The High Cs of Marketing in 2021
Our lives have changed dramatically and we have adjusted by creating new digital habits.
2020 taught us that we can be much more productive and use digital to be quicker and more connected.
It’s been good for everybody to have a wake-up call since this change was coming at some point. And what we know is it’s good for the customer and it’s good for business.
Customer relationships are more important than ever when you can not get face to face contact and it forces businesses to develop faster and embrace the possibilities digital has to offer (which they may have felt was a daunting task before now).
It certainly has been choppy waters, but we now start to learn from what we implemented in 2020 and where to take that this year and beyond.
Content
Clients have doubled down on content, but taking it to the next level. Content optimisation is key with people learning how to split bulk into smaller digestible pieces and distributing that gradually over time.
Potential customers are looking for answers and by delivering them you are on the path to grabbing a piece of the web traffic pie.
We have seen a lot of consumer brands defining their place in customers lives with relevant lifestyle content. This has been going on for a long time and is not new news, but now the competition is hotting up to capture attention. Think of usefulness and what fits with your brand tone of voice. It has been discussed extensively that now brands are less important to customers and it’s only really about what you can do for them. Something to think about.
Content gets people to your site, but where then?
Recently we have seen that online sales have gone up 30% (correct as of January 2021). Therefore digital content can easily lead to digital sales when the customer journey is on point.
Customer Experience
Your website and digital content is the front door to your business. This means that one of the biggest revelations has been that a company’s CMS is the point of entry to their CRM.
10 years ago a CRM was more singularly focussed on being a customer master record. A place where you kept basic details on who your customers were.
Now CRMs is can help you build a fuller idea of who your customers are and what they are doing. You can start to build target buyer personas. This leads us to greater personalisation.
GAP are a great example of a company using their CRM to understand where people go to on their site and next time they visit they are delivered more relevant content. But it doesn’t end there. With every visit, you can continue to grow your knowledge of your customer base as they negotiate different life stages.
The use of an effective CRM also means you can centralise all company communications. This improves internal processes as well as customer service/experience.
Immersive customer events online are due to ramp up in 2021 to new heights. Interactions that have as close to a real feel as possible will be important.
Chat
It has been proven last year more than ever that people of any age range are more likely to contact a company over chat. This could be via WhatsApp or on a company’s site. Sales via this format are also rocketing. So it’s not only a great customer service tool but can also lead directly to sales.
Chatbots have come a long way from the standard responses of yesteryear.
Chat doesn’t just refer to a chatbot either. This is also about online buyers and savvy shoppers having these conversations online through their research. We know 70-80% of research happens before customers go into the consideration phase and they don’t have the historical 10 conversations in person as they did before.
We have always known that people go on recommendations. We all depend on them! How many of us have asked friends and family on Facebook for an electrician who specialises in ….? So paying attention to as many online conversations as possible is crucial.
It's a bit choppy out there, so prepare for the High Cs.