Craig Bowen 
It’s easy to dismiss the idea of growing your business during a global pandemic. At this juncture, your goal is probably to keep your company afloat and pay your people.
But did you know that with every setback comes an opportunity? Some innovative entrepreneurs and resourceful businesses have found ways to boost their sales and marketing, even during global crises. And that is where digital marketing comes into the picture.
If you’re looking to grow your business this year, here are the top digital marketing trends to employ:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is crucial in ensuring your business’s online visibility and website traffic. Your ultimate goal is to rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERP). To do this, optimize your website (technical SEO), write keyword-relevant content (on-page SEO), and build backlinks (off-page SEO). But when it comes to this, pay particular attention to these two key SEO trends:
- Local SEO: Your goal is to boost your business presence for the local search. This means that your business gets easily and quickly found when the locals look for products or services in your area. To ensure this, provide your name, address, phone (NAP) details, and other relevant business information in the Google My Business listing.
- Voice SEO: Research studies show that over half of people search online via voice search. That is why you must start to optimize your website for voice SEO. To do this, conduct keyword research and incorporate these keywords using natural language in your content pieces. By doing so, your business can get ahead of the SEO competition as early as now.
2. Personalized Email Marketing
There’s no denying the use of email marketing in business. Companies have long been using emails for employee interactions and business transactions with customers. In recent times, emails have been used for sales and marketing, and they’ve long been proven effective.
Today, email marketing has become more crucial than ever due to the global pandemic. As sales have been compromised due to the COVID-19 crisis, have robust email marketing to promote your brand and reach your regular and potential customers. To make this effective, make your emails as personalized as possible. While at it, take advantage of automation to streamline your marketing process.
3. Content Marketing
Content will always be king in the digital world. There’s a grain of truth to this, as people search online for information about products or services. They are after the content of your website, not its technical aspects. You must be particular with your content marketing to provide their needs for valuable and relevant content. Below are three trends to employ this year:
- Interactive content: This is precisely what it sounds like—producing content that interacts with your customers. Be sure to add interactive sections on your website and social media pages. Examples are polls and surveys, contests, calculators, and assessments. Ultimately, doing so attracts customers, keeps them engaged, and builds meaningful relationships.
- Video marketing: You can no longer deny the impact of video clips on people, whether for entertainment or promotion. Imagine how one clip gets published online and suddenly becomes viral. This is because videos are compelling, easy to digest, and memorable. Hence, start creating video content and post them on your website and social media. Make sure that they resonate well with your target market.
- Blogging: Blogging entails producing content pieces aimed at reaching out to your target audience. You can create blog posts about your products or services for promotion or other relevant information to make you a thought leader in your industry. Be sure to publish them regularly.
4. Social Media Management
No one can deny the power of social media in this time and age, whether it’s Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, or TikTok. With 3.78 billion social media users worldwide, social media channels are compelling.
These channels are where people live and breathe, harness their power, and take advantage of them for your business. Think about how Facebook ads help companies target their ads to their market and how doing so can translate into sales. Aside from this, regularly post content on your social media and consistently engage with your regular and new customers.
5. Influencer Marketing
Speaking of social media, hiring an influencer who can help promote your business and sell your products or services is a good idea. Influencers usually have a great name and reputation, a strong following, and loyal supporters. These people can be professional athletes, beauty experts, famous chefs, or even expert pet trainers.
Remember that influencer payments vary from one person to another and from one industry to another. It depends on what you and the influencers have agreed on regarding price, whether monthly, per project, or by commission. The best course of action is to develop a contract signed by both parties. Ultimately, getting the right influencer can pay off in the long run, especially when seeing many returns for your business.
The global pandemic doesn’t have to stop your business from growing. All it takes is to be resilient, resourceful, and innovative by employing some digital marketing strategies outlined above. Ultimately, you’ll be amazed at how you can grow your business—even amid a global pandemic.
