What a wild year it has been for many of us. There have been so many changes in the way we do business because of the pandemic. This past year has introduced an entirely new world of thinking when it comes to working remotely, attracting new business, and engaging with clients. A lot of us have had to do more and with less in order to merely maintain the way we do things.
It’s true – 2020 was a year where the role of marketing was extremely crucial. Why? Because it allows us to have a more successful 2021, especially if you jumped into action right away when events slowed down or came to a halt. DJs have learned this year that marketing is not just about creating Facebook or Instagram posts regularly or creating promotions for new clients to book their services.
Marketing in the new year is all about building relationships with your audience, while meeting your promises to them as a company. In other words, it is about convincing strangers why they need your services above and beyond what a competitor tries to offer. Here are six important 2021 tactics everyone should be focusing on to help jump-start events in the new year.
- Standing Out Is More Important Than Ever
In our digital-first world, boosted by COVID-19, your business needs to stand out and be a reference in a crowded environment where there is more competition for a client’s attention. Standing out is not necessarily always about offering a different service or product. Standing out is about what goes into day-to-day business development with relevant content, relevant promotions, relevant channels (where you promote yourself), and relevant ways to activate your client’s decision-making process. Look at what your strongest competitors are doing online, put a spin or twist on it, and do it better.
- Strong Marketing Strategies Can Put You Multiple Steps Ahead
For many of us this year, 2020 was all about reacting. Being reactive puts you not one but three to five steps behind your competitors. Your need to strategize, plan and deliver, while at the same time take advantage of current trends and opportunities that you strongly believe your clients will want in 2021. The more efficiently you plan for the events you have booked in 2021, the more time you will have left to identify your easy or quick wins. Building up a brand is not about constantly reacting to the market or competitors, but about getting an edge that puts you above the rest.
- Continue to Evolve Your Business Values & Messaging
We have all been aware of how our online messaging and promoting has changed during COVID. Empathy is being utilized like never before – and let us be honest, sometimes in a rather excessive way. But we have also seen businesses and DJs become genuinely helpful and caring during this time.
The human touch that we give to our clients will matter most in 2021. Our clients are all human beings; the DJs and businesses that understand this, and adapt client communications appropriately, will not just make it through this current crisis with better client relationships, but will establish lasting and long-term connections with those clients all throughout 2021.
- Conversational Marketing Will Be Important
Modern marketing in 2021 will become more conversational. People want it that way, and so your business needs to pivot that way. When a client has a question or inquiry, most will want an immediate response. Conversational marketing facilitates a one-to-one, real-time connection between you and your clients. Unlike traditional strategies, this form of marketing is now available across multiple channels, allowing your business to meet clients on their terms; on the devices, platforms and time schedules that suit them best. Today’s client will expect to find what they are looking for now, not later. As we prepare for the future, it will be more important than ever for businesses to be available across a broad spectrum of channels, and to make sure you are communicating the way people prefer to communicate.
- Get On-Board with Voice Search
The increasing use of voice search – “Hey, Siri!” – has made it important for companies to rethink their marketing strategies in 2021. Numbers show that 60-percent of all searches will be via voice by 2021, 79-percent of all American homes will own a smart speaker by 2022, and voice shopping is set to jump to $40 Billion in 2022, up from $2 Billion that it is today. Voice search plays an important role in providing all the relevant information that people are searching for through audio content. Soon, your clients will start asking voice assistants about great DJs near them and how to contact them. AI is getting smarter and the number of errors made by voice assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google has reduced greatly.
- Neuromarketing Will Become a Strong Strategy
Finally, let us dip our toes into one of the most wow-inspiring digital marketing trends that is taking off now and will continue to emerge throughout 2021: Neuromarketing. While this may sound like something from a sci-fi movie, the reality is that this technology is advancing quickly and will become a viable tool for business owners in the new year. Neuromarketing is a strategy that analyzes measurements of a person’s brain activity and nervous system to determine which types of content they love and find engaging, which then leads to more sales and revenue for a business.
It is essentially designing your marketing materials (including your website, ads, presentations, brochures, email campaigns and social-media content) to evoke specific neurological reactions that trigger positive emotions or responses that are linked to a client signing you for their event. You can use this information to optimize your content accordingly and adjust your strategies and improve the effectiveness of your marketing. Neuromarketing, in some ways, could make every other marketing strategy you do become a success, if done correctly.
So, there you have it – six important tips for you to embrace in 2021 as events and things pick back up or get back to normal. As John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
For anyone who is trying to come up with new marketing strategies and tactics in the new year, remember that change is an integral part of the job. You must keep looking ahead and strive to embrace new ways of doing things in order to gain an edge over your competitors. Happy New Year to all of my friends and colleagues and may your 2021 be your best year yet!
Joshua Volpe owns Kalifornia Entertainment in Rochester, N.Y.
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