Orji-Oko Uzor- Introduction
- What is creative digital marketing?
- Is there any future in creative digital marketing?
- How can I start creative digital marketing?
- Creative digital marketing trends in 2021 – analysis and prediction
- Conclusion
Introduction
We’re not just innovative and creative people, but we’re equally analytical people. At the end of the day, I think using those faculties is to be able to understand them but even, perhaps, in this state of things, as they’re today, we’re ready to disrupt going forward.
A lot of marketers have been scrambling to keep up in this very year 2020. Really it’s a year, that many of us will live to talk about current events dramatically shaping creative digital marketing trends. Except you live under a rock or Norway, maybe this laundry items should sound familiar: socio-political turmoil, including mass protests, violent street clashes. And the upcoming November presidential election in U.S together with its cooling economy; unpredictable weather phenomena; and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic ravishing the world.
The reason these developments have directly affected marketers is all the unprecedented uncertainty they create. For instance, who knows, what social media advertising costs will be in a week, month, or year from now? And who will predict how long the eCommerce “boom” will last, especially when we don’t know when the world will return to normal?
Really, what is normal, and where did it go off to in such a hurry?
Now is the time for marketers to closely examine their goals, performance metrics, and KPIs. Marketers must quickly adapt to new strategies and precisely to be able to survive and thrive again. We have looked into our own client portfolio here at Urbizboost. And those businesses that will find a way to be flexible in the face of adversity will be best positioned to stick around, grind it out, and begin looking forward to 2021.
What is creative digital marketing?
Creative digital marketing is a means of connecting with and influencing your potential customers creatively.
Then, what is creative digital marketing?
Basically, creative digital marketing is the process of using creative talents in areas of art, video, design, music to sell any online marketing efforts or assets.
Email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing and even blogging are examples of creative digital marketing. They help introduce people to your company and convince them to buy using the creative talents.
Here are just a few examples of creative digital marketing:
- Your website
- Branded assets (logos, icons, acronyms, etc)
- Video content (video ads, product demos, etc)
- Images (infographics, product shots, company photos, etc)
- Written content (this includes blog posts, eBooks, product descriptions, testimonials, etc)
- Online products or tools
- Reviews
- Social media pages
Reinvigorating your creative digital marketing
Find a new and best way to tell the story
A campaign that resonate with customers is used to reframe the narrative, sometimes that’s needed.
Use the pharmaceutical industry, for instance. Combating skeptical customers and concerns over high prices, pharma companies have found creative ways to show how their investments in research and development translate to improving patients’ lives.
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America worked with a strategic creative consultancy to create a brand repositioning initiative. They used video and images to send the message across. With lab shots that clearly show the connection between the science and the humanity.
Ask the audience
Research is used to get insights that will inform innovative and creative new approaches to connect with your customers. However, in some instances, it’s best you combine your data with a little crowdsourced creativity.
Master the art of empathy
To break out of the creative drought and be able to access bold new ideas. Be inspired from design thinking, which depends on empathy to better understand customers and their needs.
Empathy can equally help teams work together more creatively. Research has clearly shown that people can come up with new ideas after sharing embarrassing stories about themselves. This very tactic does two things: First, it reminds us that we’re all human. Second, it takes away the natural hesitation to share new ideas out of fear, simply because they’ll be rejected. By telling an embarrassing story, you’ve totally broken through that fear.
Is there any future in creative digital marketing?
Creative digital marketing is continuously adapting to meet the needs of customers and brands alike. Today, with increased connectivity and established digital structures, changes are rapidly happening.
The traditional digital marketing landscape of paid media, SEO, content marketing, social media, are experiencing big dramatic developments as technological innovations develop.
Below are innovations happening within traditional digital marketing channels. We explore why marketers need to evolve for a creative digital marketing evolution.
Paid media (how artificial intelligence will set up)
A marketing practice of generating web traffic by buying for ads place on search engines. Here, marketers either pay each time their advert is clicked on and it’s referred to as pay per click or PPC or when their advert is displayed.
A distribution to this traditional technique of paid media is programmatic advertising. A kind of paid media that use artificial intelligence to automatically buy advertising place. Using data, to know which audience the ads should aim.
SEO (voice optimisation becomes key)
The introduction of Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google assistant, helps a user to speak directly to their device rather than typing is on the rise. As customers adapt and start using voice assistants the more, creative marketers working with SEO would consider optimising their sites to recognise voice search.
The way we talk is quite different to the way we type, and the ease of asking a question explains why “72% of people who use a voice-activated speaker say that their devices are used as part of their daily routine. As the popularity of the technology increases, likely the number will increase. And the idea of a permanent, hands-free assistant will start to feel like second nature.
Content (personalisation and video come to the forefront)
Following the SEO and voice search optimisation, conversational content that seems personal and authentic remains key to engage customers. However, in 2019, personalisation was at the forefront of successful content marketing.
The evolution of big data and the availability of deep customer information, personalising content is not only accessible, but 96% of marketers believe personalisation improves relationships with customers. As customers are drawn to experiences that reflect their preferences. To determine what content that will be relevant to an individual is key to customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.
Social media (influencer marketing systems get automated)
Nowadays, influencer marketing is used in place of word-of-mouth marketing. People generally believe people more than brands, to hear positive information about a product or experience from an influencer. This often carries more weight and credibility than when it comes from the brand itself.
However, years ago this industry saw some challenges as brands struggled to find the right people to promote their image and message. Today, AI is working to solve these challenges by making influencer marketing a largely automated process. AI is now able to do an influencer-brand affinity analysis by sifting through millions of images within seconds to select particular influencers based on particular characteristics. Once an influencer posted or shared a content, AI will be able to analyse the data of the post to know how well the post was received. And to know how well the influencer and brand match.
How can I start creative digital marketing?
Educate yourself
Before you start, it’s very important to educate yourself and understand as much as possible about creative digital marketing. Most successful people in the world never stop learning. So, invest your time and resources in learning. You’ll equally need to have an understanding of the industry as well.
Once this is understood, you’ll need to find your niche.
Find your niche
Competition is very much intense, so finding your creative digital marketing niche is important to be able to stand out. You will then focus on a smaller customers that are interested in what you offer.
Do competitor research
When starting any business, you’ll need to know how you’ll rank against the competitors. When you take time to research about your competitors, you’ll then be able to understand how to surpass them.
To do a detailed competitor analysis, you’ll use the same keywords your business would use online. Then, narrow down your competition to about 10-15 competitors.
Launch a website
Before launching your website, you must keep content and competitors in mind. You also need to decide how you’ll be able to find clients for your business. Move then to having a domain name and hosting service for your site.
Build a portfolio
When you’re starting your creative digital marketing agency, get reviews and your name out there, you’ll need to offer free services. The moment you gain trust from your customers, you’ll then be able to attract potential customers.
Set a business model
There are several ways you can bill your client, and that’s up to you. One choice is when they pay you per hour. That’s good if you have one or shorter tasks. When you begin scaling up it can be trickier.
The next thing is pricing model and this is the percentage of spending. It will make your agency receive the correct compensation from your hard work.
Have a social media presence
Starting a creative digital marketing agency, you need to be on social media. You will benefit from organic lead generation, engaging with your customers and potential customers, and then adequately turn your business global.
Generating leads
There are different ways to generate leads, but it will be difficult at first growing your client base so never get discouraged. Before you generate leads, you must have your target customer in mind.
Once you know your target customer, one strategy you can use for lead generation is to start a Youtube channel. Be sure to publish video content regularly on Youtube to generate leads with helpful content.
Creative digital marketing trends in 2021 – an insight
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a moving target because search algorithms are consistently evolving. This regular flux certainly won’t change in 2021. But certain trends have noticed and that promise to be a lot more than just “flash in the pan” changes.
However, COVID-19 will certainly have lasting effects on SEO. But there are more basic changes that will affect the world of SEO in a long term. Here are five SEO trends we think will matter most come 2021.
- User Experience
- Semantic Search
- Search Intent
- Zero-Click Search Results
- Google My Business
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
First, the good news: pay-per-click (PPC) advertising won’t go anywhere in 2021. If for anything, there will be highly efficient PPC campaigns and this will be even more important to digital marketers. But these marketers will execute targeted and efficient PPC campaigns, might look a little different.
So, as you create your 2021 PPC strategy, bear in that businesses still get a $2 return for every $1 they spend on Google ads.
https://economicimpact.google.com
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Conversions are more important than ever because of the influx of automation and new advertising channels. And the ability to suitably use CRO best practices, to fine tune every step of the funnel may translate into tremendous ROI.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) will become a bit technical, so we will break it down into simple terms:
Get people to your website.
Make and turn those site visits into tangible, revenue-generating outcomes.
A “conversion” may look like a form, fill to download an ebook, for instance. Buying from your eCommerce shop. Or probably it’s a direct buy of your software subscriiiiption. With this in mind, we urge you to look at CRO from two perspectives:
- How people get to your website or let’s call it digital experience (a journey that starts from ad, social media post, etc.).
- What people do once they’re on your site.
This will give us a bigger picture of all touchpoints during the journey, from awareness to conversion. They can be optimized to improve the chances that somebody makes it to the finish line:
- Display and PPC advertising
- Landing pages
- Blog posts
- Website copy
- Site structure, navigation, and page speed
- Email and text messaging campaigns
- Calls to action (CTAs)
- Forms
Social media marketing
Social media stand on its own, isn’t it? The nuance, controversy, and ever-shifting demand that marketers have come to understand and love only intensified in 2020. There is a urgent need to adapt quickly and precisely is as ever, especially with new and powerful channels emerge.
Paid social
As trends and customer behavior in social media go in 2021, so will paid social advertising go too. What we do understand is that paid social will continue to experience great growth and upside. The analysis at Statista predict that the spending on social media will eclipse $113 million in 2021, with an average ad spend per internet user surpassing $23.
Video marketing
Video is growing tremendously. If we say we’re in the golden era of video, certainly it would be an understatement. Now when there seems to be no end to new formats, innovation, and audience engagement strategies out there. In terms of audience, the stats are wild.
Research from Asset Digital Communications clearly shows that video continues to grow in popularity.
Recent data from GlobalWebIndex equally show that 56% of internet users watch videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat every month.
The point is this, the relevance of video to all creative digital marketing channels is growing fast. Exponentially. Meaning this medium is very critical when you hope to connect with your customers and attract new ones to your brand in 2021.
Email marketing
Creative digital marketers will certainly strategize for the year to come. They will need to focus on getting the most out of their core marketing activities.
While it may be premature to call email marketing pandemic-proof, it’s very safe to say that it will remain a part of your 2021 marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Omnichannel marketing is a best place to end this article, because omnichannel marketing captures what we think will be the high-level trend in 2021 and beyond. Putting people at the center of everything you do will go a long way to determine the marketing strategy you will use.
As the year, 2020 gradually comes to end, creative digital marketers need to have a deep knowledge of all kinds of strategies, tactics, and technologies. And there will be new trends and external market conditions to keep pace with in 2021. But the success of it all will boil down on how we retreat people. How we are able to empathize, recognize, and serve their needs. When a brand includes empathy into its marketing methods, what it’s doing is validating its customer base. The more validated a customer feels, the deeper the relationship that the customer will build with the brand.
There’s no doubt that COVID-19 has really distrupted many things. People are still anxious, unsure, and even scared. And we do turn the corner, things are sure to look a little different.