21 Digital Marketing Tips for Small Business Success in 2021
We all know that 2020 has been a difficult year—and it’s been especially tough if you're a business owner. Brands have had to pivot from their original strategies to deal with a pandemic, nationwide protests and navigating new online and digital marketing territory.
As we enter the end of 2020 and look forward to a new year, it’s a good time to think about what your marketing strategy should include in 2021. We’ve compiled a list of 21 marketing tips and ideas that you can start implementing today to add to your bottom line and put you on the path to success January 1st.
Plan your social media content out on a calendar and schedule your posts. This is a huge time saver and will allow you to prepare for upcoming Holidays, events, and promotions.
Use Facebook Ads Manager. Ads manager can be a bit of a learning curve, but this is the best way to ensure your advertising dollars go further than simply boosting a post.Take it a step further and learn to use look-alike audiences, retargeting ads, and custom audiences to see even more results. (Our client Merry Ledges, saw 14 messenger leads with just $50 using look-alike audiences!)
Include behind the scenes content. Incorporating more authentic, less curated content is a major trend for 2021 and posting to stories is a great way to embrace this.
Incorporate as much video as possible. Video is as important as ever and allows brands to establish a relationship with their audience. Use video to introduce your staff, showcase new products, upload fun gifs/animations and more.
Use stories. With Twitter even adding stories, calling them Fleets, stories are here to stay. They are a great way to share content that may not have a place on your feed and that will vanish in 24 hours. Perfect for timely, unfiltered content!
Engage with your audience. Be social! Ask questions, comment back and and be responsive to your followers.
Follow and like your target audience’s posts on Instagram
Host giveaways. Use a site like KingSumo to host your social media giveaways. A platform like KingSumo allows you to host a a giveaway and choose a winner as well as building your email list at the same time. It’s a win win.
Add new email addresses to your email client regularly.
Send on time and relevant email blasts. Don’t forget to link your social media accounts at the bottom of your newsletters, too.
Selling a product? Influencer marketing is not dead. Build a relationship with influencers and gift them product in exchange for social promotion.
Create a clear brand aesthetic. Use similar fonts, filters, and color schemes that tie into your brand messaging.
Shoutout local brands you love on your social media. Instagram stories is a great place to do this!
Get professional photos taken at least once a year. Fill out your content calendar with sharp, on-brand photos that are always “post worthy”.
Looking for leads? We’ve had incredible success with Facebook ads using messenger.
Optimize your social media profiles. Apps have been changing a lot lately, make sure all your information is up to date, profile and cover photos sized correctly, and all information is still correct.
Ask for Google reviews.
Find complimentary brands and team up to host a giveaway.
Refresh the homepage of your website for the new year. Be sure to include a newsletter sign up form, links to your social media accounts, and that the page is clean and easy to read with a clear call to action.
Add email addresses from business cards.
Lastly, reporting. We provide all our clients with a detailed monthly report that analyzes website traffic, social media growth and engagement, email marketing metrics, Google analytics, ad spend and more. This is the best way to analyze what’s working and what needs to be adjusted in your marketing strategy.