In 2019, Americans spent an average of more than 6 hours per day online. Worldwide that average was closer to 7 hours. When you consider 2020’s unique circumstances — COVID-19 shutdowns, quarantines, and work-from-home orders — those stats have likely increased. To effectively reach the people you want to and motivate them to act (whether that be to recognize your brand, sign up for your newsletter or buy your product or service), your digital marketing strategy better be on point. Now, more than ever, that means you must think “people first.”
Why “People First” Is A Nonnegotiable
Success in any business requires identifying your audience and providing what they need in a way that’s better than your competition’s. Doing this digitally means understanding who your specific target audience is, including their wants, needs and pain points, and then designing all of your online marketing efforts with those people in mind. “People first” truly is about relationship-building. Doing this, and doing it well, can help you grab and keep consumers’ attention and ultimately drive more conversions.
If your digital marketing efforts are not created with a “people first” mentality, they’ll come off as cookie cutter, impersonal, forgettable, and possibly ineffective. No business owner wants to throw away marketing dollars, right?
As you begin your 2021 digital marketing plan, consider the following ways to continue personalizing your strategy.
1. Design everything with search intent in mind.
If you add nothing else to your 2021 digital marketing strategy, prioritizing search intent is a must. Search intent is the reason behind someone’s search engine query. Is the searcher researching a product, brand, or service? Hoping for a free estimate? Looking to purchase today? Understanding search intent and creating content that answers it should be top of your to-do list.
How can you optimize for search intent?
- Pay attention to (and borrow plays from) search results and top-ranking pages in your market. If other brands are successfully doing something, maybe you should consider your own take.
- Create content that makes sense. Should you include an FAQ page to better position you as an expert? Do you have products on your site you could tailor to an e-commerce category page?
- Basically, make it your mission to give searchers the information they’re looking for!
2. Keep User Experience (UX) top of mind.
User experience comes down to web usability. This includes things like load time, ease of use, and how interactive a web page or website is. Basically, if your site delivers a poor or unreliable performance, users will leave and not return. Optimizing for user experience is key — creating a digital environment that is user-friendly, secure, and fast will keep people on your site to learn more about you and hopefully become a customer.
To optimize for UX, make sure your content is well designed, particularly for mobile devices, and test everything regularly. Site audits can flag issues that negatively affect UX, so try to run one monthly.
3. Bonus: Optimize videos for sound-off (add subtitles!)
This tip isn’t as all-encompassing as 1 or 2, but it’s a simple task with the potential for a big payoff. A majority of people watch videos on Facebook with the sound off. This could be because they’re in public, at work, or scrolling on their phone while watching TV (guilty!). Optimizing your videos for both sound-on and sound-off leads to better engagement and accessibility for your users. Users will be more likely to watch a subtitled video to the end, so it seems like a win-win.
Try incorporating these tips into your 2021 digital marketing strategy, and don’t hesitate to contact us at info@dunelandmedia.com if we can help you better design your online presence “people first.”
