Three Online Marketing Tips for 2021

marketing tips 2021If the year 2020 taught small businesses anything, it’s that online marketing is essential and you have to be ready to pivot your strategy on a dime. Today, we’ll review a few of last year’s content marketing trends, and pinpoint three online marketing tips for 2021, to help you better market your products and services.

But first, if you need a refresher about why content marketing is important for your business, read our article, “5 Ways Content Marketing Builds Business.”

Three online marketing tips for 2021

The trends we’ll cover in this article come from the Content Marketing Institute’s 11th Annual B2B Content Marketing report, titled “Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends”. From here on out, we’ll refer to it as the CMI report.

More than 1,700 for-profit, B2B global marketing professionals were surveyed for it. They worked in a wide range of industries and company sizes. Their responses were gathered in July of 2020, so this is a good snapshot of how digital marketers fared during the economic shift caused by Covid-19.

You might be surprised to learn that 31% of marketers reported being “very or extremely successful” with their content in the middle of the 2020 pandemic. Additionally, 54% said they were “moderately successful”. So what did they do to stay at, or rise to, the top of their game during such a time of upheaval? Let’s take a closer look.

Source: Content Marketing Institute, 11th Annual B2B Content Marketing report

 

According to the CMI report, many of these top marketers said they changed key aspects of their marketing plan. Namely, they adjusted their targeting and messaging strategy, in response to Covid-19. They reported updating their editorial calendars and how they distributed the content.

Key Takeaway No. 1

Source: Content Marketing Institute, 11th Annual B2B Content Marketing report

 

So this leads us to our first Key Takeaway, which is a basic rule of online marketing: empathize with your audience.

According to the CMI report, the main content types marketers used in 2020 were short articles and blog posts. A couple of years ago, long-form content dominated. So it’s interesting — but not shocking — that we’re seeing a shift to more “bite sized” content.

For example, if you empathize with the anxiety and distress many people experienced throughout 2020, it makes sense that personal matters would take precedence over most of the marketing vying for their attention. So, shorter content is a good way to go as people’s attention spans continue to narrow.

This trend of shorter content will likely continue into 2021, but whatever way the tide turns, if you keep a constant pulse on what people want (and the challenges they’re facing), you can better position your marketing and how it’s delivered.

Moving on to …

Key Takeaway No. 2

Source: Content Marketing Institute, 11th Annual B2B Content Marketing report

 

Marketers surveyed in the CMI report said the Top factor for their success was the value their content provided people. This is another golden rule of content marketing. You have to be genuinely helpful. Though, in order to do that, you have to also be a credible resource. And this is our second tip.

Be credible.

In our current age of misinformation, it will become increasingly important to be known as a brand that can be trusted to share only the most reputable information.

But only 22% of marketers said they used fact-checking procedures before distributing their content. This is an important misstep, since one of the roles of content is to build trust and credibility for your business. So if you don’t already have a fact checking system in place, be sure to do it this year.

And, now, last but not least, we have …

Key Takeaway No. 3

To reach their audiences, marketers said they relied heavily on social media and email. And while 54% presented at virtual events, only 38% wrote guest blog posts for other publications and even fewer did guest spots. These are definitely missed opportunities to reach broader audiences. And, since fewer people are doing it lately, your brand can stand to gain from this approach.

Guest blogging and interview guest spots on other people’s platforms are useful ways to reach new audiences, so you might consider adding these things to your marketing plan in 2021. Getting guest spots is as simple as reaching out to the website owner by email and pitching yourself for the opportunity. Is this something you’re interested in? Subscribe to the Vox Pop Marketing YouTube channel, because this is a topic we’re publishing in the coming weeks.

Now it’s your turn

What Key Takeaway for marketing your business in 2021 stands out most to you? And, what new content marketing strategies will you use in 2021 for your business? Let me know in the comments section & we’ll keep the conversation going.

Do you need a marketing plan for 2021?

Check out our Lead Marketing Blueprint. This service will give you a strategic, documented marketing plan for your unique business and attract more customers in 2021.

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