Worldwide eCommerce is estimated to approach $5 trillion in 2021. What does this mean for emerging brands? Invest in digital marketing now because the market is going to become more saturated than ever. It’s great to look ahead, but what you’re doing today has the real impact on future growth.
Misaligned goals, prioritizing creatives over data, and not staying on top of the advertising trends may prevent emerging brands from reaching their goals. If your brand is in its early stages, you might be working with a limited budget, less historical or first-party data, and an incomplete marketing strategy. We listed a few life-saving digital marketing strategies that can help emerging brands scale their business without breaking the bank.
Emerging Brands Should Focus on Short-Term Goals
If you’re a start-up or an emerging brand, embrace the fact that most of your initial marketing efforts will be about learning. You might have a budget and a return in mind, but it’s more likely that you’ll go through some testing before finding a baseline. There is no magic formula, cure, or button in digital marketing that guarantees you will hit your goals from day one.
The best thing you can do is build brand awareness by focusing on top-of-the-funnel tactics. Begin generating leads, building awareness, and attracting your target audience by using excellent storytelling and a social-heavy media mix. Set achievable, short-term goals such as “Increase brand awareness by 15% in 90-days” or “Reach a ROA of 1.0 in 90-days”, and remain flexible.
Balance Creatives and Data for Optimal Performance
Yes, appealing creative assets will have that thumb-stopping effect. But, beautiful visuals mean nothing if they don’t entice clicks, website visits, or convert viewers into customers. When choosing an agency or prioritizing marketing tactics, strike a balance between excellent creatives and metrics. The best way to do this is to make data-driven creative decisions. Use A/B testing to make decisions about enhancing your creatives, investing in videography, photography, modeling, and animations based on performance.
But, how can emerging brands use digital marketing data to inspire creative direction? You can start by analyzing customer data to discover new segments and opportunities within existing segments. Determine the appeal you’re going for, emotional or informative, and make sure your creatives send messages that align with your target audience’s psychographic and demographic data.
Not convinced about data-driven creative yet? Read how Wander Beauty tested video ads against photo ads and achieved a 4.4X increase in sales.
Be Where Your Competitors Are and Aren’t
It’s worth exploring platforms your competitors are advertising on. Let’s imagine you perform a competitive marketing audit and discover your top 5 competitors are advertising on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. In that case, you should be there too (Note: you can find out where your competitors advertise by clicking here). Even if your budget is limited, stay in the game by using some ad spend to access the unique audience insights available on each platform, so you’re prepared to scale when it makes sense.
But, don’t make decisions based on your competitors alone. The digital market changes frequently, so it’s smart to jump on trending platforms that your audience is spending time on. For example, ad spends on Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart are increasing as consumers look for simple and convenient shopping experiences. Team up with a digital marketing agency who will keep you informed about industry trends, and has the know-how you need to scale your emerging brand.
For many brands, their 2020 digital strategy was all about survival mode. By building on short-term wins, syncing data and creatives, and placing ads strategically, you go from mere survival to full-throttle thrive. If you need help with your 2021 digital marketing strategy, contact us today to book a free consultation with our digital experts.