Online marketing is a dog eat dog world. Only the tough survive in the competitive market of digital advertising. Therefore, it requires innovative strategy and precise implementation to successfully meet the end goal: sales.
However, the online marketing world is continually changing and evolving with new methods and tactics that shift the effectiveness of former strategies. What is working today might not work tomorrow. This is being said to encourage out-of-the-box thinking. Today’s consumers are constantly seeking more entertainment and engagement from marketing materials and ads. This translates into businesses needing dynamic marketing strategies that prioritize the consumer experience, compared to just pushing their product or service.
The advancements of technology have allowed marketers to create an everyday arsenal of marketing strategies that push forward both the advertising experience, but also the ROI with each tactic. Now, more than ever, marketing strategies can be labeled with a success rate and an exact cost with each business — making marketing just as much about analytics as it is about creatives.
“Marketing is no longer just good design and placement. Consumers are smart and picky. They buy because they have received some type of experience with an ad, which could be education, entertainment, or enjoyment-related. These motivators lead to sales. This means that marketing strategies in 2020 and beyond must deliver an ad experience, not just an ad impression. Consumers can tell the difference.”
– Zach Shaw, Venta Marketing Content Creation Specialist
Here are three online marketing strategies (broadly) working right now.
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising has quickly risen through the ranks of the marketing world and is now considered the golden child. Programmatic is inventive, intuitive, and flexible. It allows marketers to meet consumers wherever they digitally live. From streaming services like Hulu to Instagram Feeds to specific website domains like The New York Times — buying ad space that gets in front of your target audience has never been easier. With the ability to act like a filter, programmatic advertising only displays your ads to people who fit your specified consumer profile — thus, in theory, increasing your ROI.
Organic Social Media
Instagram reigns king of social media, especially in terms of younger generations. The Facebook-owned platform capitalizes on two important components in today’s marketing environment: photos and video. People LOVE attractive, sexy, interesting imagery. It’s almost an addiction that today’s consumer market has. People will follow and engage with brands strictly for their social media presence whether that is for education, entertainment, or enjoyment. Look, organic social media is a slow burn — success and sales aren’t going to bloom overnight. However, the strategy does possess the “snowball effect” where traction compounds and once growth starts it builds on top of itself. Organic social media channels on Instagram and Facebook can become sizable avenues for lead generation and sales. Organic social media best shines as a leader in brand awareness campaigns and expanding your company reach. Due to the lack of cost, this marketing strategy produces a high ROI and accomplishes important aspects of any marketing campaign.
Video Ads
At this point, it is no secret that video marketing receives the highest rate of engagement of any other type of content marketing. There is something about video that clicks with consumers, whether it is the passive nature of absorbing the information or the enhanced degree of viewer engagement. Video ads can work on nearly any platform, social media, emails, programmatic, etc. The versatility of this method gives marketers the ability to create ads for the right audiences on the right mediums. Due to the high rate of engagement, video ads see more likes, comments, and shares — leading to more impressions. Video is dynamic and helps move leads through the sales funnels from generation to nurturing to closure.