Looking Forward To 2021
Last week, much of the discussion centered on recent unrest surrounding the recent Election and upcoming Inauguration of former Vice-President Joe Biden. If you missed that newsletter, you can check it out in the archive on SirusDigital.com here. (Link)
Today, we are looking ahead to things on the horizon and, more importantly, what we can do!
This week’s main post focuses on marketing topics as we enter 2021. Most companies have finished (or are completing) their budgets and goals for the quarter and year. If you or your company have not yet, be on the lookout for a new video on my YouTube channel dropping later this week. One of the segments will focus on goal-setting & budgeting.
Note: One of the “extra” videos that I linked in this newsletter is a recording of Gary Vaynerchuk from 2019’s Digital Agency Expo entitled: “50 Minutes of Marketing Strategy That You Can Use Today” (Link). I have watched that video more than once and gotten value each time!
Culturally & politically, there is more disagreement and disruption still to come. How we interact and build relationships in this new environment is at its infancy! While the change seems monumental when viewed through the lens of “where we were”, these are just the earliest stages when considered for “where we could be”.
For a sampling of changes that could come, we need to look no further than topics of Politics & Faith.
Consider:
Politically, at a time when messaging is more “democratically-available” than ever, both American political parties are warring over an ever-shrinking group of allegedly “undecided” voters whom they believe will enable them to ascend to a position of perpetual power.
However, if true:
- Why are both parties (striving for that mythical “Centrist”) becoming more the captive of their most-fringe elements to the point that they risk an implosion?
- Equally, what is the likelihood that any decision by these Undecideds (in our current political climate) could be deemed “permanent”?
From a Faith perspective, we are in a time with the greatest opportunity to share a message of Hope and Forgiveness from a Savior who left Heaven to bring us back to Him. However, many of us in the best position to share that story seem consumed by anger and petty grievances more so than ever.
At the moment where we could live that story in front of the world free of a hindrance:
- Why are we so focused on arguing with the disinterested and those who have chosen to reject instead of speaking through Love to the receptive?
- Why in an era unbounded by buildings and borders are we more worried about the colors of the furniture & curtains?
The great news in all of this is that we have the opportunity to change it! While today’s pace of change is something difficult to adapt to, it offers us the chance to influence our community, region, nation, and world to a greater extent than has existed before.
All it take is to stand and say ‘Yes’! Do it with a smile this week!
P.S. Congratulations to my Atlanta Falcons on the hiring of their next coach, Arthur Smith! Transparently, he might not have been my first choice, but having been invited to participate in none of the analysis or interviews with any of the candidates, my vote carried little weight! 🙂
As to whether it was a “good” or “bad” choice, that will not be determined until we see who is hired as GM (I expect it to be Fontenot from the Saints), the coaching staff, and what the new leadership group does with their roster & the 2021 NFL Draft.
Today’s “Hot Takes” from the Twitterverse would be better described as “Hot Air”!
I did a series of videos reading & reviewing Seth Godin’s blog posts from 2002. It’s amazing how relevant the topics are now-nearly two decades later!
This is Episode 02 covering selected posts from February 2002.
Five New (or Continuing) Marketing Trends for 2021
Relationships are required
As noted in the quote above, a challenge facing businesses today is the hyper-competitive environment combined with the ready-availability of automation enabling communication. We cannot debate how easy it is to create and enable this automation. The problem that arises is there is little focus on building relationships with audiences, prospects, or customers. It is simply easier to set up bots to email, call, text, or IM at the first signal of a connection than it is to develop an authentic relationship with them.
Unfortunately, while automated responses and engagements might be sufficient for intent-based situations (i.e. Google Search Results or Google Search Ads), they are more widely seen in interrupt-based advertising.
The result is numerous computerized interactions with prospects at times when they are neither interested nor engaged! If you want to know the formula for stagnant businesses that start quickly, but struggle to grow or scale, look no further than business models predicated on cheap interrupt-based advertising (i.e. social media, interstitial videos, etc) tied to automated funnels and blanket messaging.
This is frankly the business equivalent of walking into a bar proposing marriage to every person you meet! Don’t do it!
We must have an All-In perspective for Marketing
The alternate strategy followed by many businesses is focusing all attention and budget on a small set of platforms (or sometimes only one). Different avenues and platforms require different techniques. They also engage with your audience in different ways.
Some like SEO, Google Ads, etc. attract attention based upon interest. When a user searches for a specific topic, we can be assured that they have an immediate need or want. Quick, convenient responses that acknowledge and satisfy expectations ensure that you are “striking while the iron is hottest”. Later phone or email follow-up contacts are frankly a waste of your (and their) time.
Others like Facebook Ads, Retargeting Ads (FB, YT, etc), email marketing, etc. are interrupting the user’s flow in the hopes of attracting those who might have some interest. Deep knowledge of customer attributes and skill identifying potential prospects with similar characteristics to your current ones can help scale growth at more-reasonable acquisition costs.
Overall, our marketing plans and budgets need to include multiple platforms and mediums. To successfully grow and scale cost-effectively requires developing a wide branding and sales-based approach.
Note: Recent events also highlight the negative risk of focusing on single approaches or platforms. Few things can negatively impact a business more than a platform ban or similar immediate impact situation where most (or all) of the businesses marketing efforts are singularly focused.
Voice Search will only grow
Voice Search accounted for nearly 50% in 2020. That number is only expected to grow in 2021 and it highlights other associated realities.
Search rankings (and specifically how “high” you rank) are more important than ever! While it was recently “enough” to be on Page One, there is now a marked business need to be in or near Rank One in the era of Voice Search.
In 2020 or before, results in the top 3 of search engines usually got 40-50% of all traffic. It’s been said that the “best place to hide a dead body is on Page 2 of Google”!
With Voice, it is more important than ever. As such, techniques involving SEO and content development (topical & locally-focused) are requirements to compete.
Messaging will continue to supplant Phone (or Email)
Phone calls have gone the way of email for many in our audiences. Calls, by their nature, are an interrupt because the caller is calling on their schedule; not the recipient’s.
Businesses that can best engage, satisfy, and close using disconnected interactions like text-messaging are poised for the fastest growth in our current environment.
Along these ends, a smaller, excited community with whom you build a deep messaging relationship will soon be more valuable than larger, “associations” that lack a connection to your brand and story.
Focus on Marginal Gains
There are simply very few “hacks” or techniques that will produce long term results. There are even fewer that will produce them will “little effort”.
To become successful, we have to invest time and resources! Doing so, we have to focus on small actions that produce positive marginal results.
My newsletter from January 4th (link here) highlighted this idea of marginal improvements and the long-term successes they promote.
(Extra Credit) Don't Ignore Local
Successful businesses will need to directly budget some percentage of their marketing spend toward uniquely local sales and branding. While that percentage might vary, the important aspect is that businesses develop a specifically local message for prospects and customers.
While it may be possible to build an entirely locally-targeted business, it will quickly become financially and operationally difficult to grow exclusively to wide, non-local audiences. Costs to connect and fulfill will stymie growth and profitability.
For ideas on adding location-focused marketing, check out these YouTube videos created for our three primary groups:
For those checking out the book reviews, I finished The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. My post of notes from the book is complete. You can check it out on my blog at this link.
If you would like to read along, I will be starting Content Inc. by Joe Pulizzi soon.
Note: Book links are Amazon affiliate links.
Other Links
Expert Local SEO Predictions for 2021
As mentioned among the 2021 Marketing Trends above, Local SEO, Google My Business, and Google Local Service Ads are poised to be an even bigger topic for business consideration. While high-speed internet and video conferencing have enabled interaction on a global scale, the value of trust and accessibility on a personal level is greater today.
At the same time, skill and knowledge-focused businesses can interact remotely, developing a local audience of prospects & customers as a segment of your business is invaluable for long-term relationship-building and retention.
How To Build Reviews on Google My Business
Five Common Google My Business Problems
Scaling Facebook Ads for More Leads & Sales
Due to the platform’s audience size, Facebook needs to be within our marketing mix. Even though costs have risen, it still offers a cost-effective interrupt-based advertising medium for both attracting new prospects and retargeting those with whom we have already engaged.
Social Media Marketing for Businesses
E.P.I.C Challenge (from Scalable.co)
Roland Fraiser of Scalable.co is an entrepreneur and business aggregator. Unlike those who focus on starting businesses, Fraiser’s attention is targeted to acquiring existing businesses (often at a discount), growing them, and reselling them for a profit. He runs this challenge often where he shares some of his techniques with the hopes of motivating others to do it as well.
Personal Branding: The key to success in the digital age
One’s personal brand has possibly never been more valuable! Some would say that the market is evolving to the point where our most successful people no longer just “do what they do”, but they run a media company promoting themselves and what they do.
Niche-focused
Eight Ways to Utilize Instagram for Lending
If you are in the mortgage/lending services business, check out and try these ideas for using Instagram to promote yourself, your business, and close more loans. As another platform entity owned by Facebook, its trajectory (both in the audience as well as effectiveness) is likely to track its parent in the foreseeable future.
In-house Marketing Consultants for Small-Medium-sized Legal Offices
Marketing is a large expense (especially for small-to-medium-sized legal offices). As difficult as it is to competitively deliver service for clients with some of the larger firms, it is even more challenging to market against them competitively.
If you’d like to discuss your options between having in-house staff versus an agency handle this on your behalf, let me know. If there is a way we can help (either strategically or from an implementation standpoint), we’d love to chat with you.
