2021 Marketing Campaign Do’s and Don’t’s

2020 was a year that we never expected. When the world suddenly shut down, it took businesses by surprise, causing them to pivot unexpectedly to quickly learn what did and didn’t work in their new reality. As the pandemic ends and the world opens back up, many pandemic-era trends will remain for the foreseeable future. Here we’ll go over some advice for implementing your marketing plan in 2021 with tips on what to look out for and how to strategize for anything that comes your way.  

Plan In Short Bursts

Staying adaptable and agile is what made the difference between the businesses that survived and even thrived during the pandemic and those that didn’t. Many of the organizations that suffered the worst during 2020 were those that were used to maintaining the status quo for the long-term, not focused on staying up to date with new technology or techniques to engage and interact with their customers. Unfortunately, they couldn’t quickly adapt to the changing circumstances that rapidly affected everyone. While long-term goals are vital, recent history has shown us that creating marketing plans comprised of short bursts of 2 to 4 weeks makes much more sense.  

Planning using short bursts allows you to review the strategy’s success and make quick adjustments when necessary, no matter what occurs. Agile marketing techniques provide many advantages, such as: 

• Quick responses to changes rather than forced adherence to outdated plans 
• Basing decisions on data over convention or opinion 
• Iterative reaction rather than waiting on big-bang campaigns 
• Small studies vs. large experiments  
• Collaboration instead of hierarchy 

As you work on your quarterly budgets, involve your sales and outreach teams. Look for consistent insight into what will resonate with customers. Engage your whole team to set SMART marketing goals.    

Spend More Efficiently On Advertising

When times get tough, the knee-jerk reaction of some businesses is to cut the advertising budget. However, as companies who have successfully navigated crises before can tell you, this is the time to continue to invest in advertising. The caveat is that you must do so more efficiently and effectively to reach your target audience and realize the highest ROI. So, what does that mean? 

The key to curating your message effectively is segmenting your audience. It’s an effective way to reach your target customers where they spend their time, so your message has the most impact. With segmentation, you can implement strategies using radio or digital that have a high ROI but make sure you do so on a budget. Digital marketing can return up to a 10:1 ratio, while radio can return $28.82 of incremental sales for every $1 invested. 

Curate Your Online Presence

People haven’t fully ventured out in public again yet, but as more people are vaccinated, and businesses reopen, customers have tentatively taken steps out in the world. However, their reliance on the internet will remain strong, particularly while there is still lingering concern about going places. That means businesses must stay vigilant about their digital presence.  

Customer experience is an essential factor in your digital strategy. Your website should not only be inviting but should be responsive and optimized for a mobile experience. You only have 0.05 seconds to make a positive impression to determine whether visitors to your site will leave or stay. Don’t forget the importance of social media to answer questions and keep more customers updated about changing restrictions without the necessity of visiting your site. Social media is excellent for providing minimal information with the full details available on your site. 

Automate Your Content Process

You’ve no doubt heard the adage work smarter, not harder. In marketing, you can consistently provide value to your customers much more effectively through automation. CRM software makes it easy to automate your email or social media marketing messages. You can also do that while leveraging other platforms to supercharge your strategy. 

Combining your automated email and social media messages with a radio or TV strategy builds awareness. When you combine radio and digital, you not only create awareness, but you maximize reach while reinforcing your message across multiple platforms. Radio and digital give you the ideal strategy for encouraging action by supplementing the awareness ads with the calls to action digital ads provide. Remember that your content must be consistent and of high quality to attract and nurture leads. 

Implement An Effective And Adaptable Marketing Strategy For 2021

The best way to plan for the future is to learn from the past. 2020 showed us that we must stay ready for anything and be prepared to pivot at a moment’s notice. That includes how we plan, communicate, engage, and implement new marketing strategies.  We’ve seen that tough times don’t mean cutting back on advertising but doing it in a smarter and more effective way. It has also become apparent that to be more responsive, we should think of our marketing plans as short bursts or iterations that allow us to get more frequent insight and implement changes. 

A good rule of thumb for effective marketing, no matter what the global circumstances, is keeping your digital presence current, engaging, and responsive to customers’ needs while delivering quality content that inspires action. When customers can’t physically be there, they can stay engaged virtually as long as you provide a good experience for them. Digital marketing is even more effective when partnered with radio, expanding your awareness and reach. 2021 will be a year of change, but one that pivots a return to a new normal.