2020 has provided a great deal of food for thought in many ways, not least within the marketing community. All marketing efforts including social media marketing, digital marketing and content marketing have been shaken up in the past year. Many businesses are setting their sights on 2021 and what lies ahead with a renewed sense of determination and cautious optimism, but in order to make the most of the potential a new year brings, assessment and agility are the two watchwords to keep front of mind.

Reconnect with your business, your brand, and what it means to your audience by going back to basics in order to deliver compelling and relevant marketing. Here are a few of our marketing tips for 2021.

New year, new approach?

One of the greatest challenges for marketing decision makers in 2021 will be uncertainty and limited budgets. However, this provides the opportunity to challenge previously accepted practices. Accessing and analysing engagement metrics wherever possible will help you to achieve measurable business outcomes that deliver a solid return on investment.

Utilising data to its best effect will support reflection on fundamental questions such as what services you offer, why you do what you do, how you deliver your services and who your competitors are. These questions allow you to evaluate whether the business’s ethos and pillars that underpin the brand are fit for purpose moving forwards.

Connect with customers and clients

2021 also provides a valuable opportunity to re-evaluate assumptions of how customers behave by revisiting activities like user research or customer journey mapping. Keep track of changes in your audience’s behaviour that influence their spending mindsets. The rise in adoption of ‘buy now, pay later’ and increased uptakes in price comparison sites are just a few of the current trends in eCommerce identified in Econsultancy’s report for the last quarter of 2020.

Who do you sell to? What are their needs and expectations? How do you talk to them? Identify clear audience segments and client personas for the groups of audiences who interact with your business, and refine them if they already exist.

One of the key takeaways from these marketing tips for 2021 should be that all marketing activity should be tailored with a specific target audience in mind.

Speak their language

It is vitally important to continue engaging with your external stakeholders and carry out regular insight activities. What do they think of your brand? Do you deliver what you say you will? This insight will allow you to really get to know your audience segments, their needs, expectations and the ways in which they want to be communicated to.

The increasing prevalence of eCommerce and working remotely has allowed many organisations to identify key gaps that need to be addressed in order to create a frictionless experience for employees and customers.

Summary

So, what marketing lessons can we take away from 2020? Perhaps most importantly, once lockdowns in their current form become a thing of the past, it is highly likely that there will be an increase in demand for in-person experiences, albeit with an emphasis on hygiene and safety. With online shopping in ascendancy and the ability to order the vast majority of items online to be delivered in a matter of days, creating experiences in-store has to be a priority in order to remain competitive.

In addition, being able to communicate with customers on a human level rather to keep them up to date with rapid changes has revealed an honesty that many consumers value, particularly in their local SMEs. Particularly in the light of the hugely important debates sparked over summer concerning diversity and social responsibility, which in turns contributes to building up your audience as brand advocates.

Injecting a ‘real’ element into your marketing communications and nurturing the relationships with your customers will be key to retaining their loyalty in the new year. We hope that your business will be able to implement some of these marketing tips for 2021: from all at Mackman, we wish you a happy and prosperous new year.

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