Social Media Advertising Trends To Watch In 2021 And Beyond For Your Business
Feb 05, 2021
10 min read
Social media marketing demands a lot of time and attention because you need to constantly review your existing strategies and publish new types of content on the platform. To stay in a sink with the updates one needs to keep a close eye on new trends because social media marketing is constantly evolving and influencing the way businesses will work in the future.
As we begin the year 2021, all social media platforms are introducing new features, updates, and are modifying their old algorithms. As the time ticks, social media trends are evolving each minute and therefore your Social media marketing tactics should also undergo a makeover.
Remember Snapchat's Snap Streak feature? It was so addictive, do you think so? Users had to maintain Snap Streaks by sending snaps or photos to your friends every day. This was a huge trend! On the contrary, Instagram has features like Reels, which can last forever on your feed, and ‘Story’, which lasts for 24 hours only, are highly popular among young adults.
Instagram Reels feature came as a quick alternative for Tik Tok, and now almost every social media platform is planning to add such features to their interface too. Instagram has over 500+ million active user profiles, which makes this platform the second largest platform after Facebook.
So, it boils down to one thing, social media evolution is all about exploring, adapting, and innovating new trends. But that’s not the end, presenting new trends before the audience is not sufficient, it's all about how quickly one can introduce these features. These instant changes pose new challenges for brands and businesses. Remoulded algorithms and updates keep social media marketers on their toes.
If you are a business leader, marketer, or entrepreneur and you use social media sites for your online business then we have tried to list down some of the top social media trends of 2021 that can help your brand to grow more so that you can ace your sales target. But why Social media platforms important for an online business.
Social media is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to social media advertising. It helps in creating brand awareness, boosts audience engagement, and helps you in driving large traffic to your eCommerce website or shop. It can bring huge conversions for your business. Having a great social media presence can help you to induce loyalty and trust in your customers towards your business.
Social Media Trends That Can Enhance Your Social media marketing
- Brands need to revisit their marketing campaigns
- User-generated content can help you in building trust
- Create short format high-quality audio-visual content
- Companies should focus on authentic communication
- Analyze trends followed by your industry leaders on social media
- The Instagram story can be a powerful tool for storytellingCreate buzz using social media platforms
1. Brands need to revisit their marketing campaigns
You need to be spontaneous and creative at the same time. Earlier brands and businesses use to plan their social media posts, releases, and promotions way before the date of actual action. But the year 2020 left everyone bewildered and introduced a twist to these tactics.
We saw advertising companies withdrawing their ad strategies, campaigns, and way of delivering their messages to the crowd. Due to the risks associated with the spread of Covid-19, we saw brands scrapping out product catalog posts and spreading awareness about safety measures like social distancing and the importance of sanitizing.
Popular brands that used to hire professional actors for shooting brand endorsements were sharing photos of their employees with their families who were working from home. So one should stop planning their social media releases? Should you drop your annual social media plans?
No, not completely! You can plan certain special days but you should be open to developing new ideas. You need a mix of both. Be flexible with your campaigns, messaging, and product launches. Follow the recent campaign trends, take advantage of viral hashtags, and engage with your audience on a personal level.
2. User-generated content can help you in building trust
Social media advertising is not just about selling products and services, it is much more than that. Crafting user-generated content is a way to make your brand look more authentic, fresh, and reliable.
As per the statistics provided by Stackla, 78% of users said that user-generated content influences their purchasing choices. We also saw that paid or promoted ads left various customers skeptical about the authenticity of their products. Therefore brands should use user-generated content to induce trust among their customers.
- Feature Raw Instagram stories - Post raw videos and images that you receive from your customers. People on the internet love content that is more human to them. You don’t need to just invest all your money on creating perfect videos or images, try sharing or featuring Instagram stories that come from your fans. It makes your brand look more authentic.
- Post About Social Issues - Don’t fill your Facebook or Instagram feed with product images and videos about your company, highlight some social issues too. Your customers will value your brand even more. It will also attract other like-minded individuals to your brand.
- You Can Save Money On Advertising - Featuring user-created content like images, videos, stories, etc allows you to save money on producing costly video content. Photoshoots or video recordings are not only expensive but also time-consuming. Use UGC that’ll allow you in lowering your social media expenditure. Saving UGC files is also a great idea because they can be used for some future campaigns.
3. Create short format high-quality video content
You must be aware of the fact that videos on social media have a better reach and audience engagement as compared to any sort of content. Adding descriptions, offers, CTAs to your videos can drive audiences towards purchasing your products. As we have discussed earlier, recording videos can be expensive too. Therefore you should emphasize your Return On Investment.
You can make this affordable by using a smartphone camera to shoot a video. You can use your smartphone camera to make engaging videos because features like Reels, stories, or IGTVs provide some really helpful editing options. Short format content like Reels can be used to create remarketing ads and sponsored ads.
Another great feature from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc is the Live feature.
You can use live streams when you are introducing or launching a new product. Live streams can be used directly to connect with your audiences because from there you would be able to see their comments or opinions in real-time.
Customers love it when they can ask questions on live streams. Remember, live streams can stay on your feed and new audiences can come and watch it later. The algorithm pushes such streams too! Your audiences will be able to see the unedited stream that will give the stream a human touch. When a large group of customers watches your live stream together, they feel as if they are a part of your family.
4. Companies should focus on authentic communication
Customers on social media platforms tend to revisit their ‘following list’ from time to time and unfollow accounts that are redundant or irrelevant to them. As a brand, you can manage to engage your audience and keep them hooked on by posting content that can boost brand loyalty. How? Make sure to go live once a month or once a week. Talk to your customers, make sure you answer their questions and thank them for being a part of your online business.
Post stories and photos of your office, working style, office activities, etc. You can also create ‘memory posts’ where you can recall a memory, for example - your first delivery order. You can also curate posts where you can thank them for their support in the journey so far. You can also post pictures or videos about your brand’s vision and mission.
5. Analyze trends followed by your industry leaders on social media
Have you heard about ‘social listening’ on social media? Social listening means analyzing what trends your industry leaders are following currently and also listening to the demands of your online customers. You need to hear what they are trying to say. In short, you need to know what’s in demand? Without social listening, you won’t be able to figure out things that are currently popular.
Pay attention to what investors and influencers are trying to convey. It’ll help you in gathering enough information about the ongoing trends. Plan your moves according to them. Use social media management tools that provide you updates about the current trends. By monitoring these trends, conversations, and actions you can figure out the best social media tactic for your brand as well.
6. The Instagram story can be a powerful tool for storytelling
We have already talked about the importance of humanizing social media posts and campaigns. Instagram’s ‘story’ feature, which keeps the story on your feed for 24 hours, has been adopted by Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube ‘Shorts’ as well.
These quick 15 second snippets can help you to introduce new products, offers, and deals. It also allows your customers to remain connected with your brand daily. On Instagram stories, you can set up question polls, QnA, GIFs, memes, and more. Such features give your fans a reason to check your profiles back again.
7. Use social media to boost purchase intent among your customers
Instagram provides various types of user interfaces such as ‘Private account’, ‘Public account’, ‘Creator’, and ‘Business account’. It depends on your needs. Each of them provides a different set of features. For instance, a business account on Instagram can reap the benefits of the ‘Shops’ feature where they can display their product catalog.
Customers can learn more about the products and services. A feature like this enhances the consumer experience and provides a user to do window shopping on the go. This feature can also allow a buyer to simply click on the link to place an order without leaving the app. Similar features are available on Facebook as well. These features are really helpful, especially for small and medium businesses.
Conclusion
Social media platforms have grown exponentially. The growth in their audience base says it all. Social media is one of the most powerful tools that can be used to empower your marketing efforts.
From creating brand awareness, boosting audience engagement, to helping you in driving large traffic, Social media can help you to boost your revenues and bring large conversions. It can help you to induce loyalty and trust in your customers towards your business. Follow these top social media trends of 2021 to build a user base of dedicated fans and smash your sales targets.
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How Are Your Website Metrics Dumping You?
Most of the successful marketing teams value the role of analytics and the metrics in deriving insights and strategy formulation. Available big data is crucial in understanding your consumer's behavior, the context and the methods operating on them while they make a purchasing decision. Whether it is checking the change in your email response rate or understanding the variation in the leads, everything that impacts your online business is important data.Analyzing the data is crucial because it is both able to present a concise picture of things that happened in the past and can, to a great extent, predict the pattern of consumer behavior and how that might change in the future. That's why Drucker remarks, "What gets measured, gets managed". But Can I Trust My Data? Based on the sample size, the duration when the data is collected and other factors, you derive an interpretation from the available data. What I find out is that quite often, it is the interpretation and not the data that is to be doubted. At times, we put too much emphasis on a particular set of data while ignoring the rest and thus we build a prejudice. Consequently, the selected metrics might lead us to draw inaccurate and non-relevant conclusions that can cost us after a certain duration. These data streams may indicate improvement, but it is not always that they have strong connection with your organization's progress.Moreover, since these data are dynamic and have time-dependency, they do not always correlate with the figures that matter for your marketing strategy. Some of these deceptive metrics are: Web Traffic Who does not like more attention? Especially in the digital marketing world, it seems that there is a race to get as much web traffic as one can acquire. But is getting more web traffic always a good thing? Let's suppose that you decide to boost traffic on your website and spend a large amount of money on Google Adwords. You might get more traffic consequently, but will that be any good if none of those users convert into buyers or proceed to email sign ups? Certainly, in that case, the acquired traffic is not connected with your company's mission. Number of Downloads Often, websites provide free resources such as e-books, brochures, and other PDFs to attract a particular segment of the audience. Tracking the number of downloads is not very helpful because it does not reveal who is downloading those resource nor does it tell you how these users found it. Due to the lack of a proper context, this metric can not be used to derive any actionable. Time Spent On Your Site Most of the marketers consider the time by the users on the website as an important metric. Unless this data point is used along with other available data point to make a comparison, it is no good to analyze the time. Though considered as a behavioral metric, it does not suggest you any much on how to improve the content. To make this metric work better, you will need to find out more about the users who download your content. Are those visitors lying in the potential customer belt or are they rival professionals keeping a track of what you are doing? Number of Unique Visitors Essentially, this number tells you about how popular your website is. More the unique visitors, the better it is for your website's popularity. Again this metric is not very actionable superficially, and you will have to check for the user's activity on your website to understand whether the unique visitor is worth your attention. Use analytics to find out what they clicked on, the source from where they landed to your website and other meaningful behavioral information about these unique visitors to have a larger picture. What Then Is a True Metric? Though there can not be any general formula to determine a universally accepted list of metrics, a true metric should have the following characteristics: It should suggest an actionable Whenever you see a proper report about some metric, the results should convey an actionable that should be incorporated to get better results.For example, when you see a report about split-testing, you should be aware of what improvement your site needs so that the discrete consumer group gets to see different versions of the product and thus get a more personalized response. It should be accessible and easily generated If you report about a tree falling in a forest and the report is incomprehensible, is it any valuable? In essence, the metrics should be reportable in a format such thati) all your team members can grasp them ii) everyone in your team can have access to the latest data reports To make the accessibility feature even better, the duration between executing actionable and seeing results should not be very large.To achieve that end, the metrics should be presented in a very simple way. Some examples of metrics that you should really care about: Email Newsletter Subscription More the subscription, more the chances that you can get the subscribers converted into buyers. Cost Per Lead It is calculated by dividing the marketing expenses by the number of leads generated online. It can give you a rough idea about the amount you need to spend to get one customer onboard. Conversion Rate The conversion rate is one of the crucial metrics that you must look for since it is an indicator of whether your marketing efforts are working or not. Regarding results and total revenue generated, this metric can provide useful information. The Average Length of Account Subscription Just counting the number of subscriptions won't help. To get desirable insight, it is recommended that you keep track of the duration of the account subscription. Also, you can analyze the number of account upgradations to keep a better check on your website's performance. Conclusion Website's metrics presents before you the macro picture of how the website has been able to engage its audience. It should also tell you about the progress you are making to increase its influence and by optimizing the areas that need improvement, you can design actionable tasks to make your website better. Also, these data sets are concise information about the trends that are working in the market, so with an intelligent choice of metrics that matter, you can predict consumer behavior, and that is key to your organization's success. ...
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11 SaaS email marketing tools for 2024
Introduction In the fast-paced realm of B2B marketing, a strictly designed Software as a Service (SaaS) dispatch marketing strategy stands as a foundational element for business creation and growth. This companion delves into the nuances of SaaS dispatch marketing, unraveling its significance, presenting established strategies, and pressing essential tools for success. Technical SEO for SaaS dispatch marketing has surfaced as a linchpin in contemporary B2B marketing, furnishing businesses with a direct avenue to engage guests and prospects. This companion serves as a compass, navigating through the complications of SaaS dispatch marketing, starting with a profound disquisition of its significance. From there, it seamlessly transitions to practicable perceptivity, offering proven strategies that empower businesses to harness the full eventuality of their dispatch juggernauts. also, the companion spotlights the critical part of using the right tools, emphasizing the need for a strategic selection of platforms similar to Mailchimp, Sender, Omnisend, or CampaignMonitor. For businesses, managing their SaaS account efficiently becomes paramount for sustained growth and client satisfaction. Why SaaS Dispatch Marketing is Pivotal? SaaS dispatch marketing is vital for several reasons, serving as the favored communication channel for a different range of cultures. According to statistics, 74 percent of baby boomers, 72 percent of Gen Xers, and 64 percent of millennials consider dispatch to be the most particular channel for communication from brands. exercising dispatch ensures a direct and individualized connection with your target followership. Personalization and Targeting Dispatch allows for the creation of segmented lists, enabling the delivery of targeted dispatches to specific groups. substantiated and targeted content enhances engagement and resonates with donors. Brand mindfulness and Engagement Providing precious content through dispatch contributes to increased brand mindfulness and engagement. Regular communication fosters a strong bond with paying guests, erecting lasting connections. Cost-Effective Marketing SaaS dispatch marketing is cost-effective compared to traditional styles, barring advertising, printing, or media space charges. The affordability of dispatch juggernauts allows businesses to allocate coffers more efficiently. Campaign Monitor reports that 64% of small businesses leverage email marketing as a means of reaching out to their customers. High ROI With an average ROI of 36 for every 1 spent, dispatch marketing offers an exceptional return on investment( ROI) of 3600. The cost-effectiveness coupled with high returns makes it an economic marketing channel. Generating Excitement Strategic dispatch marketing juggernauts produce excitement around new features or updates, contributing to stoner expectations and engagement. The top 11 email marketing tools for 2024. ActiveCampaign: Elevating SaaS Marketing Efficiency ActiveCampaign stands out as a top choice for SaaS marketing, offering a versatile B2B, B2C, and eCommerce platform. With features like machine learning, drag-and-drop email builders, and omnichannel marketing, ActiveCampaign empowers businesses to grow while delivering exceptional customer experiences. However, its complex user interface and customer service might pose challenges. Sendinblue: A Comprehensive Marketing Solution Sendinblue emerges as an all-in-one marketing solution, providing essential tools for reaching and converting audiences into customers. With features such as a drag-and-drop editor, SMS marketing, and unlimited sending, Sendinblue is a go-to option for SMBs seeking complete marketing and business growth. While it boasts reasonable pricing and quick email delivery, improvements in the UI and newsletter templates are areas to consider. Omnisend: E-commerce Focus and Automation Omnisend is tailored for eCommerce, offering easy-to-use automation features for SMS marketing and eCommerce marketing. Compatible with various eCommerce platforms, Omnisend integrates loyalty review and helpdesk platforms to trigger marketing campaigns based on customer behavior. The platform provides practical triggered email and automation but may benefit from increased flexibility and customization in email marketing. Mailmodo: Reinventing Email Marketing with AMP Emails Mailmodo, a new-age email service provider, brings interactive AMP emails into the spotlight, delivering an app-like experience to recipients. With a drag-and-drop template builder, automation, and real-time analytics, Mailmodo positions itself as an effective tool for reinventing email marketing. While it offers pre-built widgets and a more affordable option, limited language support and a lack of a free plan may be considerations. ClickFunnels: Complete Platform for Marketing Efforts ClickFunnels offers a comprehensive platform encompassing website, blog, online store, CRM, email marketing, and more. With unlimited email sequences, A/B split testing, and an affiliate program, ClickFunnels provides marketers with a robust toolkit. While praised for a simple learning curve and effective data tracking, some users may find the backend functionality complex. Klaviyo: Simplifying eCommerce Marketing Klaviyo stands out as a simple and effective eCommerce marketing platform, integrating seamlessly with various eCommerce software. Offering features like predictive data, real-time customer profiles, and precise multi-channel attribution, Klaviyo simplifies email marketing for eCommerce businesses. However, customization improvements and a more user-friendly platform for desktop and mobile are areas for consideration. Benchmark: Feature-Rich Email Marketing Tool Benchmark, a lesser-known but powerful tool, boasts alluring landing page creation tools, AI-powered marketing automation, and dedicated IP protection. With features like unlimited sending, A/B testing, and automated customer journeys, Benchmark competes with established players. Despite server issues and basic signup form design, Benchmark offers very detailed tracking information and native split testing. HubSpot: Complete Marketing Automation Tool HubSpot, a comprehensive marketing automation tool, comes equipped with a CRM, landing page-building tools, omnichannel marketing automation, and adaptive testing. With features like email marketing, SEO recommendations, and behavioral event triggers, HubSpot is recommended for B2B service companies. While it offers effective customer filtration and categorization, occasional crashes and a higher cost may be considerations. MailerLite: Affordable and Automation-Friendly MailerLite stands out as an affordable platform with features like a drag-and-drop editor, email automation builder, and unlimited automation even on the free tier. Recommended for beginners and small projects, MailerLite offers effective email broadcasting. While providing unlimited automation, the platform could benefit from increased integration facilities and non-repeating background options for landing pages. Constant Contact: Starter-Friendly Content Marketing Constant Contact, known for its simple drag-and-drop email builder, offers features like social media marketing, SMS marketing, and event marketing. With A/B testing and unlimited sending, Constant Contact caters to starters and small businesses. While teams can create tags and lists, occasional glitches and the need for improved monitoring parameters are areas for consideration. MailChimp: AI-Assisted Email Marketing MailChimp, a popular email marketing and automation tool, leverages AI-assisted data analysis for personalized recommendations. With features like content automation, customer target and segmentation, and multiple third-party software integrations, MailChimp enhances email marketing campaigns. While delivering streamlined reports, MailChimp may benefit from increased automation features. Enforcing three Types of Emails A successful SaaS dispatch marketing strategy involves three primary types of emails acclimatized for different stages of the client trip. Marketing Dispatch Target leads with concurrence-grounded content, including lead nurture juggernauts, newsletters, and deals juggernauts. Example HubSpot's substantiated resource- participating emails. Lifecycle Dispatch Focuses on druggies after subscribing, encompassing onboarding, free trial to paid subscription juggernauts, and client fidelity sweats. Example Calendly's clear onboarding dispatch furnishing direction to new guests. Transactional Dispatch Concentrates on service-related emails like account recovery, billing, and product exertion. Example Direct API- grounded emails for instant delivery of critical information. 16 Stylish SaaS Dispatch Marketing Strategies In the Software as a Service( SaaS) realm, dispatch marketing strategies, integrated with the ABM framework, are vital in driving engagement and transformations. There are sixteen proven strategies to optimize your SaaS dispatch juggernauts. Plan Lifecycle parts use client data to strictly member your dispatch lists. Consider factors similar to assiduity, demographics, deals cycle, values, and region. This substantiated approach ensures acclimatized content that resonates with specific followership parts, boosting engagement and conversion rates. Incorporating account based marketing principles can further enhance the personalization. Choose the Right Time dissect literal data to pinpoint optimal days and times for transferring emails. Considering different time zones is pivotal for global culture. Timely delivery enhances the chances of your emails being opened, read, and acted upon, contributing to overall crusade effectiveness. Review Dispatch Data Regularly Regularly cover dispatch list performance, subscriber geste, and the success rates of different dispatch types. This ongoing analysis provides precious perceptivity, enabling you to upgrade your strategies, optimize content, and effectively acclimate to evolving client preferences. Focus on Simple Juggernauts First Initiate your dispatch marketing trip with straightforward juggernauts, keeping B2B ABM goals in mind. Welcome emails, onboarding sequences, and newsletters are abecedarian. These juggernauts lay the roots for establishing connections with your followership, setting the stage for more complex juggernauts. Combine Promotional and Educational Emails Strike a balance between promotional and educational content, maintaining a rate of 31. While promotional emails drive transformations, educational content positions your brand as an assiduity authority, fostering trust and furnishing value beyond deal pitches. Engage Your List with Contests Foster stoner commerce by incorporating contests into your dispatch juggernauts. Contests not only engage your followership but also produce excitement around your brand. This interactive approach enhances brand involvement, encouraging subscribers to laboriously share and remain connected. Use" Smart Unsubscribe" apply a" Smart Unsubscribe" point that allows subscribers to choose specific dispatch orders. This empowers druggies to conform to their dispatch preferences, reducing the liability of unsubscribes. By esteeming stoner choices, you maintain a more engaged and satisfied subscriber base. Shoot Emails Grounded on point operation conform your emails to druggies grounded on the features they constantly use. This substantiated approach ensures that your communication is applicable, furnishing value that aligns with the specific requirements and preferences of individual druggies. Epitomize Emails to Increase Open Rates Move beyond introductory personalization by incorporating detailed reports, analytics, and substantiated product tips into your emails. individualized content increases open rates by demonstrating a deep understanding of your donors and delivering information that directly addresses their interests and requirements. Shoot NPS and client Satisfaction checks Hand client satisfaction situations through Net Protagonist Score( NPS) and satisfaction checks. This data-driven approach allows you to produce parts for promoters, detractors, and neutrals, enabling targeted strategies to enhance client fidelity and address specific issues. A/B Test Your Emails Continuously optimize your dispatch juggernauts by conducting A/ B tests on different rudiments. trial with variations in subject lines, content types, and tones to identify the most effective performances. Data-driven perceptivity from A/ B testing empowers you to upgrade your strategies grounded on real-time feedback. Use Branding in your Hand Enhance brand visibility and recall by incorporating harmonious branding rudiments into your dispatch autographs. This ensures that every communication reinforces your brand identity, contributing to a cohesive and memorable brand image in the minds of your subscribers. Figure Nurturing Emails for Each Stage Develop acclimatized lead nurturing emails for each stage of the client trip, including free-to-paid upselling, onboarding, and client retention. This methodical approach ensures that your email companion druggies seamlessly through their relations with your product or service, maximizing client satisfaction and fidelity. Automate Behavioral Alarms influence behavioral triggers to automate targeted emails. Behavioral triggers, similar to specific stoner conduct or quiescence, significantly enhance the effectiveness of your juggernauts, achieving a 497 enhancement compared to batch emails. robotization ensures timely and applicable communication grounded on individual stoner geste. Promote Periodic Billing Encourage druggies to conclude periodic billing plans by emphasizing the value and savings associated with monthly subscriptions. This strategic approach enhances client retention and contributes to predictable profit aqueducts for your SaaS business. Work on Micro transformations Focus on micro transformations alongside primary transformations. Encourage lower stoner conduct at different stages of the client trip. This approach makes engagement more accessible for druggies, creating incremental ways that lead toward the ultimate conversion, whether it's a purchase, subscription, or another asked action. Conclusion SaaS delivery marketing necessitates a careful combination of authoritative content, carefully targeted activities, and a consistent commitment to audience engagement. This dynamic method enables organizations to realize the full potential of dispatch marketing by directing client retention, increasing conversions, and strengthening brand loyalty. Additionally, the best seo saas companies that incorporate account based marketing best practices into their content can further optimize their dispatch marketing efforts. By meticulously following these tried-and-true techniques, a tenacious SaaS dispatch marketing structure evolves, one that adapts to the audience's ever-changing demands. This adaptability drives long-term growth and success, ensuring that firms not only reach but exceed their objectives. In essence, it is a strategic synergy that converts dispatch marketing into a force, forging an unbreakable bond with the audience and pushing the company to long-term success. ...
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Display is Dying, But High ROI Marketing Isn't!
We are all aware of the fact that banner ads are in deep trouble not only from a customer’s perspective but also the advertisers; who also complain about the ROI they get in return. Ad blocking softwares are gaining momentum to relieve customers from ads on every website they visit. According to Digiday, You’re are more likely to: ...survive a plane crash than click on a display ad ...get in MIT than click on a display ad ...complete Navy SEAL training than click on a display ad Even after talks of such gloom and doom about display ads, to be specific banner ads, growth in investment on display advertising continues to grow. Ad blocking softwares are unable to stop them. The reason behind is simple, the analytic softwares help marketers in targeting, retargeting, machine learning, and programmatic approaches to serving the ad units to customers based on their online behaviours and interests. A survey by eMarketer: What is Display Advertising and why is it in trouble? Display advertising is type of online advertising in many forms like banner ads, text ads, rich media and more. It relies more on image ads, audio and video for conveying the advertisement message. Some marketers complain that it doesn’t works as well, as compared to other channels or modes of advertising. That might be true in some cases but ultimately it boils down to how well the banner was designed and the way it was targeted. These complaints arose with onset of the new era of marketing- Content Marketing. Most content marketers produce and promote the top funnel content, i.e., ebooks, free guides, articles etc. However, display advertising was growing on the back of mid funnel content- free trials, case studies, catalogs etc. This has a problem because getting someone to the top of the funnel still requires some additional advertising expense to get them to the middle and ultimately towards achieving the ROI of conversions when the lead moves to the bottom of the funnel. In B2B communications, this process could take a lot of time ranging from months to even years. This is the specific reason why most of the investment for the display advertising comes from B2C industries where the cost of display advertising is not much and where the journey of the customer from top of the funnel to the bottom is quicker-- could be days and even minutes in some cases. Other Modes of Marketing to meet your goals As it seems outbound marketing continues to wane and more and more marketers are turning to content marketing and native advertising. While the native advertising can prove to be more expensive for most of the brands, we advocate for the paid content marketing which is more cost effective. The cold hard facts that could be given to prove the worthiness of content marketing are: Most of the companies save upto 14 dollars in cost per acquisition for every new customer they get. It is a robust method of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing generates 54% more leads as compared to other traditional advertising. (stateofinbound) Almost all of the B2B businesses using the content marketing state that content is fuel across all the channels where they are present: events, social, demand generation etc. 67% of B2B businesses say that marketing the content is one of their top three priorities or higher, and hence spending by these businesses in inbound marketing is increasing.(kapost) Reason why you should adopt Content Marketing 189 million of Facebook’s users are mobile only. (Fastcompany.com) In a study cited to gauge brand relationship, 64% consumers stated that they shared the same values on which the brand is based. ( a study by Harvard Business review) A study shows that interactive content such as apps, games, quizzes, blogs etc. generate more conversions 70% of the time as compared to 36% of the passive content.( White papers ) Social Media sites and blogs reach out to 8 out of 10 U.S. internet users and accounts for 23% of their time spent online.(Source) If we compare interactive to passive content, interactive content has been more effective at educating customers about the product or brands (93% Vs 70%), differentiating from competitors(88% Vs 55%) and being shared by them(38% Vs 17%). ( White papers ) Custom content is what more consumers rely to as per a study( 61%), and they admit to buying from that company. (Source) The key to a successful content marketing strategy is to produce great content that is helpful to consumers in achieving their goals and desires, and to connect brand to individuals in a memorable way. It also means that you place your existing or new customers first even if it means that you refer them to businesses that have nothing to do with your industry. Display ads are undoubtedly phasing out and it is matter of time when we are not bugged by the visual ads but they will continue to exist or even grow until the B2C businesses feel their importance. About Saffron Edge:Saffron Edge is a digital marketing brand with the purpose of assisting companies in improving their Branding and Search Visibility through Inbound Marketing. ...
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