With every new year, there are new trends and opportunities to capitalize in order to help your business grow. However, with businesses increasingly focusing their marketing efforts online—in part due to the pandemic—it’s more important than ever that you find ways to make your company stand out online.
To help you start the new year off on the right foot, here are 6 digital marketing tactics you can employ to outrank your competitors in 2021:
#1. Diversify Your Keyword Targets
In highly saturated markets, it can be exceptionally difficult to outrank your competitors—especially if you’re all using the same high-level keywords. One of the first things you’ll want to look at when you’re updating your digital marketing strategy this year is how you can diversify your keyword targets.
While you don’t want to abandon quintessential high-level keywords all together, finding long-tail keywords that are more specific to your business in addition to these high-level keyword targets is recommended. Take the time to research new niche keywords that you can use to separate yourself from competitors in the search results and draw in unique traffic.
Look for keywords that are underserved—where search results leave users wanting. Is there an answer box already? Does it answer the user’s question/intent? Are the search results a good match? By asking these questions and finding opportunities to meet users’ needs, you can increase traffic to your site.
Here’s a real world example to consider. For background check companies, terms like “background check services” and “what is a background check” are obviously going to be highly targeted by every business in that industry. However, a long-tail keyword like “FCRA compliance for background check” may provide an opportunity to capitalize on a lack of information. You’ll see many companies leveraging these opportunities in their blog, like the example below.
Source: ShareAble for Hires
Note that many keyword research tools have features that allow you to see what potential competitors are targeting the same keywords.
#2. Continue to Invest in Content Marketing
Content marketing is increasingly important year over year, and 2021 is no different. If you haven’t already made content marketing a critical component of your digital marketing strategy, you are doing your business a serious disservice. And, even if you are investing in content, there’s no better time than the present to revisit your strategy and make some improvements to stay ahead of the competition.
While choosing the right keywords is an essential part of high-ranking content, it’s not the only thing that matters. As more businesses jump on the content marketing train, your content needs to be bigger and better to outrank competitors.
If you don’t have an internal content team, make sure to set aside an ample monthly budget for content creation. On that note, always focus on quality over quantity. Creating a few pieces of good content per month will go a lot further than throwing up a bunch of grammar-error-ridden, virtually pointless content. Your focus should be on investing in content that is engaging and useful to your reader—otherwise you’re basically throwing money away because Google takes content quality seriously.
Keep in mind that content marketing isn’t about seeing overnight results of drastically increased traffic. Instead it is part of the long-game of generating traffic, creating loyal brand followers who find real value in your content and consider your business a trusted resource (and hopefully a potential solution to their problem), and driving consumers toward conversion.
#3. Engage in Social Media Marketing
While the popularity of certain social media apps changes from year-to-year, there’s no denying that they’re an important part of your online presence—and a ranking factor that Google considers. This is especially vital in 2021 as people are spending more time at home and online due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Some businesses struggle to find the resources or willpower to stay on top of their social media marketing efforts, but it’s important that you do. Google takes shares, like, followers, and other factors into account when ranking your brand.
So, what should you focus on to leverage social media marketing in your favor? Focus on sharing all that amazing content you’ve been creating, take the time to engage with your followers, and capitalize on trends when you can. If you haven’t put enough time and energy into your social media marketing before, there’s no time like the present to take advantage of this captive audience.
According to Hootsuite, over 4 billion people are on social media now—with 2 million more joining every day—so no matter what your niche is, you’re sure to find a captive audience if you seek it out.
#4. Revisit Your Website Design
As with anything else, we see trends come and go when it comes to what people respond to in web design. What was appealing and user-friendly a few years ago, doesn’t necessarily meet web users’ standards today. If it’s been a while since you’ve revisited your website design, now may be a good time to do so.
Research the web design trends for 2021 and compare how they stack up to your current website. Some of the most prominent trends as far as aesthetics go are black backgrounds (similar to how dark mode has become popular), brighter colors (even neons) for text and graphic elements, floating imagery and other components, and much more.
It’s not just about updating to fit trends. You should also take this opportunity to identify any user experience issues that may be present. A slow loading time on a page, overly complex navigation, or broken links can all deter potential customers.
#5. Optimize Content for Voice Search
From Siri on iPhones to Alexa in the household, voice search has grown significantly in popularity over the last few years. According to an Adobe survey in 2019, 48% of people use voice for web searches.
Instead of typing out their query, many users use voice search to get answers to their questions as soon as possible. This change in how search is used will impact how you optimize content.
To optimize your content for voice search, you should focus on adding FAQs to your pages and framing content to provide direct answers to common queries for that topic. Including answers to the main topic as well as the results for “people may also ask” can help you rank for voice search.
#6. Make Sure Your GMB Is Up to Date
This might seem like a small thing, but Google My Business (GMB) is crucial for businesses that are looking to grow their local customer base. For most businesses, things like store hours and even location have changed over the course of the pandemic.
If that’s the case for you and you haven’t done so already, go in and update your GMB as soon as possible so it has all the correct information.
Key Takeaways
Depending on the type of business you run, 2021 may be off to a rough or especially lucrative start. Either way, staying ahead of the competition (or even just getting a piece of the pie in some cases) requires constant innovation and effort when it comes to your digital marketing efforts.
The 6 tips above are a good starting point for strengthening your digital marketing tactics in 2021 to help you have your most successful year yet. Keep in mind that every business is unique, so take these pointers and find the best way to apply them to your current strategy based on your goals for 2021.
About the Author.
Alexis Maness has a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications and is a contributing editor for 365businesstips.com. As a professional content writer, she has over five years of experience and is a contributing writer for several San Diego magazines. Alexis specializes in topics related to business, marketing, finance, and hospitality and tourism.