The pandemic has forced virtually every industry to evolve, and few have changed more quickly or dramatically than digital marketing. Entirely new platforms have arisen (e.g. TikTok and Clubhouse), cultural shifts have altered the conversation, and new rules surrounding data privacy are making themselves felt through legal standards as well as technical ones, such as Apple’s shift toward user empowerment.

Success in this new, highly competitive market landscape means re-evaluating traditional marketing strategies and adapting them to the latest trends. The following effective strategies from our digital marketing agency in Thailand can boost your brand’s social media presence in 2021.

1. Use data to improve the customer experience

With the right tools in place, businesses can turn user and customer data into added profits. From predictive analytics to consumer behaviour, companies now have the capacity to regularly store, capture, and analyze large amounts of quantitative and qualitative data from their customer base. Optimal marketing strategies therefore depend on the collection and application of such data.

Yet recent privacy initiatives mean that this data collection can no longer be taken for granted. Businesses must therefore demonstrate to their customers that handing over their data is a win-win situation. Improved user experience, personalized service, tailored promotions, and other perks associated with data collection can inspire this type of trust, as well as the loyalty that comes with true customer satisfaction.

Once collected, however, user data must be organized and managed in a sensible way. Data quality is a measure of how accurate, consistent, and useful your data is. To evaluate data quality, businesses can regularly check for correlations in the data they have received from different sources. The next step is to determine which data is truly relevant to your organization’s bottom line, and make decisions accordingly.

Ultimately, what customer data truly offers is a way to better understand customers’ needs and demands. By analyzing customer data, you can modify your digital presence, goods, or services to fit the current market landscape. Perhaps the most important part of the customer journey lies in personalization. The ability to accurately understand each customer’s individual preferences lets you create customized promotions for increased sales.

2. Embrace inclusive marketing to expand your customer base

Inclusive marketing is all about adapting your campaigns to include people from underrepresented groups. In the context of digital marketing, such initiatives may involve making your website accessible to people whose disabilities prevent them from clearly seeing certain page elements or properly navigating the site (the right website design agency in Bangkok can help with that).

Including these groups in your marketing can expand your target audience, while also demonstrating a sense of social responsibility for your business. Such efforts correspond to widely shared values; 53% of people say they want brands to actively make a positive change in the world.

Companies should also take care to make their communications and online presence welcoming to elderly audiences. As a result of the pandemic, baby boomers are spending more time on social media than ever, yet marketers often overlook this valuable group in favor of younger demographics. A sensitive and inclusive marketing approach can make the most out of boomers’ growing enthusiasm for social media, thereby expanding the business’s own customer base. 

3. Integrate cross-channel marketing

The number of platforms (and devices) consumers use to make a purchasing decision is rapidly increasing. Customers routinely discover products on social media, but then do an additional Google search before buying the items that interest them.

The lesson for businesses is that they need to be visible everywhere in the digital space. Reaching the highest potential audience means diversifying your content across multiple channels. This strategy allows for greater audience retention, by ensuring that your brand remains in front of your customers’ eyes as often as possible.

Cross-channel marketing ensures that customers experience satisfying and consistent interactions with your brand across multiple channels. The key to an effective cross-channel marketing strategy lies in learning lessons from your various marketing campaigns, and interweaving them smoothly to create an ideal customer experience. Although your campaigns must reflect essentially the same message throughout different channels, complementary approaches tend to deliver the best results. For example, your social media strategy should support your website strategy and vice versa. 

Of course, our social media marketing agency in Thailand can help guide you through this process. 

All strategy is adaptation

Marketing innovation is a never-ending process. As Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent that will survive, but those who can best manage change.”

Although the lessons outlined above offer valuable guidance for businesses in 2021, the future will surely bring new twists and turns requiring additional adaptation. Indeed, the way forward involves no single roadmap or one-size-fits-all solution, which is what makes digital marketing such an exciting industry.

Our creative agency in Bangkok provides the resources and expertise needed to optimize your digital marketing for the present moment, while also helping you prepare for the road ahead. To connect with your customers on social media and throughout the digital world, contact us today.