By Nikki Carlson, Co-Founder/Co-President of ChicExecs Retail and Strategy Firm.

Newspaper ads and strategically placed billboards are fine, but if you really want to grow your business, you need help with digital marketing.

Traditional marketing strategies have their place, but digital marketing should be the go-to for all businesses because:

• Affordable: Digital marketing offers different strategies based on the goals and budgets of each business. Whether you’re interested in advertising online or creating organic videos, we can tailor your digital marketing strategy to fit your business’s budget.
• fast: Speaking of time, you can have an email campaign up and running in less than an hour. This is much faster than traditional channels where campaigns can take weeks to materialize.
• Loud: If you want to reach consumers outside your local area, blogs and digital content have the opportunity to reach millions of viewers.

To grow your business with digital marketing in 2022 and beyond, we recommend following these four trends:

54% of users would like to see more branded video content they purchase. So why are so many companies focused solely on social posts and blogs?

YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok should have a place in your digital marketing mix. As long as it makes sense for your audience, you can engage your followers on another level with your video content.

Your smartphone already has a high-quality camera, so let’s get to shooting. The more you present yourself, the more confident you will be in creating promotional videos for your website, social media, and search engines like YouTube.

No more third-party cookies means digital marketing strategies like paid advertising won’t be as effective as they have been in the past few years. This is why owned media such as email are so important.

With email marketing, you completely own your subscriber data, so you don’t have to rely on Google or Facebook to access your data. It’s a powerful one!

If you haven’t already, grow your mailing list. Ask shoppers to subscribe while they check her cart online, or add an in-store kiosk to encourage sign-ups. You can even offer free giveaways to encourage more people to subscribe.

With a platform like Mailchimp, you can send hundreds of emails to your subscribers in seconds. But instead of just blasting generic emails, use your email service provider’s personalization and automation capabilities to truly respond where your customers are.

36% of Americans say they are lonely. This number has increased since the pandemic. In an era of increasing disconnection, it is more important for brands to connect people.

That’s why online communities are so strong. With the right approach, you can create followers for your business while providing the connection consumers want.

Big brands like Sephora create whole websites dedicated to their community, but you can start small. Create a dedicated Facebook group or Discord server to attract shoppers.

But give them a reason to get excited! Join groups in the following ways:

• Reply to comments
• Ask to vote for new features, products or colors
• Question
• Performing member

This is your chance to get to know your customers on a more personal level. Build your own online community with this free digital marketing tool.

Is your website and email marketing built for mobile users first? If not, you may run into issues with space, formatting, and rendering for users visiting your site on mobile phones.

This usually happens because business owners design marketing promotions on desktop computers, but consumers often receive them on mobile devices. Strange things happen when trying to convert a desktop design to mobile. Therefore, companies must design for mobile first.

You don’t even have to be a developer to do this! You can use mobile-friendly or mobile-optimized templates for your site.