Emerging Marketing Techniques to Shape Your Business in the Digital Marketplace

According to statistics, over 4 million people have access to the internet today. That is the potential of the digital marketplace. As a business, you have the opportunity to advertise your product to billions, to say the least.

You do not have to dole out millions of dollars either. Digital Marketing offers cost-effective and efficient techniques to ensure that your goods and services reaches the intended target audience.

As the world settled within their homes due to Covid-19, online sales grew enormously in comparison to the pre-pandemic years. Businesses scrambled to manage the huge sales demands, delivery and the entire gamut associated with supply chain management.

Two years later, as the world starts to venture out of their homes again, businesses have to adjust again to the changing customer buying patterns. Businesses, therefore, must constantly evaluate their marketing strategies in the changing marketplace to remain profitable.

Here are some of the emerging marketing techniques that will play a key role in shaping your business in the digital marketplace.

Customer Experiences

Customer experiences can make or break a business. As more and more people use the mobile phone to access the internet, businesses have to ensure that they have a solid online presence. Again, just being visible online will not be enough.

Users are increasingly turning to their mobile phones to make local searches. That means, business websites must show up without distortions on screens of various sizes. Websites are therefore designed using the responsive technology, which makes it possible for businesses to harness the power of fluid design.

The website design must keep ease of navigation in mind. As most people use their mobile phones to check out websites, the design must be simple and smart. For example, scroll bars are hard to control in a mobile phone screen and, if possible, may be avoided.

Graphics are important for the website as they can appeal to the user in an instant. The graphics should be designed to help keep the focus on the brand. They should be attractive and must evoke appropriate emotions and drive the customer to buy goods or services.

A positive user experience has higher chances of conversion. If your customers are satisfied with the UX design, your business will witness growth.

Content Creation Tools

Content will continue to play a pivotal role in emerging marketing techniques in the digital marketplace. Whether you are in sales or training, content marketing will be an important part of your agenda. And content creators are constantly working to make content that is relevant, creative and engaging for the targeted audience.

Content creation tools allow the users to create content that is relevant to the latest trends. The editorial reviews are much easier and faster with content creation tools. The following content creation tools will remain in demand to create content faster in the emerging digital markets:

• Google Trends
• Hemmingway
• Grammarly
• Trello
• Canva
• Sigstr

One good news for content creators is BERT, a Google AI program that makes it unnecessary for writers to keep keyword density in mind to make the content visible to Google. Now content writers can offer a unique user experience for their audience and let Google’s artificial intelligence understand the context.

Cryptocurrency

A few years ago, cryptocurrency was in its nascent stage and at that time, no one could possibly predict the popularity it has gained today. Cryptocurrency is a digital form of money that can be used to trade and uses cryptography to make secure transactions.

It does not rely on banks and it is a peer-to-peer transaction system. Any transaction done with cryptocurrency is recorded in public ledgers. It is estimated that 30 billion dollars were invested in some form of cryptocurrency in the year 2021.

Cryptocurrency being the new cool thing in town, millennials are rushing to invest in the various crypto investment platforms. On the other hand, crypto investment platforms are enticing potential clients with offers and discounts to create awareness of their brand. It is only a matter of time before cryptocurrency will be used to buy groceries or to order food.

Cryptocurrency is one the most interesting emerging marketing techniques to watch out for in the digital marketplace that will shape your business.

Push Notifications

Push messages are direct short messages sent by mobile applications to the mobile device. These messages are similar to status updates, or a call-to-action to prompt the user to take action. Push notifications occur in real time and have a higher engagement rate than email marketing.

While email marketing involves sending bulk messages to subscriber emails, there is no guarantee that the email will be read or when. On the other hand, notifications light up the mobile screen as soon as they arrive and it is impossible for the user to not see them.

Push notifications may prompt the user to take action on a particular item. For instance, a store app may prompt the user to complete the shopping cart and get discounts.

When strategically used for digital marketing, the always-on feature of push notifications works effectively to create conversions and sales. Push notifications are a low cost digital marketing trend that is here to stay for many years.

Video Marketing

It is extremely difficult to fit all of the text content in a website so that it shows up nicely in the mobile phone screen as the real estate is really scarce. If the text is long, the user may simply not scroll down as it is quite inconvenient to do so in mobile devices. On the other hand, if the content is provided in video, it makes for a more engaging viewing and therefore keeps the customer on your website longer.

According to statistics, a website that has a video will bring in about 50 per cent more organic results as compared to plain text. Simply creating a video will not be enough. The video must not be too long and must be original and include captivating special effects or animation.

Online training and educational videos are quite popular with people and your website should include one if possible. Videos that show virtual events are extremely popular and during the pandemic, virtual events were literally the only safe option.

Shorts or Reels

While videos make for a great way of presenting content before potential customers, they may not necessarily be the most effective.

As attention spans get shorter, the videos have to become crispier, snappier and more interesting than before. Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts are some of the most trending today after TikTok was banned in several countries. A normal video cannot garner the same engagement rates as the reels or shorts.

In addition, Instagram Reels offers insights features that allows owners to track the performance and make an analysis of the short videos. As a digital marketer you can use reels or shorts to create informative content, product reviews and other content to engage your audience.

Creating effective Instagram Reels and YouTube short video content will remain near the top of the list of emerging marketing techniques to shape your business in the ever-changing digital marketplace.

Location Based Marketing

Technically known as geofencing, location based marketing uses a software application based on RFID, GPS, Wi-fi, or cellular data to create strategic marketing solutions targeting customers at a particular location using text, social media, email or push notifications.

The marketing strategy is active within the boundaries of geofence and cannot be extended to devices beyond it.

For example, a café may advertise drinks and discounts to people close to its shop in a mall through a push notification.

It has been observed that 53 per cent of shoppers visit a retail chain after receiving a location based message. Geofencing can increase customer engagement and is fast gaining popularity among emerging marketing techniques as an effective marketing strategy.

Chatbots

Chatbots still remain a popular method for businesses to interact and engage with potential customers. The chatbot uses artificial intelligence to talk to the potential customers and direct them to a positive conclusion of the session.

Chatbots can handle hundreds of users at the same time and businesses can benefit from offering a 24/7 customer service, answers to simple questions or instant responses to customer inquiries. Chatbots can communicate with prospective customers through text or voice messages, as preferred by the customer.

In a majority of the cases, customers require basic information that a chatbot can provide effectively. This reduces the cost of hiring manpower for a business for repetitive tasks. Instead, they can use their resources on core internal processes and increase their productivity.

Conclusion

The digital marketplace is very dynamic and changes according to new advances in technology, etc. For example, with the emergence of smart speakers, voice searches became a big opportunity to cash in.

Today, the digital economy has no boundaries and businesses can advertise to customers at the far side of the world with ease. At the same time, marketplaces come with their own set of challenges in the international arena such as payment and logistics.

However, businesses can no longer stay local and must remain updated on the latest emerging marketing techniques to stay competitive and achieve growth.

About the Author!

Riya Roy is a technical content writer at Agdova Technologies. She carries expertise and a flair for writing on Management Consulting, Software & Analytics and Digital Media. Apart from distilling her technical ideas into creating innovative solutions, she is a practitioner of Electric guitar.