We know, in digital marketing everything travels at lightning speed, and news is always behind the monitor. And so, every year we find ourselves thinking, “What are the trends to ride in the coming months? What updates to keep an eye on?”
Posting that some rules of marketing are evergreen in the strategic sphere, to optimize results in the digital sphere it is crucial to ride the moment, meet the needs of users and be able to predict the future. Sorcery? Clairvoyance? No, focus, analysis, knowledge of the media and…listening to the network!
To get into gear in this new year, we have gathered 10 tips for your digital strategy, ranging from SEO to content to development. Well, without further ado: ready to go, and off we go with our Digital Tips!
In this article we will discuss:
- Long-form
1. Integrate chatbots into your strategy
Years pass, they stay. Virtual assistants ready to answer users’ questions 24 hours a day are a great tool to focus on, even in 2021. In a year-the year just past-in which everyone has become even more digitized, chatbots have been an important touchstone for users, streamlining and facilitating many steps.
If initially then “interacting with a machine” was perceived as a strange thing, it is now the order of the day. The more years go by, the more everyone becomes familiar with artificial intelligences.
Among the major benefits of chatbots perceived by users are:
- Immediate and continuous assistance
- Time savings: Instead of actively going to look for an answer, you can ask your virtual assistant
- Timeliness and accuracy in responses, thanks to artificial intelligence
- They never lose patience (nor politeness) as a person might
What about for companies? What are the benefits? Put simply: saving a lot of time when you can devote to other things, and a significant cut in operating costs. In addition, a chatbot can collect data that can be used in other areas of your strategy.
Now, you just have to get to work: check out our guide that explains how to create a chatbot easily and effectively.
2. Use messaging apps to communicate
Using apps to send messages via the web has now become part of everyday life for people all over the world and in every age group. Since the advent of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger around 2010, instant messaging has been a growing trend.
To get an idea of how popular these apps are, just consider that among the most popular services WhatsApp has over 2 billion users, followed by Messenger with 1.3 billion and WeChat with 1.2 billion. In terms of the amount of messages sent each day, then, the numbers are equally impressive: more than 55 billion messages are exchanged daily on WhatsApp.
It is no coincidence, then, that companies are keenly interested in gaining access to this huge user base. Certainly, privacy issues are now becoming a priority for both individuals and institutions, as evidenced by the recent concern of many users about WhatsApp’s policy update.
At the same time, however, it seems that users prefer direct contact with brands via chat, and as a result providing a line of communication via app can increase revenue and customer satisfaction.
Implementing messaging apps into your digital strategy can bring several benefits. Here are some possibilities:
- Send direct, personalized messages
- Answer customer questions
- Providing support and assistance
- Activate retargeting campaigns
- Engage users
3. Take voice searches and smart speakers into account.
When it comes to virtual assistants it is immediately “Aleeeeexaaaaa, put on my favorite song!” Yes, that’s pretty much the trend, whether we’re talking about the creation of Amazon, IOS, or Google. It is estimated that 55 percent of people in the United States will have a smart speaker in their home by 2022, and the trend is growing in Europe as well.
The intuition of those who created these kinds of devices was to humanize an artificial intelligence to the point where it feels like an acquaintance or friend who you can really ask anything of. That is why, even brands are implementing a voice search system into their strategy.
As the Digital Marketing Institute reports:
“Adopting a voice search strategy is not just about staying relevant-it’s also about creating a unique and optimized customer experience that will foster relationships and build brand loyalty.”
If you’re wondering which brands are including voice search in their strategy, here are a few examples you’re surely familiar with: PayPal, Domino’s, Campbell’s, and Nestlé.
That’s right, and they will probably get even more users to find them that way.
If we think about voice search, of course we have to take into account that SEO will follow particular logics, because optimization will have to take into account “spoken” and therefore different keywords than written ones. Optimizing for voice search is a good way to spread brand awareness, but how will it convert into sales? Well, in 2021, we will see more companies trying to tap into this potential, experimenting with new ideas for using smart speakers as a profitable channel to drive sales.
4. Watchword: testing (even in SEO!).
It is known that digital marketers are crazy about data, testing and analytics. Until now, however, this kind of information was mainly used to optimize the performance of display ADV, social media and SEM.
It seems, however, that A/B testing is about to become a common practice in SEO as well, thanks to tools that allow you to optimize pages that have high traffic and lead potential.
How does it work? It is actually very simple: each element that makes up a web page can be automated to show two different versions to different users. Variants of URL, meta title and description, headline, CTA and copy can be created. Basically, any component that affects ranking can be split tested.
Once the variants are created, simply use a specific tool to measure the performance differences between the two alternatives, in terms of CTR and conversions. The good news is that if your site implements Google Analytics, you can start optimizing right away for free with the Google Optimize tool!
Remember: for there to be a positive effect on performance, certain rules and best practices must be followed. If you want to learn more about this topic, we have a guide on A/B testing for you on the blog.
5. Social media are the new storefronts
If you use social media a lot, you have surely noticed: born as spaces for people to share their thoughts and create content, over time these tools have taken on a more commercial dimension.
Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok introduce new features every year to allow brands to use feeds and profiles as real storefronts, integrated directly with e-commerce.
Most notably, Instagram has included several options for businesses in its app, such as a “Shop” tab accessible directly from the navigation bar and in a section within profiles. The highly visual nature of social has certainly helped make Instagram the perfect place to create real “digital storefronts.”
At the same time, however, Zuckerberg’s behemoth is also looking to implement features more suited to corporate storytelling and insights. Instagram’s Guides are an example of this experiment in long copy on Instagram: we blogged about how they can be leveraged in social strategy.
The main benefit offered by these features is to move much of the customer journey within the apps themselves, to provide a more integrated user experience and better control over the funnel. In this way, the prospect is followed from first contact to conversion, through various touchpoints such as sponsored posts, influencer marketing campaigns, and organic content.
6. Leverage geo-fencing
The idea of locating people is certainly not new, and neither is local SEO (even Instilla when it was born specialized in it!) but geo-fencing-and with it the methods of leveraging it-is a concept that has been showing its potential in recent times. Indeed, with the steady growth of mobile, the geo-fencing market is estimated to be a $2.4 billion market by 2023.
But let’s see what exactly it is and what potential it has. Geo-fencing is a virtual perimeter that identifies a real geographic area, the boundaries of which can be established dynamically. With a device that records geographic location, such as a smartphone, a notification can be set whenever you cross or leave these boundaries. This allows real-time targeting based on a user’s location.
A targeting area is defined as, for example, within one mile of a restaurant, and when a user enters or leaves this area, they receive a push notification, text message, or other form of marketing communication.
In a landscape where most advertising and shopping experiences are done online, geo-fencing can be the tool to create a bridge to reality and offer people a tangible product or service that they can enjoy at that precise moment.
7. Aim for Progressive Web Apps.
The use of mobile as a primary device is a trend that shows no sign of stopping. Therefore, Progressive Web Apps may be the best choice for your site, especially if you have a blog, e-commerce or online service.
But what characterizes Progressive Web Apps (PWAs for friends)? Essentially, PWAs are websites that function as mobile apps. They offer the functionality of a native mobile app-fast load times, push notifications, working offline, using the device’s hardware, etc. – without being limited to a platform (Android or iOS).
This allows development teams to create web applications for any device that work just like a mobile app. A smart solution since developing a native app can be very expensive, and digital stores are often quite stringent in terms of technical requirements. In addition, the user experience is certainly very good because it allows you to switch between devices while maintaining continuity between the browsing experience.
If you want to learn more about this topic, here is the guide on Progressive Web Apps written by our team of developers!
8. It’s time for 5G
All kinds of things have been said about 5G: between one fake news story and another, there are those who have gone so far as to speculate about forms of mind control through vaccines and radio waves. The reality is that, in a world dominated by mobile, the introduction of this new standard for cellular Internet networks promises to be one of the innovations that will have the greatest impact on our daily lives.
Thanks to the spread of ultra-fast connections even on the move and in areas underserved by cable networks, new scenarios will be possible for all companies offering services via the Internet. According to some analysts, the introduction of 5G could lead to a real disruption of many industries, not only on the web.
So let’s look at some of the major innovations that will be possible thanks to 5G:
- With sensors able to collect and share data in real time, manufacturing facilities will become smart and able to autonomously adapt to different conditions without human intervention
- The increased bandwidth available will make VR and AR experiences more complex and accessible
- The use of inter-vehicle communication technologies will make autonomous driving systems more efficient, accelerating their development
- Devices that will exploit the potential of 5G right away are likely to be virtual assistants and Internet of Things objects, becoming increasingly common in our homes
The importance of this technology for the development of our society is evidenced by the massive development plan planned by the European Union, with an investment of more than 400 million euros to ensure coverage of all major urban areas and communication routes by 2025.
9. Think mobile first
Initially scheduled for September 2020, Google will make the final roll out of Mobile First Indexing in March 2021. This means that, starting this year, only the content of the mobile version of a site will be used for indexing on the world’s most popular search engine.
What may seem like a drastic choice comes at the end of a process begun in 2016 by Google, with the goal of giving increasing priority to pages optimized for access from mobile devices.As early as July 2019, in fact, Mobile First Indexing has been set as the default for all new sites. A decision that should not come as a surprise, if it is true that already in 2017 traffic from smartphones and tablets surpassed desktop browsing. Even more important for Google is the percentage of searches from mobile, which increased from 27 percent in 2013 to about 60 percent at the end of 2019.
The main consequence of this change is that from now on desktop and mobile versions will have to have the same main content, to prevent the web crawler from missing important parts of the site. In addition, it will be inadvisable to use different domains for the two versions (for example, with a “m.” subdomain). All this will encourage the adoption of responsive design as the most effective solution for differentiating the site interface between devices.
If this all sounds alarming to you, fear not. If your site has recently been developed or revamped, chances are it is already optimized. If not, it’s your lucky day: we have prepared a guide on Mobile First Indexing that explains in full detail how to optimize your site in time for rollout.
