With the New Year fast approaching, many are asking these questions: which online marketing strategies are worth keeping for my business? Which strategies should I throw away? What’s working? What’s not working?
Likewise, everyone is pumping out what they think will be the New Year’s top trends when it comes to online marketing, whether it’s social, content, or offline. A quick search on Google will demonstrate how gung-ho everyone is to talk about these trends.
You may be wondering: what do we think about these trends? Well, we know that trends tend to come and go, but the best online marketing strategies you ought to use for your business are the ones that are going to last even into next year and beyond. The word ‘evergreen’ does not only apply to web content, it also applies to virtually everything you can think of related to websites and marketing them.
Without further ado, these are the strategies that are going to last into next year—the ones you should be using for your website and business (if not already).
1: Video
With over 2 billion views on Facebook, outdoing the 1.5 billion views on YouTube, video is here to stay as an online marketing strategy. Whether or not video is right for your business (if you’re not sure, we have some advice for you here), you can’t deny video has a huge impact on the way we market ourselves and our businesses.
It’s clear that not every piece of content you ought to create and post to your social media should be a blog post. In the future (starting now, if you can), it’s a good idea for you and/or the staff members on your team who are more comfortable talking to others, or even good at it, to make videos. Doing so will be to your business’s advantage.
2: Mobile usage
Mobile websites are here to stay, and their usage is only increasing exponentially. Approximately 62% of Canadians spend most of their minutes on mobile devices according to a recent study from Smart Insights. That’s a lot of people! For anyone looking to succeed online, especially if they’re selling products, you’d be a fool not to expand your website to mobile!
Get your website optimized for various devices as opposed to only desktop if you haven’t already (we have a few more good reasons as to why you should have a mobile site). Otherwise, consider your business as good as outdated.
Speaking of…
3: Cyber security
With such an alarming rate of both ransomware and hacking news being reported on in the media, you would think business owners were finally smart enough to update their cyber security efforts as well as update their websites, from the most basic plugin to the much-needed backup. Sadly, cyber security is still a huge issue and something viewed as expensive in the mind’s eye of business owners, which means all of the doors are being opened to cybercriminal activity. It also looks like ransomware will continue to be a popular cybercrime in the New Year.
Even something as simple as upgrading your website to a secure SSL web address can deter the most wily hacker—so why not get on the boat with this online marketing trend by claiming your website is secure to customers who need to shop from it? This is one trend that will never be out of date, unlike some trends out there (we’re looking at you, chatbots).
4: Lengthy Content
Did you know that the fact about humans having the same attention span as a goldfish is actually a myth? In fact, you could say it’s one of many misconceptions that has unfortunately lasted throughout the years. It’s about time to challenge this misinformation with a hard core fact: people are in fact reading longer articles, especially on mobile according to a Pew study.
One reason why the goldfish myth may have lasted so long is because of one word that should be hammered into everyone’s head: quality. It is the quality of the article or video, not the length, that’s gotten people reading and viewing longer articles and videos. Keep the word ‘quality’ in your mind every time you want to publish that new blog post or make a new video for your business, because word counts and minutes may change, but quality is evergreen. It’s forever.
5: A Darn Good Website!
Yep, having a website is and will always be your best online marketing strategy. If you want any chance of standing out in your industry or want to find new and returning customers, having a website in the first place that is optimized and designed beautifully will always be your best option. We still meet people who think having a website is a waste of time and money. It’s not. It’s really not.
Don’t wait to have any of these strategies in place. Make now the time to do so—especially your website. Contact us at V3 Media and we can not only build you a great website, but also we’re happy to consult with you on any and all of these strategies if you want a professional’s input.