The year of disruption, 2020 has changed everything:

  • Brands That Kept Up Their Ad Spend Gained From Those Who Didn’t
  • Reduced Ad Spends Creates Unforeseen Opportunities
  • More Opportunities For eCommerce
  • Changes In The Way We Interact With Brands & They With Us
  • What Does This Mean For Businesses?
  • Smarter Ad Spend Essential in 2021 

What does this all mean for 2021: 

  • Brand recognition is integral to your marketing strategy
  • As things return to normal, act quickly to seize opportunity from disruption. 
  • Branded, remarketing and video: the most cost-effective strategies. 
  • E-Commerce is integral to business – are you meeting customers’ expectations?

2020 was a year like no other. We had to learn to sneeze into our elbows, work from home and check-in absolutely everywhere.
For some 2020 was a year of unmatched opportunity. 

Brands That Kept Up Their Ad Spend Gained From Those Who Didn’t

For small businesses, reduced ad spend by the bigger players meant expansion into previously unreachable territories. Playing from strength to strength, small businesses that had a digital presence were able to connect to customers wherever they were self-isolating.

Reduced Ad Spends Creates Unforeseen Opportunities

Globally, as we were swept into isolation, there were very pessimistic predictions for “non-essential” industries. For us, it proved the importance of our work in marketing. 

Eliminating ad budgets was a tactic we never recommended. 

Why? Because there is no such thing as a placeholder in the market. Ad spends, alone do not generate leads. Brand presence is all about building and nurturing the customer-brand relationship.

Regardless of the size of any business, reduced or cut ad spend only opens the door to new competitors and frontrunners.

Changes In The Way We Interact With Customers & They With Us

Shopping wasn’t the only major change to eCommerce. All channels of communication migrated online. That means online booking, enquiries about opening hours, social distancing measures… you name it all moved to digital channels, such as email or pop-ups. 

If your business didn’t reach out to your email list over COVID-19, how would customers know how you’d adapted to the most disruptive event of the century?

What Does This Mean For Businesses? 

More online forms and more frequent requests for emails means consumers are more readily entering their details – opening the door to develop new email lists.

eCommerce is not just about shopping, email lists are integral to the sales funnel. Right from awareness to the point of purchase. You can see from the conversion funnel, by Smart Insights, how few page sessions convert. 

E-Commerce 2020 Conversion Funnel

Average eCommerce conversion data by Smart Insights.

More Online Shopping Than Ever Before

If your business wasn’t ready for Black Friday, you really missed out.

Did you know that two of the biggest online sale events: Black Friday and Cyber Monday grew by  23% Year on Year (YoY)? For Australia Post this meant 3 million more deliveries than 2019 – that’s an entire week of Australia Post deliveries. 

“Australia Post delivered 13 million parcels over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday event.”

Smarter Ad Spend Essential in 2021 

2020 has proven to us that it’s not about how much you spend but where you spend it. Competing with a small budget is about strategy. It’s not just about shopping. 

We might be the only marketing agency to admit that search is getting more and more expensive. Every year there are new competitors, bidding prices go up. For this reason, in times of social-distance, connection has never been more valuable, especially for brands. With great email lists, communication with and connection to customers has never been more important. 

In 2021 brand-loyalty will quickly translate into better value-for-money search campaigns. 

Top Value-Driven Marketing Strategies to Look Out For in 2021:

  • Brand Search Campaigns
  • YouTube & GDN
  • Remarketing Campaigns
  • Smart Bidding

As search gets more and more expensive, branded, smart, remarketing and video campaigns are the most cost-effective digital marketing tactics. 

2020 has been the year of leveraging change into opportunity. As things return to normal, act quickly to seize opportunity from disruption.  Marketing is not just about ad spend, it’s about relationships, and that’s what drive sales.

Brand loyalty has never been more important to eCommerce. This is why rewarding loyalty in 2021 will have enormous return on investment for the way we interact with our customers. Brand recognition is integral to your marketing strategy. Branded, remarketing and video: the most cost-effective strategies for 2021. 

If you want to get more returns for less spend, please get in touch.

We help small businesses grow big and we’d love to help you make 2021 your best year yet. 

Merry Christmas from the team at YEWS. Thank you for your support throughout the year.

We couldn’t have done it without you!