Freshly into the new year with high hopes and a brand new set of objectives, your brand is bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to take on the beginning of a new decade.

Here we’re looking back at what we learned from 2019 to make your marketing more successful and help you evolve with the quick, ever-changing world we know as strategic digital marketing

1. Narrative

In the past, strategic marketing has been carefully centred around convincing your audience to buy or invest in your brand by simply telling them that your product or service is the best. Encouraging them to go out and buy what you are offering just because you claim that it is the best.

Today, “Best” has different meanings. It doesn’t just mean it works the best, is the top performer, or is of the best quality. It means that your brand is relatable, authentic, has your consumer’s best interest in mind, is relevant and changes its narrative to keep up with its target market. It means that your brand is adaptable and willing to evolve with its customers.

The key takeaway from 2019:

We have seen over the last year that brands that stand for “the people”, kindness, transparency and trust have flourished. Brands who have evolved with the digital age and have kept their digital footprint authentic and consistent in standards have grown and gained more traction with consumers than brands who stick with the same narrative.

Including human elements in your marketing will reward you with exponentially better results. Consumers respond well to a narrative that includes layman’s terms, visuals of real people (not the stock imagery of a woman laughing at her salad), and less-aggressive campaign copy.

2. Your digital footprint

Imagine a world without the internet. Where would your brand be today?

For your brand to be relevant in 2020, you need a carefully curated website. One that is user-friendly and to the point. From 2015 we’ve seen a trend in minimalistic, simple and clean websites. Not only because it’s aesthetically pleasing to the user but also because it’s simple, to the point and easy to use.

So maybe you already have a great website, but what good is a website when no one can find it? That’s where SEO and Adwords come in. These two tools help consumers find your website easily when searching for a term that corresponds with the services or products you offer. Being on the first page of Google search is incredibly competitive, but not impossible.

With a great website that is user-friendly, easy to navigate and SEO optimised, you’re one step closer to collecting leads and converting those leads into sales.

Most businesses already have a great website that is SEO optimised and are running Google Adwords campaigns, but they still don’t get the results they aimed for.

Here’s why:

Loading time:

Consumers need information quickly or they lose interest. If your loading time on one or all of your pages is slow, your bounce rate on your website will be very high. Which means that even if a consumer found your website through Google Adwords or your website showed up on the first page of Google search results, a consumer won’t wait around for your pages to load, resulting in wasted money on your Google Adwords campaign as you generally pay per click.

Content-heavy websites:

When a website is content-heavy, it will automatically take longer to load and be harder to navigate. The cleaner, to the point a web page is, the more interaction it will get. This will also mean that consumers will remember what they were introduced to on your website, and you will have a higher probability of being able to capture the lead and follow through with it to convert the lead into a sale. Consumers respond better to a clean, simple, and easy to navigate website with just the necessary information. If they need more information they can always contact you directly and you could set up a meeting – this will encourage a more impersonal interaction and raise the chances of a sale.

3. Influencer Marketing

We live in an instant-gratification time where the internet has everything readily available at your fingertips. Your audience is empowered with options, knowledge and platforms to drive their opinions and experiences to their peers.

In 2020, your audience is composed of a variety of people, each with their own opinion, with the power to build or destroy a brand quicker than what you can say “Instagram”. It’s not enough to tell your audience that your product is the best anymore. It needs to be backed by other “real and authentic” people on multiple platforms.

The key takeaway from 2019:

Last year, we learned that consumers are less likely to buy a product or pay for a service that is endorsed by an influencer if it is very clearly endorsed or sponsored. The reason for this is that your audience wants to truly know what other people think of the product, and if it’s clearly paid for, it creates a sense of an obligatory good review, no matter how good or bad the product or service is.

Instead of sponsoring a post, video or a single review of the product or service, better results will be yielded from an actual trial period using the product or service, generating with real results. This could eventually turn into a campaign and as a bonus will generate content for your brand to use as a testimonial – rather than just a single post on someone’s timeline that will soon be forgotten.

4. Social Media

Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram have bridged the gap of a one-sided conversation between a brand and its consumers. These platforms have enabled brands to have a dialogue with their target market and to get to know the consumers who interact with it.

The key takeaway from 2019:

If your brand is on social media, you need to stay relevant to what is happening. This means you need to be sensitive to any events that affect your industry and your target market. It’s simply not enough to do a posting once or twice a week where you have curated content that only speaks of what you have to offer. A brand needs to be on the ball and move with events and know when to take advantage of an opportunity and when to simply ignore it.

You need to engage with your audience. Be active on your platforms and have brand consistency. This means making sure you have a resource for community management and a team that will make sure your social media is always up to date and relevant. Your postings need to be specific, simple and informed, but leave room for engagement. Encourage your audience to have a conversation with you. This way you will gain insights into your target market and be able to adapt your marketing strategy to get better results.

2020 is full of opportunities. With the right guidance from a team that understands your brand and works hard to achieve your marketing goals, you will be able to reach and exceed those goals with ease.

Contact Ayvel Media for a clear, goal-orientated strategy and elevate your brand to its full potential.