2021 Digital Marketing Prediction #1: Human Relationships

Before we get into the first prediction for 2021, let me just make one thing super, super clear for you. A lot of the things that I, (and many others in the digital world) were recommending through 2020, are still very much the headline in 2021.

• You must be engaging in social media activity if you are running a business in 2021:

The pandemic changed everything in terms of digital consumer behaviour. What used to be a nice to have, is now a need to have. So, before we get into any predictions, please do make sure that you are putting resources into REGULAR social media content going out every single day, across multiple platforms. Commonly that would consist of text-based status updates, article shares, blog posts, or image quote posts, image of the day posts, video posts, and/or any other creative material that you may feel you wish to dabble in. For example, podcasts, YouTube channels, voice-only apps, pdf reports, etc. You should be present on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and be considering TikTok and other forms of up-and-coming social media platforms. The reason why you should be on these platforms, and making sure that you are making an effort, is because not only is it a great way to engage with potential new business and existing customers, but it's also a great way to show people who you are, and what you do before they've even come to your website or your shop door.

• Build the relationship:

You should also have a website that's user-friendly, and explains just what it is you can do for someone to help solve their problem, or move them closer towards what they want, in the first two or three seconds of landing on that page. There should also be some kind of data capture, or reason, or incentive, to opt-in. So some kind of discount code or further communication list subscription. I would also recommend that you have started, or do soon start spending some of your advertising budget on digital marketing, digital advertising methods. Such as Facebook and Instagram ads, YouTube ads, advertising on Twitter, sponsored posts on LinkedIn, pre-roll YouTube ads and Google AdWords. To help more people find you when they need you, and find you when they don't, but have you at the forefront of their mind for when they do. This is the attention game. You are a player in the game, but to win it, or to even perform remotely well, you have to be creating digital media content and distributing it on multiple platforms, every…single…day. As a standard. Please, do this. Get it right. Get it sorted before getting fancy with any of the below predictions. The easiest way to do it is to have us do it all for you. To set up a free consultation call, email us here – [email protected].

• Attention is more than everything:

Another challenge that we face in 2021 as digital marketers is the challenge of attention. Gaining the attention of the market is essentially what we are here to do as marketers, to engage and connect with our current audience and to grow future audiences (the number of people who know about our products and services.)

With more and more content being posted every day it is becoming more competitive out there. Plus, attention spans are getting shorter and shorter by the day. There are a couple of things that we can do as content creators, and as marketers to make sure that we keep at the front of the queue and in the front of our customers' mind in 2021. 

WARNING: I fear that failing to do this will cause a severe decline in the amount of interest that there is for your services and your products. I also fear for the company that sees this as an inconvenience and a short term trend. Ignoring this would be similar to when the car was invented and mass-produced. Oh how very quickly it made the desire to have a horse and cart very obsolete. The horse and cart became a specialist means of transportation. The car became the way. Nobody’s heard about the businessperson that invested heavily in horse and cart the day before the car was invented. I urge and invite you to pay close attention to what is outlined in this article so that you can adopt some of the strategies to help move your business forwards in the year 2021. We learn from our mistakes and we learn from the mistakes of others through 2020, and before. We apply confident, bold strategies leaning on what works, leaning on the data that shows the proof of the most efficient marketing strategies in order to replicate success again and again, whilst continuing to innovate and never becoming stubborn or sleepy when it comes to learning the best way.

That is a commitment that we have at my agency, that I run, Tide 55, where we promise to keep ourselves at the forefront of the digital marketing industry, to know what's working, to know what might work and to know what definitely won't work.

Please take what is in this article as the professional opinion of somebody who has been a digital marketing enthusiastic, practitioner, and now business owner for an accumulative time of over 10 years.

I don't know what is going to happen in 2021, but if you asked me to guess what it means for marketing, this is what I would say…

PREDICTION 1:

Human relationships are everything.

Human relationships are more important than ever. In a world that's been fractioned, in a world that's been stretched and stressed, we are in a position where we need each other more than ever.

As a business owner, you are able to connect people to what they want and what they need. Through your products and services, you can help to increase their level of happiness, satisfaction, fulfilment, protection, safety, achievement, and status.

Therefore, being able to market your message in a way that focuses on what we call a H2H relationship (human to human) will favour you in 2021. Being empathetic, inspiring and caring is so important. And ultimately, helping to put a smile on someone’s face, is what will help you stand out above the noise.

As well as that, it's going to increase the chances of you creating a positive dent on the minds of your customers and your audience, so that they can remember you, your message, your marketing, your brand, and therefore, they will be able to find you and do business with you when the time comes for them to have what it is that you have to sell.

This goes right back to the basics of human interaction, to be able to care more, to be able to understand, to be able to relate, to be able to put in the effort. It is a scientific equation. The more energy we put in, the more energy we get back.

Focus on how you can change someone's feelings when they see read, watch, or hear your content. Think about what emotions your services and your products help to steer away from and help to steer towards. What problems do your products/services solve? Do understand that the effort needs to be consistent and that doing it once is not enough. In the same way as going on one date is not enough of an effort for someone to say yes to a marriage proposal, we must remain consistent with our heartfelt H2H marketing.

There you have it. My first prediction for 2021.

If you had asked me to predict what would happen in 2020 I probably would have been way off, yes. But when it comes to digital marketing in 2021, I think - for sure - we've got an exciting year ahead.

I guess, only time will tell...