All kinds of businesses have had a hard time in the past few years. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of Strategic Digital Marketing in today’s world.

With constantly changing customer habits and preferences, it’s more important than ever to stay ahead of the curve by using creative digital strategies to reach your target audience and to stay relevant.

Here are some smart marketing strategies that will help you make an impact with your digital marketing as you deal with the current digital norm:

1. Be Proactive

Marketing leaders need to pay attention to customers’ frustrations, but not by focusing on their immediate needs. Instead, they should look into their hidden needs and try to predict their actions and needs in the future.

This is what we call “proactive marketing” at work.

Proactive marketing, in particular, lets marketers figure out and meet the needs of customers, with the end goal of keeping track of their tasks and future needs.

When marketing companies do proactive marketing, they can see different parts of a customer’s point of view that may be important to them. Marketers can try to predict how customers will act because they can extrapolate from current technologies and needs to what will happen in the future.

2. The Connected Customer

The pandemic shut down physical offices and disrupted or eliminated traditional marketing channels. In the age of the connected customer, customers are taking back ownership over their personal data, placing their trust in one another and expecting more flexibility and greater value from the companies they do business with.

By using omnichannel strategies with integrated data streams, organizations can make decisions based on real-time information about how customers behave on each channel. So, it’s important to move away from separate campaigns and toward connected unified systems that help customers and businesses build stronger relationships with each other.

3. Customer Experience

The customer experience should be at the forefront of all marketing efforts. It has been reported that businesses that prioritize the customer experience are 4.5 times more likely to retain their customers than those that do not. By focusing on creating a seamless and memorable experience for customers, businesses can differentiate themselves from the competition and increase lead conversion.

To ensure a positive customer experience, it is important to understand the customer journey and identify pain points that need to be addressed. Additionally, businesses should consider using customer feedback to inform their marketing and product development efforts.

4. Commerce-powered CRM Platforms

One of the most important business trends in eCommerce is the rise of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms that use commerce. Retailers are making eCommerce a big part of their marketing strategies. Drop shipping is becoming a popular option for retailers who want to manage their supply chains well with little investment up front. By using drop shipping, businesses can focus on optimizing and customizing their products while avoiding the costs of inventory that come with traditional retail models.

In addition, many financial companies now offer integrated payment options that allow customers to pay through various payment sources such as Apple Pay®, Google Pay®, MasterCard® or PayPal®, thus making it easier for consumers to make purchases in less time.

The availability of these payment options creates a unique user experience, making it easier and faster for customers to complete their transactions in convenience, instead of leaving your website due to long waiting times associated with banking processes like processing payments or verifying data from customers.

5. Customer Success

As the business world adapts to the digital new normal, achieving customer success is becoming an increasingly important focus for marketing departments beyond traditional customer experience metrics.

Companies are realizing that customer success is more than just meeting expectations. It’s about helping customers achieve their goals. When companies focus on enabling their customers to do more with their product or service, everyone wins. Customers feel empowered and successful, and organizations gain higher loyalty and increased customer retention.

The marketing team has a critical role to play in achieving customer success by properly positioning products that deliver value and performance they promise and support this ongoing goal. Digital solutions such as webinars, virtual events, or chatbot integrations can help deliver hands-on engagement that allows the customer to explore capabilities and answer questions in real-time – merging online interactions with offline experiences.

6. Micro-influencer marketing

Micro-influencer marketing is when a brand or product is promoted by people who have a small but very active social media following. This kind of marketing can be very effective because micro-influencers usually have a strong relationship with their followers and are seen as authentic, trustworthy sources of information.

Brands can use micro-influencers to promote their products or services to a targeted and interested audience, often at a lower cost than partnering with larger, more expensive influencers. To get started with micro-influencer marketing, brands should find influencers whose values align with their own and who have an engaged audience that matches their target market.

7. Leverage AI and automation

AI and automation have changed the way digital marketing is done by making it more efficient and giving customers more personalized experiences. By using AI, businesses can automate tasks like creating content, helping customers, and managing social media. For example, chatbots can be used to respond to customer inquiries and provide personalized recommendations in real-time.

This frees up marketers to work on more complex tasks. AI can also be used to analyze large amounts of data to learn more about customer behavior and preferences. This information can then be used to make marketing campaigns that are more targeted and personalized.

In a survey conducted by Adobe, 63% of marketers reported that they have seen significant results from using AI in their marketing efforts.

To use AI and automation to their full potential, businesses should figure out where automation can have the most impact and invest in the technology and infrastructure they need to make that happen.

8. Embrace Voice Search Optimization

In a survey conducted by BrightLocal, it was reported that 72% of voice search users have used voice search to find local business information in the past year. As more people use voice-enabled devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home, it’s becoming more and more important for businesses to optimize for voice search.

Voice search optimization means making sure that content is optimized for natural language queries and that information is easy for voice assistants to find and understand.

Using long-tail keywords, optimizing for featured snippets, and giving structured data are all ways to do this. To use voice search optimization, businesses should focus on making content that sounds natural and like it came from a conversation. They should also make sure their website and content meet the needs of people who use voice search.

9. Community Building

In a study by Nielsen, it was reported that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, making community building a highly effective strategy for lead generation and conversion.

Building a strong, engaged community can be a powerful tool for driving lead conversion. By creating a sense of belonging for customers and fostering relationships, businesses can create loyal brand ambassadors who will refer new leads and drive repeat business.

This can make people more aware of the brand, keep customers coming back, and spread the word about the business.

To build a community, businesses should figure out what their target market wants and needs, and then give them a way to connect with each other and the brand. This can be achieved through tactics such as hosting events, creating a customer referral program, and offering exclusive content or benefits to community members.

In conclusion, connecting with customers through increased digital channels has become a key factor influencing success in this digital new normal scenario. Organizations need to strategically adapt themselves accordingly for building better relationships between them and external stakeholders like customers – now more than ever!

Should you need assistance with any of the above, book a free consultation worth R 2 499.