NEW Year, NEW Digital Marketing Trends
Digital Marketing is continuously changing and as we approach the New Year, we are focusing on these 3 digital marketing trends.
Using last years digital marketing strategy we will continue the things that worked and stop doing the things that didn’t. Revisions will be included as we refine our strategy and add some new things.
After researching trends and analyzing all data, 3 digital marketing trends or opportunities were identified. Inbound Marketing, Video and Paid Traffic. All 3 are explained below.
2023 Digital Marketing Trends to Consider when Creating Your Strategy
Inbound Marketing
What is Inbound Marketing? You are probably using Inbound Marketing now and don’t realize it. The definition of Inbound Marketing is creating value added content such as blogs and videos. Content is used to attract, engage and create trust with your targeted audiences and bring them to your website. Once on your website use conversion tools such as lead generators and email subscriber lists and ultimately gain the right customers.
Components of an Inbound Marketing Strategy
Content Marketing is one of the biggest marketing trends. As each channel becomes more competitive it’s increasingly important to create relevant, value added content to attract customers. In order to create attractive content research what people are searching for. Use search data, google trends, google analytics, Youtube and other tools. Once your content is created it can be presented in many different types of media including:
- Blog Posts
- Video
- Mini-blog Posts
- Social Media Posts
- Email Campaigns
- Ebooks
- Presentations
- Slide Shows
- Podcasts
- Influencers
and more!
5 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Content
- Optimize your content. In order to be found by Search Engines, each piece of content needs to be optimized as you would for your website. Use titles that attract the right audience. Titles are extremely important for SEO. More time can be spent just crafting a title for your content. For inspiration search Youtube using key words related to your content. Look for the top posts on your subject and pay attention to which words were used.
- SEO is one of the most important tactics for digital marketing. Once you have a great title include key search words without decreasing the quality of the content. Be mindful that Voice Search is on the rise. Use words people use in both text search and voice.
- Promote your content! This can be done with or without spending money. Increase website visits using Paid Ads and Social Media. Share your content and engage with your target audience. Choose the Social Media platforms that your ideal audience uses. Launch content the same way as a NEW product or service. Use multiple posts over a reasonable amount of time to reach as many people as possible. Create excitement by letting people know you have something new coming soon. Share what people are saying about the content. Explain the WHY and HOW the content was created
- Advertise to reach new users. With the increase in the number of ads shown on social media it’s even more important to run professional ad campaigns and market to the right people. Ads NEED to be personal and authentic to stand out over all the NOISE.
- Email your contacts, and existing clients or customers to share your content. Encourage people to forward the email. Do you have an email list? If you don’t you may be interested in reading “How to Grow Your Email List”.
Video
Video as a marketing tactic has transformed into a “business strategy”. Use Video with Inbound Marketing to attract clients to your website or a landing page. It is easier and more affordable to create video than ever before. All you need is a smart phone. High tech phones continue to improve and capture beautiful images and video.
Social media platforms are encouraging videos by showing them more in the feed. For example, Instagram Reels dominate the feed and are can be as long as 90 second. These are vertical videos versus square filling in the entire space of your phone. Reels vary from casual and authentic to professionally made short films. This format dominates social media.
Why businesses should use video marketing:
- Users are watching more and more video on every platform.
- Video dominates social media.
- Availability on most channels.
- Allows your potential customers to get to know, like and trust you.
- Increases conversions when used on websites.
- Raises email open rates.
- Consumers and customers prefer the personable less commercial like authentic videos.
- It is affordable whether you are an solopreneur, small, medium or large business.
Share video using social media, paid advertising and email marketing.
Video marketing will work with any business. For healthcare, plastic surgery and aesthetics it is very effective and increasingly being integrated into physician marketing strategies. More detail about what kind of content you should create is shared in another post “15 Video Content Ideas”.
Paid Traffic
Paid traffic is exactly what it says – paying (advertising) for website visitors (traffic). There are many benefits to paid traffic and it will help almost any business improve website exposure (appear more in Search Engines) and increase conversions.
Benefits of Paid Traffic
Results can be immediate. SEO for organic traffic takes time and is a complicated process that usually requires using a digital marketing expert. A combination of Inbound Marketing and paid traffic will get results quickly and be sustainable while increasing consistently over time.
The ability to focus on exact target audiences. Google and Facebook have very detailed options for creating your ideal target audiences. Using website visitor data, email lists and customer lists, custom audiences can be created for advertising purposes. Using custom audiences you can take your targeting even further by creating “look-a-like” audiences.
The ROI is high. Promoted post on Social Media can be done in minutes. Successful ad campaigns, which is very different than a promoted post, requires knowledge and experience. When done correctly, paid traffic will improve website visits immediately and increase conversions. Using marketing experts for paid traffic is worth the investment.
Paid traffic is quite affordable and can be used with any budget. It levels the playing field. Whether you are a big company or a small one, paid traffic will benefit you. With traditional advertising such as television commercials, the cost is exceptionally high eliminating small businesses from benefiting. Paid traffic works if done right.
Putting it All Together – Integrate Strategies
For your Inbound Marketing Strategy create value added and relevant content. Convert content into videos that educate, inspire or entertain your ideal target audience. Advertise these videos and attract new website visitors using paid traffic. Once on your website, conversion tactics will help turn website visitors into customers.
INBOUND + VIDEO + ADS = KICK ASS MARKETING STRATEGY
Include Branding, Social Media, Email Marketing and SEO with your Digital Marketing Strategy.