Elevate: What’s Up in Digital Q4 2020

Posted on November 19, 2020

Our webinars are designed to educate, inspire, and keep you current with everything going on in the digital marketing world. Topics will change each quarter, keeping the conversation interesting and timely. Read below for a full recap of our Q4 webinar.

Pay-Per-Click

Looking Back at 2020

Longer Buying Cycles
B2B is notorious for longer buying cycles, but in 2020 we noticed that purchases were really becoming more scrutinized and purchasers were spending more time researching. What we heard from our clients was that there was still interest, but no conversions early on. The main thing to remember about the longer buying cycle is having that content that will cater to people in any area of the cycle, and providing quality content for each.

YouTube Interest Increases
YouTube exploded during the pandemic – people really started turning to video for instruction more than ever before. Daily views on YouTube after March 15th grew by 500%. More viewers = bigger opportunity for advertising. Pro tip: don’t worry about investing in high production videos, the lower production more casual videos are more relatable.

A Revisit to Remarketing
Due to the longer buying cycles overall, one of the key things to turn to was remarketing. It was so important to stay in front of those people and make your brand stand out as much as possible against the competition.

Looking ahead to 2021

• Permanent adoption of new resources
• Youtube, Google Shopping, GMB attributes
• Continued focus on small to medium-size businesses
• Credits/incentives, new features
• Voice search, voice search, VOICE SEARCH
• Audience segmentation
• B2B demos, additional in-market categories, custom options

Social Media

Looking Back at 2020

COVID-19 changed social media behavior across the board. Businesses were really put in the spotlight for not only their company culture but also the morals their businesses have and if they wanted to have a voice in what’s going on right now or not.

Platforms really cracked down on the spread of misinformation. It became even more important to fact check to make sure information was accurate.

Facebook ad spending saw a major decrease throughout 2020. Money is tight right now, so companies really found creative ways to advertise at a lower cost.

Video content on social media became a much higher priority than ever before. Like we mentioned before, it doesn’t have to be high-production and expensive – it can be more casual like a Facebook live video or something shot on your phone. People often enjoy and find those types of videos to be more relatable.

Looking Ahead to 2021

Marketing will be more socially conscious than ever before. Always keep in mind what is going on in the world and be sensitive to those feelings and emotions.
Brands will be using more nostalgic marketing to connect with audiences. A lot more people are on social media now that many people are working from home.
Businesses will need to protect themselves from memetic marketing. Overall, just be careful with your messaging and strategy.
Engagement will continue to be a top KPI in 2021. Remember to make it a point to report on engagement and pay attention to that instead of follower counts or the more “superficial metrics”.

SEO

Looking Back at 2020

Google Core Updates: Google is always making changes to their system and unfortunately they don’t ever tell you what they’re changing, even after they’ve made the changes. Businesses categories that saw the biggest changes in their ranking include travel, finance, health and sports, and entertainment industries. In May, we really saw big changes for the listing-type pages – think Angie’s List, Yelp, and other listing pages.

We really saw a lot more emphasis on local SEO. More prominent reviews, quote requests right on local service ads, local-service attributes, and things like secondary hours, etc. We’re sure you’ve noticed the checkmarks on the local listing pages for things like dine-in or carry-out etc.

Real Example:
One thing that we noticed with several of our clients this year was a lower search volume for the bottom of the funnel keywords. Traffic did seem to remain steady, but with lower conversion rates. At this point, things seem to have leveled off a bit and are back to “normal”.

Looking Ahead to 2021

Focus on quality content with the EAT Principle in mind: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. If you would like more information on this, we wrote a blog post that dives into more details that you can find here.

Always look for the voice search opportunities, but also on the other side of that – you should be always using data to drive your direction. Some tools that are helpful include SEM Rush, Moz, and Google Search Console.

Don’t forget to be ready to adapt. Always be thinking about how you can get into new target industries or focus on new products and/or services. There could be some really great opportunities hiding that you can take advantage of.

Budget & Strategic Planning in 2021

Looking Back at 2020 – Trends to Note:

• Longer buying cycles
• eCommerce
• Human interaction & Company Culture
• An uptick in research-based query – increasing need for quality content
• Stay on your toes!

Looking Ahead to 2021

There are a few things that we think will be the biggest trends, that should be pretty fool-proof for the upcoming year.

Cross-channel strategy. Lean into that longer buying cycle. In the past 15 years, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of touchpoints someone takes before actually becoming a converted buyer (often 6 or more touchpoints.) Think about where you can leverage your content based on where your customer will be and use those to your advantage. Consistency is key, with 90% of customers expecting consistent interaction across all channels.

Focus on the top of the funnel awareness stage and keep your content quality high. Really take the time to do the research to find out what your customers are truly looking for. Look at the trends, the sales calls, and generate what you think your customers are in need of during the research process.

Agility and Flexibility. In 2020, 74% of marketers said they changed their strategy in order to pivot. It’s extremely important to create a marketing plan that is flexible and keep an eye on emerging trends and technologies. When we say that the video trend is here to stay – it might be a good time to dive into video.

Making the Most of Your Budget

• Brand building
• Know your competition
• Activate existing clients
• Strategic content

Questions to Ask as You Prepare Budgets

• What’s failing? What’s working?
• What costs the least and brings the best return?
• What campaigns and channels are high cost?
• What brings the most conversions, regardless of cost?
• What is the average customer lifetime value?
• How much am I spending on each digital channel?

What you can’t measure, you can’t improve.

In closing, we would like to invite anyone who is interested to meet with Anne for a virtual 1:1 on strategic planning for 2021. Click here for more information.

If you have questions on any of the topics discussed in our presentation, please let us know. We’re always happy to help!