Here's our pick of the top five things you and your business need to be thinking about when refining your online marketing strategy this year.
1. Short-lived content is everywhere
Playing directly into the fears of those with an overdeveloped sense of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) short lived content is growing in popularity across many social channels. Think Snapchat, Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories where nonpermanent videos, pictures text slides and other features abound. The good news is that these stories don’t need to have high production values and can be relatively easy to create. Use them to promote company insights, product promotions, updates, user generated content (including via events) and more.In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg said 40% of Instagram users’ time was spent in Stories, and that on current usage patterns people would spend more time in Stories than on the main feed in Instagram during the first quarter of 2019.
So get creating. Take a look at this helpful guide to getting started with Instagram stories.
2. The rise and rise of instagram, including as a direct sales tool
Instagram is arguably the most valuable social platform to small to medium sized businesses. It is growing faster than Facebook and it’s users tend to be more engaged (advertisers see four times as much engagement on Instagram than FB). It also tends to be more geared towards a call to action (visit site, buy products etc.) In fact Instagram will reportedly soon include a ‘buy in app’ component, which will make buying within the platform even easier.
3. Video
If you’re not doing it already, producing video content on social media is something that you absolutely must be doing in 2019. Video will reportedly claim 80% of all web traffic this year. Plus, video improves dwell times, meaning customers will spend on your site and increasing the likelihood of purchase. According to Forbes 90 percent of customers say video helps them make buying decisions and 64% of customers say that seeing a video makes them more likely to buy. This is something even smaller companies can do, in fact for smaller niche brands video is the often the perfect opportunity to bring your brand to life, give it personality (adding sound faces and people increases traffic) and tell your unique story.
4. Content is king!
Whether it’s video, short lived content, or written content on any social media channel it needs to be good, relevant to your audience and have great imagery. Nothing beats content that is relevant and compelling. While it’s important to get the technical side of things right including Google Analytics, SEO optimisation, and other aspects of promoting your brand and marketing in general. However, all of this is secondary to the creation of good quality content that speaks directly to your customers and helps them in some way. In short your creative - images, video content or written copy needs to be as good as your distribution channel (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc).
5. Keeping it simple is best - have a clear and consistent strategy and the right tools
Having said all this, nothing beats having a clear and consistent plan to build out your digital marketing strategy and grow your business online. If you’re wanting to try new things in 2019 having a well considered strategy and integrated tools to help you achieve your goals is vital.
From your website to your social media channels,digital advertising and across email marketing and beyond it’s easy to get overwhelmed unless you have a clear picture of how each part will work to support a common goal.
Get in touch if you'd like help putting these ideas into practice for your brand. Drop us a line below, or phone 021 228 4449