New Year’s Resolutions: What Are the Top Digital Things to Do Less of in 2021?

The New Year is the perfect time to evaluate past progress and refocus one’s priorities. Like most organizations, the priorities of your company likely include acquiring new customers and turning current customers into loyal brand ambassadors. Your company can accomplish its goals not only by focusing on what it should do more of, but also on what it should do less of. Here are a few digital items you can skip in 2021.

Getting in Over Your Head on Social Media Platforms

Many companies fall into the bad habit of opening far too many social media platforms at once. It’s commonly thought that organizations should establish a dominant online presence by being everywhere at once. In 2021, resolve to focus on quality, rather than quantity. If you open half a dozen social media accounts for your company, you’ll likely only have time to post to them sporadically. This will alienate any followers you may acquire and, perhaps even worse, give your brand a reputation for inconsistency.

Instead, take a few minutes to conduct a social media audit. How many accounts does your brand have open? How many times per week are you able to post to all of them? How many followers does each account have and how engaged are those followers?

If your social media audit reveals that it’s time for a change, eliminate the accounts that are posted to the least, have the least number of followers, and have the poorest engagement with their audience. Then, develop a social media editorial calendar for the remaining accounts to ensure they share posts on a predictable, regular schedule.

Sharing Too Much Unoriginal Content

Digital marketers are accustomed to adapting their tactics to the latest Google algorithm changes. But what many do not realize is that social media platforms can also change their rankings criteria from time to time. In recent years, several social media sites have adjusted their news feeds to penalize accounts that primarily share unoriginal content. Instead, accounts that frequently post original content are rewarded.

If you’re simply retweeting other accounts’ posts on Twitter or re-sharing posts on Facebook, your unoriginal posts are unlikely to show up in any users’ news feeds. This adjustment doesn’t affect sponsored posts on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Do note, however, that Instagram has been prioritizing original, non-sponsored content, particularly posts that receive a great deal of likes and comments from users.

In a nutshell, this year, digital marketers should prioritize the development of original content with native images (as opposed to shared images). In addition, strive to encourage engagement from your brand’s fans as much as possible. Contests, polls, and questions that invite responses are all good choices.

Neglecting to Create Radio Ad Campaigns

Another thing to do less of in 2021 is ignoring emerging technologies. The digital marketing world changes rapidly, with new opportunities arising virtually every year. One exciting new opportunity for ad campaigns is digital streaming radio.

Contrary to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic substantially and negatively impacting the radio industry, listening time for online streaming services has increased. People turn to their local radio stations in times of crisis and uncertainty, feeling that they can trust their local broadcasters for reliable information. And thanks to digital technologies, they have more options than ever for listening, from streaming radio stations on their laptops or tablets to listening digitally via smart speakers.

Digital marketers should take advantage of this exciting opportunity to reach more customers, particularly in highly targeted local markets. When creating digital radio ad campaigns, marketers must be selective with their messaging. A radio ad is too short to list every service a company offers. Instead, choose one main service, product, or company attribute to highlight in each ad. In addition, a catchy hook is crucial in these campaigns, as it will help capture the listeners’ attention and convince them not to change the channel during the commercial break.

Relying on the Quantity of Content, Rather Than the Quality

Too many brands strive to churn out pages of content each week to satisfy their over-burdened editorial calendars. Content may still be king, but only if it’s high quality. Over the years, Google has continually gotten stricter about its rankings algorithms. Content that is too brief, keyword-stuffed, congested, or not helpful to readers is penalized. In contrast, Google has been favoring content that is well-structured, not congested, lengthy, and highly informative.

Neglecting to Account for Voice-Driven Searches

In 2019, a study of nearly 75,000 companies revealed that only 4% of them are “voice search ready.” This is problematic, as the use of voice search has been on the rise during the past few years. In fact, 31% of study respondents said they use voice search fairly regularly, particularly to find information about local businesses. If your campaigns aren’t optimized for voice search, you’re missing out on significant traffic possibilities.

To understand how to optimize for voice searches, it’s helpful to get a refresher in the technology itself. A voice search occurs when a user speaks into a smart device in order to submit a search query to a search engine. Here is how digital marketers can optimize their brand’s web properties for voice search:

    • Use conversational language as much as possible.
    • Change text searches into long-tail questions.
    • Strive to rank for featured snippets.
    • Provide informative and authoritative content.

In other words, when creating content, consider how a voice searcher might access that content. For example, instead of optimizing for “emergency plumbers Fairfax, VA,” you might optimize for the search query: “Find me a plumber in Fairfax, Virginia that fixes burst pipes quickly.”

You’ll never have to worry about making another digital marketing misstep when you partner with the team at Salem Surround. Our digital marketing experts stay ahead of the latest trends, consumer preferences, and Google algorithms to ensure our clients receive effective, results-driven campaign strategies.

 
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