More and more businesses emerge and grow on the market. Did you know that there are 30.2 million small businesses in the US? These are staggering numbers.
For all these businesses to come to light and position themselves on the market, a strong marketing strategy is simply imperative. And, with the digital trends changing rapidly, it is essential that you power up your marketing strategy with the right technologies.
In this post, we will outline key technologies and tools you should employ in your marketing strategy in 2021. Without further ado, let’s dive right in!
Chatbots
Based on recent Salesforce research, 69% of consumers prefer using chatbots to any other channel when engaging with brands. Still, many businesses are not using this technology for some reason.
In reality, a chatbot on your website can significantly improve customer experience as it can answer any of the consumers’ questions at any time of the day.
Chatbots enable your readers to find a solution easily without filling out complex forms or browsing through content.
And chatbots are going to go beyond artificial intelligence to the point where they would leverage emotional intelligence. This way, they will extract the data from what you have written and then determine your mood.
Predictions are that businesses will focus on developing chatbots based on emotional intelligence to better understand consumers and improve their soft skills.
Chatbots will enable businesses to reach out to their customers and interact with them more easily.
Implementing technologies like these may take some of your time and require experts who have already done it. If you lack the know-how, it’s best to reach out to app making companies. They can help you leverage the power of chatbots.
Podcasts
Podcasts are the top technology trend in marketing in 2021, as almost every business seems to be using them to engage listeners and visitors.
Around 80% of Americans listen to a podcast weekly. Also, an increasing number of people are exploring a variety of topics through podcasts.
eMarketer points out that podcasting is way more popular with younger people — as more than half of them are between 18 and 44 years old.
Essentially, podcasts build trust with customers and the brand’s affinity. Also, with Covid-19 changing the way we live and work, most people spend a large chunk of their time at home listening to podcasts.
Another reason why podcasts are gaining popularity is that they are fun and easy to consume simultaneously. On top of this, podcasts can help you develop other types of content like blog posts or videos.
So, podcasts provide a resource of valuable content you can recycle, reuse and get value from in the long run.
Videos
If you still haven’t used videos in your marketing strategy, you are doing something wrong.
Video is still the ultimate marketing technique that every business should use.
Since 2020, around 86% of companies have been using videos as one of the most effective marketing tech tools. There are a few reasons for this:
- Video is the most engaging type of content — Even if you pay several ads across platforms, you may still struggle to cut through the noise and stand out in the market. You need to grab people’s attention as soon as possible, and the easiest way to do so is through a video. Videos can hold people’s attention five times longer than static content.
- Video builds customer loyalty — Videos allow you to humanize your brand and create a deeper connection with your audience. For example, you can create a Q and A video where customers may ask you questions and express their concerns. Or you can create an animation video with no real people in it, but which can help educate people about your brand, services, or products.
- Videos increase engagement on social media — 91% of marketers believe that video marketing has become essential in Covid-19. For instance, on Instagram, videos and even organic video posts receive around 38% more engagement than images.
- Videos increase your website search engine ranking — When you add videos to your website, you encourage your visitors to stay on your website as long as possible. Also, web video can make your content seem and feel more professional, and it can help you earn links to position yourself on the first page of Google and thus boost your sales.
- Email marketing is more engaging if it includes videos — The best thing about videos is that you can use them with any type of content. Email marketing is no exception. For instance, Igloo, a B2B software company, made a significant impact by creating 200 videos about their team culture in just three months. They used videos in their newsletter and doubled their click-through rate. If you are planning to use this technique, make sure you let people know that there is a video inside a newsletter by adding the word “video” in the email subject.
AI-Based Automation
Robotics is becoming a key player across industries, including digital marketing. Businesses start to realize the immense power of AI.
And we have already witnessed an increase in companies that decided to use AI and automation to bring their marketing efforts to new heights.
AI is the critical enabler of intelligent assistants, voice search, and chatbots. It is helping companies deliver better results in customer experience and focus on the things that matter. Here are a few ways AI is making waves in marketing:
- Better CRO and highly personalized website experience — Through the analysis of data related to every user, businesses can get a deep insight into the demographics and overall behavior of every user on the website. This can help create content that they want to find and read more easily.
- Content creation powered by AI — AI is already helping businesses create content. That includes sports, game recaps, hotel descriptions, quarterly business reports, profit and loss summaries, real-time stock insights, and many more fields where facts and figures play an important role.
- Smart email content curation — Forget about spending hours compiling and creating weekly emails, segmenting and sending them to specific groups. Personalized emails play a huge role here, and this is where AI comes into the spotlight. An algorithm can understand the users’ interaction with your content and then create personalized emails according to their behavior, needs, and preferences.
- Better customer insights — Gathering all the numbers and matching them with every customer is a massive amount of work. Luckily, AI can help here as well. It enables businesses to create their buyer personas based on several data points, including purchase behavior, on-site interactions, past communication, psychographic factors, and geo-specific events.
- Automated image recognition — Famous giants like Facebook, Pinterest, and Amazon already use AI to identify objects and people in images. This could significantly improve sync between store visits and online content, allowing you to customize your content for online visitors.
Authentic Content Marketing
There is a growing need for businesses to become authentic. And one way to do this is by creating authentic content that will help companies build and grow trust with customers.
For instance, while it used to be enough to see the front of the company, businesses are now allowing consumers to get behind the scenes and get closer through genuine human interaction.
The numbers don’t lie – 90% of millennials claim that authenticity will draw their attention to a particular brand.
Still, the statistics say that businesses are not focused on creating authentic content. As a matter of fact, many millennials have unfollowed many brands just because they seemed fake to them.
Remember, the content coming from users themselves is the most authentic. User-generated content is not just a buzzword in digital marketing. It can help your business make an impact.
And how to shape even more authentic content? Authenticity comes from you, your brand, your brand values, and your company.
For example, people expect Apple to be all sleek and shiny, which is exactly what Apple does and is best at.
While creating authentic content can be challenging, as many businesses have tried and failed, it is a phenomenon that helped some businesses reach the stars.
To create authentic content, focus on one thing — sincerely try to connect with your audience, and things will follow.
If conveying authenticity through your website seems daunting, there are many top web design and development companies that can help you reach your content marketing goals.
Leverage Technology to Reach for the Clouds
Now that you are familiar with the latest and the most impactful technologies in marketing, take the first step and start implementing them.
It may take some time to reach the expected results, but success is guaranteed.
