Trying to keep up with marketing trends can be difficult for businesses and digital marketers, whether old or new. Even with an avid desire to learn, the digital landscape is changing quicker than ever before, and the classic website with its contact forms and email mailing lists no longer cut it.
In this article, I’ll explore some website features that are essential in marketing that you may have missed out on amidst all the confusion. These are example and research based and are the latest marketing techniques that are working for businesses of today.
1. Offer a mobile-friendly and responsive website design
According to Forrester Research, mobile commerce generated 1000% more revenue in 2016 than 2010 in the US. It goes without saying that mobile usage is skyrocketing at a rapid pace.
Now how many times have you clicked away on your smartphone from a website because it didn’t load or had a fiddly interface? It is therefore important to optimise the mobile interface and design of your website. Keep in mind you will need to cater for different types of web browsers in this process. Your website should be able to ‘respond’ and change its layout and design to suit desktop vs smartphone usage.
2. Work with micro-influencers
Influencer marketing plays a significant role in modern marketing – whether that be with advertisements, products, social media, blog promotion. Businesses are no longer limited to typical celebrities or TV personalities.
Statistics show that micro-influencers, typically those with thousands to tens-of-thousands of followers have a much higher engagement rate. In layman’s terms, they are often spotted replying to almost every comment, truly listening to what their followers would like them to show and having a much more loyal fanbase.
Psychologically, micro-influencers seem much more approachable and normal than a large celebrity, and the bond between them and their audience is much stronger. As well as that, you will be able to access niche markets, since each influencer has their own styling, brand and expertise that are particular to a specific type of audience.
3. Use conversational marketing: chatbots and instant replies
More than half of consumers have stated that they expect a response within 10 minutes to a customer service inquiry, whether that be sales, general questions or marketing. Humans are creatures of efficiency, and don’t really want to drag on correspondence with businesses for longer than it has to be. Understandable.
This is often very difficult for smaller businesses to implement, often smaller teams cannot afford to hire a group of customer service team to man the phone lines and reply instantly on 5 different social media accounts as well as the website.
Here come the chatbots. If done right, bots can provide quick, easy solutions to FAQ questions. They can be programmed to find out what problem a customer has and to direct them to the right place. A lot of these will be simple questions, whilst others might be issues with an order or product that can be solved by directing them to the right portal online.
After narrowing down this group, the chatbot can then sort through the remaining who need attention from a customer service representative. This reduces the workload on the company whilst also delivering fast results for customers. Sounds neat right?
Marketing Trends Grow Your Website
You’re up to speed with a few major considerations you should have for your website and business. Don’t worry if your current website doesn’t exactly fit the criteria we have talked about, each business has its own marketing journey. the most successful ones lean more on curating the perfect formula for their particular audience.
So don’t fret, but certainly put in every effort possible to improve your digital marketing tactics. If you learn one thing it is this – always be open to change.
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