COVID-19 made what was once optional into a mandatory part of business strategy. 2021 is the year, the majority of businesses will invest in having a full-fledged digital presence and digital engagement will become the number one driver of customer value in 2021.
According to Smart Insights, 45% of companies don’t have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy; and 17% of companies have a digital marketing strategy in place, but it’s separate from their overall marketing plan.
This means 62% of companies are unprepared for the digital revolution. They don’t have the strategy, tactics, or tools they need to market their business well.
Cloud-first strategies will dominate digital growth
Every new digital division will embrace innovation through ecosystems, and we expect a further 50% of enterprises to make cloud-centric transformation a priority, moving business-critical operational apps and all experience apps into the cloud.
“Buy” buttons will be everywhere
2021 will be a year in which businesses will toss a variety of sales channels at the wall to see which ones stick. “It won’t just be a decision between Shopify versus custom-coding a headless commerce solution – or Facebook Shops versus Amazon Business. It will be about experimenting with all these channels to build new types of direct customer relationships
Digital operations platforms (DOP), which combine back-office business tools into a single product, were hot in 2020, and they’ll continue to grow as a replacement for legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Greater DOP adoption will push vendors to differentiate their products, which is a good thing for their clients.
New DOP offerings will become AI-based and ecosystem-oriented, tailored to industry and even micro-vertical use cases and requirements. The payoff is digital bedrock for operations and insights – and surfacing the competitive core of your business to new products and experiences.
Outcomes-based pricing will grow for digital transformation services
Businesses looking to embrace digital business strategies will be looking to lots of outside vendors, according to Forrester, 50% of new transformation services contracts will include a pay structure based on meeting particular outcomes.
Why your business needs a digital marketing strategy
Your digital marketing strategy gives your business direction. With a plan in place, you’ll have the information you need to help your business grow consistently. Your digital marketing strategy should:
- Define your businesses short and long term goals
- Understand who your target customer is
- Show you how to get in front of your customers
- Outline what you need to attract your customers attention
- Create a plan to hold customer attention
- Regularly analyse and improve marketing performance
The more time you spend thinking about your goals, getting to know your audience and planning how you’ll approach your digital marketing, the more likely you are to achieve success.
To be successful, your digital marketing strategy should focus on these areas:
- Setting goals and key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Understanding and being specific about who your audience is
- Creating and implementing your digital marketing strategy
- Auditing and constantly improving marketing campaigns
You’ll want to break each of these areas down in enough detail so you (and your team) can work with each of these areas properly.
Working with a consultancy or agency that understands how to get this done can be the best thing you can do to transform your business in 2021.
It’ll be tough to focus on lots of metrics at once. Instead, you’ll want to focus your attention on a small number of really meaningful KPIs and metrics.
Some common examples are:
- Unique visitors per day/month
- Pages per visit
- New leads per day/month
- Marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
- Conversion rates
- Churn/attrition rate
- Cost per conversion
- Conversion rate per keyword
- ROI per content
- Click-through-rate on paid advertising
If you’re not sure which KPIs you should focus on, start with the common KPIs and metrics that have a direct impact on your business. These are typically metrics that focus on traffic, conversions, and optimisation.
Closer Consultancy can break each of these areas down in enough detail so you and your team can focus on running your business. We have the information, tools, and resources you need to create and master your digital marketing strategy plan.
We will be responsible for creating and implementing your strategy. We can monitor and report the KPIs and metrics that measure the success of your campaign using the tools and resources you’ll need to implement and improve your campaign performance.
Almost half of businesses don’t have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy in place. So don’t worry yet, most businesses are unprepared right now!
Get in touch with us today to find out about our digital marketing services and our retainer packages to keep you ahead of your competition.
For a strategy call or if you have any questions, email Naima at naima@closerconsultancy.com