HOW CAN YOU ADVERTISE SMARTER IN 2021 and Beyond?

IN 2021, WE'LL SAY GOODBYE TO 3RD PARTY COOKIES. With immediate changes to iOS/macOS tracking and upcoming changes across other web browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.), the advertising industry faces a significant change. Existing advertising tactics will stop working.

But Here is the Good news, The Spear by Tridence, along with its Data Partner's proprietary First-Party solution, works regardless of cookies so that you can rest assure your targeting is always accurate. Tridence is a unique combination of strategy and creativity. Left Brains and Right Brains. Technology and Humanity. We listen, learn your business, and outfit you with cutting-edge web technology, targeted social media, and insightful creatives to achieve valuable and measurable results every step of the way. 20+ years helping Businesses & Brands.

Review 10 predictions about the future of Advertising in digital marketing below. ⬇️

Many physical businesses have shut down during the pandemic. The first step for any business would be to retain existing customers, stabilize the business, and reach out to new customers. That is where digital marketing steps in.

10 predictions about the future of Advertising in digital marketing:

1. IP-Targeted (GeoFencing) Marketing & Personalization - this market (geofencing) is set to grow to $2.4 billion by 2023 – along with the rise of mobile. Brands and Businesses will start to practice marketing personalization for better results. As permission-based apps and browsers start to block data, successful Businesses and Brands will use IP-Targeting and hyper-local (geofencing) companies (like Tridence), That Help You Reach Your Audience & Target Local Customers That Matters! 100% Cookie-Free IP Targeting & Device Targeting. One of the key measurements is Proximity Targeting. Proximity Targeting is a geomarketing technique that uses mobile location services to reach consumers in real-time when they are around a store location or point of interest. This is done by defining a Target radius around a specific location.  A target area is defined as, say, within a mile of a restaurant. When users enter or leave this area, they receive a push notification, text message, or another form of Ad marketing communication.

In today’s world, combining traditional marketing and digital advertising is the best way to get in front of thousands of customers fast and easy. IP targeting takes digital advertising to the next level. Now, you can direct your marketing to exactly the right customer in the right place at the right time, wherever they are.

2. Artificial Intelligence - If you didn’t know already, AI has made its way into the mainstream and has taken over many iterative tasks, and helped realign focus on strategies at a granular level. AI can analyze consumer behavior and search patterns and use data from social media platforms and blog posts to help businesses understand how customers find their products and services. Artificial intelligence will soon be the driving force behind many services, and, currently, we already see it implemented in such areas as 1) Basic communication, 2) Product recommendations, 3) Content creation, 4) Email personalization, 5) E-commerce transactions.

3. Chatbots - Chatbots will continue to be an important part of digital marketing in 2021. This AI-based technology uses instant messaging to chat in real-time, day or night, with your customers or site visitors. Surveys show that: 1) Chatbots will power 85% of customer service by the end of 2021, 2) The top benefits of chatbots are 24-hour service (64%), instant responses to inquiries (55%), and answers to simple questions (55%).

Many customers prefer interacting with chatbots as they are responsive 24/7, give answers promptly, accurately recall your entire buying history, and never lose patience. These virtual assistants offer outstanding customer service by meeting customers’ expectations and automating repetitive tasks – which means that you can focus on more important work.

4. Video marketing - Video marketing is one of, if not the, most important marketing trends today and likely for the next 5-10 years. These numbers show the importance of incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy in 2021:

70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video
72% of businesses say that video has improved their conversion rate
52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions
65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video

Video is by far the most popular way customers want to learn about new products:

And don’t just think YouTube. There are plenty of ways to drive higher engagement with your video marketing, as you can make a video post or start a live broadcast on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

5. Content Marketing - Content Marketing Continues to Dominate SEO, but must be adopted with SEO schemes to reach the benefit. "Even amid all the innovation, content marketing remains a reliable, powerful way to attract new customers to your site and build relationships with them in real, quantifiable ways that deliver long-term value for your business."

Content marketing is no longer the simple, easy-to-execute tactic it was in the early days of the boom when it was all about blogs and keywords, and “content strategy” was a concept that was yet to be born. In today's world, Content marketing is a method that drives traffic to your site using multimedia content to generate leads and build relationships with prospects.

Note: A successful content strategy is carefully created, documented, and executed without deviation. Yet many marketers still don’t have a content strategy at all — or don’t have a documented strategy, believing that a vague idea of where they’re heading will suffice. In this competitive era, it won’t.

Suggestion: Since content marketing is all about drawing your audience in with high-value content, your content must be genuinely engaging, informative, and/or entertaining to your audience. Just because it’s something you want to write or shoot doesn’t mean it’s something they want to read or watch.

6. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - Successful businesses understand that SEO is still an integral part of your online digital strategy. In the medium to long run, it will save you thousands in marketing dollars.

Local search engine optimization is a part of search engine optimization (or SEO) that focuses on improving a local business’ visibility in local search engine results. The results that appear in local search results typically answer a “near me” intended question, meaning that a searcher is searching for something “in [CITY]”—or the search engine has understood that there were geographic constraints to the search.

Hint: One of the main components in SEO is Voice Search patterns and Technology. Voice commerce helps consumers make purchases through voice commands on hand-held or portable devices. The customers use their voice to search for a product or service, and the device picks out a customized list – (based on location, user-reviews, price, etc.,) and reads it out to the user.

By using local search optimization strategies, businesses can improve their visibility in these local search results for terms related to their business and their products or services.

7. Re-emergence of email marketing - Email marketing budgets are up: Two-thirds of B2B marketers, or 63 percent, are moderately increasing their email marketing budgets this year. Not surprisingly, two-thirds of survey participants also reported an improvement in their campaign results. Arguably, those companies that increase their efforts and investments in email marketing realize stronger campaign results.

First, 90% of email gets delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox, whereas only 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed. This is because Facebook limits the number of times your posts appear in the News Feed in an attempt to drive brands towards their paid advertising options. Secondly, your email subscribers have explicitly told you they want to hear from you when they signed up for your email list.

Given email’s unmatched ability to drive conversions, it makes sense that email is also the most effective marketing channel to drive ROI for your company. In fact, email marketing yields an average 3,800% return on investment for businesses, and for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $38. It’s clear from these statistics that email is a cost-effective channel for marketers, but why does it outperform other channels so significantly when it comes to ROI?

It comes down to delivering highly personalized and relevant messages. Unlike social networks where you send status updates to every follower regardless of their location, interests & purchase history, email allows you to be hyper-targeted with your communications. For advanced list users, hiring an email marketing agency can increase your reach and build your brand. Tridence with partners has helped email senders and email vendors solve their toughest email deliverability and marketing problems.

8. Shoppable Ads - Directly "shoppable media," such as live streams, social commerce, virtual consultations, and shoppable ad formats, will be the fastest-growing advertising categories in the near future as retailers and brands seek to reach consumers who are more likely to shop online. Instagram is known as an immersive storefront for people to explore your best products. With features like image product tags or a product sticker in your story, users are carefully guided to complete their purchase.

Google is introducing a new way for retailers to promote products in image search with shoppable ads. This new ad format lets retailers highlight multiple products within a single ad unit, which will appear among Google Images results. These ad units behave like shoppable pins on Pinterest where multiple items within a photo are tagged for sale. Google’s shoppable ads will appear in image search results with a “Sponsored” label as well as a price tag icon.

In short, The advantage – if your user can buy a product without leaving their social app, that’s great. Even better if auto-generation puts together a look for them. Less scope for shopping cart abandonments. Snapchat and other areas of social media are great for event-based marketing, and sales.

9. Micro-influencers  - Being able to trust brands matters to consumers now more than ever. Businesses have reinvented themselves or have had to shut down entirely during the pandemic. During the pandemic, the influencer marketing consumer survey reveals that more than 63% of US customers spent more time on social channels. Digital marketing teams can capitalize on micro-influencers whose posts have a better engagement rate and can individually respond to follower queries – both personal and business-related. As marketers who want to engage and influence, constant dialogue is important. 

Keyword: Influencer marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that focuses on using key leaders to amplify your brand message to a larger market. Influencers can be well-known celebrities, but they are often Instagram, TicToc, or YouTube personalities with a huge niche following who can help spread the word about your business or product through their social channels. Because influencer marketing is generally more authentic than corporate advertising: 1) 63% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products much more than what brands say about themselves, 2) 58% of people have bought a new product in the past six months because of an influencer’s recommendation.

10. Omnichannel Marketing - While the phrase may now seem a little worn out, the strategy is as ripe and relevant as ever in 2021. Omnichannel marketing is the process of marketing across multiple platforms (such as social media, apps, email, and blog) so you can connect with prospects on more touchpoints. When you do omnichannel marketing right, you can offer an enhanced user experience and cohesive brand message that drives people to action.

To stay ahead, brands must present a seamless, consistent voice and message across all available mediums, including physical storefronts, social media channels, online, in catalogs, and anywhere else you can imagine. All channels should be linked in one all-encompassing strategy for the best results.

Users demand personalization and want to browse a physical store, view products on social media, and purchase online. And if you’re not keeping up with their demands, someone else will get that business.

This is another area where AI and big data play a role by helping brands understand consumer behavior better and personalize at an individual level at scale.

Conclusion
Is digital marketing the future? Yes. It's HERE and NOW. AI and automation, technology and personalization, social media, and analytics are some marketing trends that will change the way businesses function shortly. Forward-Thinking Brands use Tridence to help achieve maximum results with affordable marketing Digital solutions. Stay ahead in the digital age, and let's work together.