New year, fresh start! 2020 is over and hopefully the strife, uncertainty and chaos as well. Though, I must say 2021 hasn’t disappointed yet!
We all seem to take some time creating those lists. Lists of goals, changes, resolutions for 2021, etc. This is the month/ time for annual marketing strategies and budgets as well so let’s do this together and see if we can sharpen our pencils a bit in terms of marketing in 2021. I think I have done this drill about 2 dozen times in my almost 30-year business career. During that time, I have learned a thing or two. Here is how my list is coming together:
1. Omni Channel Approach to everything
– A single laser-focused campaign works when targeting your audience but I wouldn’t recommend it when talking about channels. A single-channel campaign is really short-sighted these days. Consumers and customers are everywhere… print, social media, traditional media and so on, it’s important for you to be everywhere too. To add to this advice is to do it concurrently. Not linearly. This multiplies and expands your reach and has the power to put repeated messages in front of your audience in a short period of time when it will be remembered and acted on.
2. Try new channels & methods, experiment – Technology is in hyper-drive. Consumers are fickle and change where they put their attention, much like a Don’t be afraid to try some of these new channels; Snapchat, Bing, Twitch to find your audience. There are also new types of print and augmented reality. Bottom line, a little gamble can sometimes pay off in big ways.
3. Don’t abandon what has worked before – We’ve all heard the age-old line; “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. If you’ve hit your stride with a particular campaign, audience or channel, don’t abandon it! Milk it for what it’s worth because we all know the audience and or the channel is fluid and Honestly, I’d probably pour more resources behind it and scale it up as much as I could or until I saw it wasn’t working any longer. And that being said, I would probably even give it a bit of time and wouldn’t just change it up at the first dip or drop in engagement or response.
4. Improve your data quality… pinpoint your target – The biggest improvement technology has brought to marketing is the ability to quickly and directly hone in on a specific targeted market or audience. Never has the data been as complete and Never have any marketers been able to target so precisely. In this day and age if you are not narrowing your target to an ever increasingly specific target market and making that message relevant to that target, you are wasting precious marketing resources.
5. Improve your creative & message – Clarity and creativity of message cannot be You can be so on point with all other marketing angles and miss this one and crash and burn.
There is so much advertising ‘noise’ out there you have to do something to stand out. I think in creative, less is more. Simplicity of message with an easy-to-understand call to action being the most important. You have a couple seconds to make that communication in the digital world the audience will scroll on by or hit the delete button. Impinging and interesting creative is key to that. Don’t over think it but do try to think outside the box. Ask yourself what ads or creative you have found interesting.
One thing for sure…. the pace of change is not going to slow. It behooves all of us to continually educate ourselves on what’s next. I make it my own personal responsibility to spend hours per week reading, learning and studying the world of digital marketing and where it’s going and why.
The more you know the better chance you have on being a success. That being said, don’t let yourself fall into analysis paralysis. Get out there, market and make 2021 the best year yet (we know it can’t be worse than 2020, right?)
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