands. It also helps build relationships with customers. With that said, brands should consider making UGC part of their online marketing strategy.

Reputation Management

With what has happened during this past year, It has become increasingly important to manage your reputation online. Whether you get good or bad reviews, you always want to respond to them promptly. It’s not a deal-breaker for potential customers if your brand gets a bad review. It all comes down to how you respond to it. The best way to respond is by showing that you’re committed to resolving their situation

One thing you should never do is try to game the system by creating fake reviews. That never ends well as customers look to multiple review sites to ensure that a certain brand is legit. Customers also check to ensure that brands will positively advance their cause. The best way forward is to listen to the customers’ concerns and work towards a solution that best benefits them. By going this route, they’ll view you more favorably and you’ll be more likely to end with a great review.

Personalization

In today’s online world, people prefer brands that best relate to them and are more human. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from you if you provide them a personalized experience. That same HubSpot study also states that 99% of marketers say that personalization helps advance customer relations.

Whether you’re starting an email marketing campaign or creating web content, you must keep these stats in mind. Work to tailor that content to better meet the specific needs of online consumers. Also, don’t be afraid to share your story. After all, people love stories that speak their minds and make them feel that your brand relates to them.

That’s why you want your content to be relatable to your audience and not just about your brand. That’s how you’ll be able to stand out amongst the crowd online and gain good-paying customers.

User Experience (UX)

Without a doubt, it’s vital to give your online audience an excellent user experience (UX). This means that you need to do several things to make that happen.

Make Sure That Your Website Is Up To Speed

Site speed is a key factor when it comes to consumers choosing to stay or leave a site. Each second matters in this case. If your site takes too long to load, people will leave your site for your competition. That’s why you need to work to make sure that your site is up to speed. The GTmetrix Speed Test is a great tool to use to check your site speed and will give you details on how to do so.

Make Sure That Your Website Is Seamless Across Devices

You always want to make sure that your site is easy to navigate across all devices whether it’s mobile, desktop, or tablet. This means that you need to do these three things to make that happen.

Use responsive design to allow your website to adjust to the screen size of the device being used.
Make your content easy to see.
Ensure that site users don’t have to pinch to zoom in.

By keeping these steps in mind, you’ll help ensure that the UX of your site will be very good.

Content That Is Easy To Consume

In this day in age, people are always on the go. With that said, making your content scannable and easy to read is vital. This means work to create content that is easy to read via a standard reading level. You must have a Flesch Reading Ease Score between 60 and 79 to achieve success. To go the extra mile, aim for a score of 80 or higher.

The Ease Calculator helps check your score and guides you while you write your content. Grammarly also helps you make your content easy to read for your readers. It also helps you catch mistakes you thought you’d never make.

Here are some tips below on how to make your content easy to read.

Make your paragraphs no more than 3 to 5 sentences long.
Divide your content with sub-headers and make sure your H3 headers are below the H2 ones.
Add bullet points as needed.

Also, use the Inverted Pyramid writing style. This is where you put your key points at the beginning and then work to entice readers to read more. With this method, your readers will be able to better scan your content text and be able to derive value. This makes it more likely that they’ll take the actions that you want them to take.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing will be even bigger this year compared to last year. As mentioned earlier, today’s consumers look to brands that are authentic, human, and can relate to them. Study shows that 92% of consumers trust an influencer more than they do corporate ads or celebrities. That’s why brands should take note of this and make influencer marketing part of their plans.

When considering influencers to partner with, go for those who would best relate to your brand. It can be tempting to court macro-influencers like baseball players but that might not work for your brand. If you’re a smaller brand, you should consider micro-influencers. They may have a smaller following but they are cheaper and would do best at relating to your audience. All this is vital to keep in mind when considering influencer marketing.

Link-Building

Link-building is an essential part of any brand’s Digital Marketing plans. With that said, it will only work if you don’t cut corners and actually use this practice to build relationships. One thing you never want to do is to seek links that are not relevant to your brand’s cause. You also don’t want to buy links either. Those type of Black-Hat SEO tactics makes you look spammy and loses you credibility with your audience.

The best way forward is to seek links with others who will best benefit your brand’s cause. It will help you build trust with your audience and gain credibility with the search engines. Once again, Quality over Quantity is the way to go with link-building as is the case in other marketing situations. It will be a win-win scenario for both you and your linking partner thanks to your disciplined approach to seeking high-quality links.

Consumer-First Strategies Help Transform Your Brand For The Better

There’s no doubt that putting the needs of your valued consumers front and center is key to success. It will also help you overcome these fast-changing trends and help you stand out amongst the online crowd. This will also help you in your quest in helping your brand become that next great story. With that said, keep these nine trends in mind and you’ll help transform your business for the better.

What other Digital Marketing trends should brands keep an eye out on in today’s online world? What other strategies should brands adapt to grow their online presence and ensure success? Questions? Comments? Please feel free to share this article and share your thoughts below.

How Voice Search Is Emerging And How To Use It To Advance Your Brand Online

Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash

Without question, we have seen many changes occur in the Digital Marketing landscape this past year. From major events to fast-changing consumer trends, it can be a challenge for brands of all sizes to keep up. One major trend in Digital Marketing that has been emerging is Voice Search.

Voice search has been on the rise this past year. In fact, 40% of internet users in the US along with a third of its population use voice search. That is expected to rise in a big way in the near future. For brands big and small, this makes voice search crucial to helping them increase their online presence. That way, they’ll be able to keep up with fast-changing consumer trends and be able to reach their ideal consumer.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss a few ways how your brand can use voice search to advance your cause. In the end, you’ll be ahead of the game when it comes to fast-changing online trends. Let us explore them, shall we?

Use Conversational Language For Your Content

When it comes to search results, searchers want results that are quick and immediate. Google understands this and has taken steps to improve its search experience. This rings even more true for voice search. With voice search, Google has made direct answers their top priority.

Voice search results are prompt and to the point. At the same time, voice search keywords tend to be longer and more conversational compared to text search. When we use text search, we might type “pocket flashlights” or “recipe for chocolate cookies.” With voice, we might ask “How do I make chocolate chip cookies?”

To have success with voice search, you want to use conversational language in your content as opposed to computer language. When using language that’s more natural, there is a better chance at matching and appearing in search results. That’s why it’s crucial to research the intent of searchers to better understand how they ask verbal queries.

You always want to study the query and conversational styles of the searchers. Likewise, take the time to learn what question keywords or types of questions are being used and asked the most. This helps give you a better idea of what type of answers are the best fit for these query types. By addressing these areas, you’ll gain valuable data-driven insights that’ll help you know what people want via voice search.

Make Use Of Long-Tail Keywords

As mentioned in the previous section, voice search queries tend to be longer. This is where long-tail keywords come into play. With long-tail keywords, they are less competitive and give your content a better chance at getting seen by the right people. On top of that, they give you a better chance at achieving higher conversion rates. It sure makes a huge difference compared to shorter and more competitive phrases.

The best strategy at using long-tail keywords in your long-form content is by using them in the title. You can also use H2 headers with those long-tail keywords in the body text in a clear and concise manner. This helps your content at performing well in voice search rankings.

Make Your Content Readable

Something that gets overlooked a lot is content readability. With people constantly on the go these days, making your content scannable and easy to read is basically a must. This means that you need to create content that is precise and readable via a standard reading level.

You want to achieve a Flesch Reading Ease Score of at least 60 or 70. If you really want to achieve high-quality readability, then aim for a score of 80 or higher. The Ease Calculator here is a great tool that checks your score and helps guide you in writing your content. Grammarly is also a great tool to help you improve your readability and catches mistakes you never thought you’d make.

There are other things to also consider when writing content for voice search. You want to strive for short paragraphs (3-5 sentences long), divide your content with subheaders, and add bullet points as needed. You also want to use the Inverted Pyramid writing style. This means put your key points in the first paragraph and work to gauge readers’ interest as they read along. If readers can derive value by scanning the content text, they’ll be enticed to read more.

Using natural language while avoiding excess long words and sentences is key to helping you succeed at voice search.

Ensure That Your Website Is Up To Speed

One thing that is important for voice search but also gets overlooked is website speed. The speed of a page makes a big difference whether people do business with you or not. Websites with longer load times have higher bounce rates than those with faster load times. In other words, you’ll lose out on potential customers if your site takes too long to load. This makes keeping your website up to speed a crucial issue to address.

GTmetrix is a great tool that checks your and helps recommend steps to help improve it. Taking steps to ensure fast page speed is vital in helping your voice search efforts succeed while attracting paying customers.

Make Great Use Of Google My Business (GMB) Listings

When it comes to voice search, people like to use it for local searches often. This makes Local SEO a crucial factor in determining whether you’ll rank for these types of queries. This is where Google My Business (GMB) listings come to light. GMB listings let Google know that your business is located in a specific place. GMB listings are a vital tool for small businesses as they stand to benefit most from Local searches.

When using GMB listings, always include your name, address, and phone number (NAP) in it. On top of that, make sure that your business listings are consistent with your GMB listings. This is key in helping improve your standing in the voice search results. It’s also advised that you add posts with special deals and updates to help your brand stand out. If you don’t have a GMB listing, then take these steps in order to get top-notch results right away.

Ensure That Your Website Is Built To Handle Mobile

A voice search ranking factor that is perhaps the most vital today is the mobile-friendliness of websites. Today, mobile takes up a majority of our voice search and overall search queries. That’s why it’s vital that you work to deliver your users a top-notch mobile user experience (UX).

The best UX is one that is seamless across all devices (mobile, tablet, desktop). That’s why you should opt for your website to be of Responsive Design. This means work to design your site so that it scales your content automatically to match your device’s screen size. Also, run a test to ensure your site can handle mobile. This tool will also give you advice on how to improve your site to be more friendly to mobile.

Without question, mobile will be important both now and in the future. The same goes for voice search so making your site a mobile-friendly one should be in your plans. This crucial step is a voice search SEO best practice that will help set you up for future online success.

Voice Search Ready Websites Help Bring Your Brand Online Success

Without question, voice search will be a huge deal going forward. With that said, it’s vital that brands take measures like these to help advance their cause online. It’ll help ensure that they continue their success of reaching their audience online and help grow their business over time. By taking steps to optimize for voice search, you’ll be ahead of the game in meeting those fast-changing consumer trends. In the end, your brand shall stand out amongst the crowd and turn site visitors into paying customers.

What do you feel is key in helping a brand’s voice search efforts succeed? What other voice search tips do you feel will attract people to one’s website and inspire them to take action? Questions? Comments? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.

Aaron’s Top Six Digital Marketing Trends For 2020

Two months have passed and already 2020 has been a year of big time events . That is especially true when it comes to the Digital Marketing industry. Already we’ve seen some impactful changes that affect how we reach our target audience. What may work yesterday may not work today so Digital Marketers should definitely take notice and prepare to adjust to changes. After all, the Digital Marketing industry is all about constant change and constant adjustments to your online outreach strategies. When it comes to trends, there have been many but there are six Digital Marketing trends that we as Digital Marketers should take notice of. Let’s look at these, shall we? 😉

Influencer Marketing On The Rise

In recent years, we have seen the rise of Influencer Marketing in a big way in comparison to corporate advertising. People these days look for brands that are authentic and relate to them in a more personalized manner. In fact, 63 percent of consumers trust the opinions of influencers than they do corporate advertising that makes it about the brand. When it comes to reaching out to influencers, it is important to reach out to those who would be more relatable to your brand as opposed to focusing on macro-influencers endorsements. If you’re a smaller business, definitely consider micro-influencers as your go to when it comes to reaching your ideal consumer.

Dark Social Becoming The New Thing

Dark Social is absolutely becoming another rising trend in this day in age and no, there’s not gonna be a Zombie Apocalypse coming to take over the world. Dark Social is a term used to describe website referrals that go through private social media platforms that aren’t trackable by analytics programs. According to a survey of 3000 US and UK internet users, dark social apps are used by 63 percent of people to share content. Both younger and older generations have been using Dark Social in increasing numbers so it is important for brands to join in on the fun and to do so in an authentic manner. For more information about how to properly use Dark Social, I welcome you all to view my latest article here.

Mobile Friendly Sites Are A Must

With people on the go these days, it has become increasingly important for businesses to ensure that their websites are up-to-date and up-to-speed on both desktops and mobile devices. People want great user experience on websites and want it fast. If your website takes too long to load, your potential customers will leave you for your competition and your page ranking in the search engines would likely drop. In fact, your bounce rate will go up the longer your website takes to load as witnessed in this study by section.io. Online users are likely to visit a lot more pages when page load time is 2 seconds compared to 8 seconds. Definitely work to have your sites up to speed while also ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly either by responsive design or adaptive design.

Voice Search Is Becoming Increasingly Important

Without a doubt, today’s consumers are looking for newer and more convenient ways to search for what they’re looking for. They especially would enjoy not having to type in their search or even leaving their couch to order something. With this in mind, it is no surprise that Voice Search has become increasingly important. In fact, half of all searches will be via voice by this year with 52 percent of people keeping their voice-activated speakers in their living room. [E] This is important for people of all age groups so it has become important for brands to include voice search in their Digital Marketing strategies going forward. By doing that, they’ll be ahead of the game in meeting the increasing demands of today’s consumers.

Reputation Management Is A Must

When it comes to Reputation Management, let me just say that this is a big deal in today’s online world. With people increasingly viewing online reviews as a big factor in their purchasing decisions, brands must look to build trust with their target audience. One of the biggest ways to do that is to respond to comments and reviews whether they are good or bad. In fact, 78% of people agreed that brands who respond to reviews and comments made them believe that they care about them. Brands both big and small should always work to respond to comments and reviews in a way that shows that you’re committed to the needs of the customer while making them feel at home. After all, that’s how you build and maintain relationships with your ideal consumers.

Personalization

Last but certainly not least when it comes to my Top 6 Digital Marketing trends to keep an eye out in 2020 is personalization. In this day in age, people prefer brands who are authentic and relate to them. In fact, 80% of online consumers are more willing to do business with brands who provide them a more personalized experience. Whether you’re starting an Email Marketing campaign or developing your online content, it is always important to keep these stats in mind when it comes to tailoring your content in order to meet the individual needs of the consumer. Don’t be afraid to share your story to your audience. People love stories that speak their mind and makes them feel that they relate to your brand. Your content should focus more on others and not just about your brand. That’s how you compete and that’s how you Win Big in today’s competitive online world.

Change Happens For The Better

There’s no doubt that the preferences of consumers have changed and when that happens, so will the way we as Digital Marketers reach out to those consumers. It is crucial to always be on top of online trends and be flexible to change in order to meet the demands of today’s online consumers. In today’s fast-changing online world, authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to attracting and retaining your ideal online consumers. Authenticity is how you compete in today’s online world and it is how you become that next big thing. By keeping these six big Digital Marketing trends in mind, you’ll be able to achieve great successes in attracting those valuable consumers and Win Big in today’s competitive online world.

What other Digital Marketing trends should we keep in mind in today’s online world? What role does authenticity play in the success of brands? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.