At the beginning of each new year, most businesses have a lull. The holiday shopping season is over and people wait for the warmer weather to venture out as much as before. The first quarter of any year is an excellent time to boost marketing efforts and try new promotions you didn’t have time for in the fourth quarter. 

According to SalesForce’s most recent State of Marketing report, 90% of marketers point to changes in their digital marketing strategies since the COVID-19 pandemic began. More people shop online than in the past and the trend doesn’t seem to be reverting with things opening back up. Businesses must adjust to the changing trends. 

How can you meet customers where they are and up your digital marketing efforts in the new year? Here are our favourite tips and tricks to make the most of your online promotional budget. 

1. Plan Ahead

The holiday season ends in a mad rush, but the days between Christmas and the New Year sometimes go to a slower pace. Use the time to your advantage and come up with a marketing plan for the New Year.

Make a list of the primary promotions you’d like to have. Figure out social media campaigns. Research new ways to get the word out online. If you already have a plan in place, you’ll be much more effective with your digital marketing efforts in the first quarter. 

2. Embrace Omnichannel

Consumers today expect a strong omnichannel experience. If they see an ad online, they expect the brick-and-mortar store to be aware of the special and perhaps even have signs pointing the way to a display of items. 

Your store’s signage has the power to draw attention to your location and add visual value. Coordinate signs with your digital marketing efforts for the most impact. Add a sign with QR code that pulls up a link to your app. Let shoppers know about your online specials and where to find them. Think about how you can criss-cross promotions to drive online traffic to your physical store and in-person traffic to your online store. 

3. Know Your Audience

If you don’t already have them, create buyer personas. You’ll want to dig deep into both demographics and psychographics. What makes your average customer tick?

Once you understand your core audience, you can also figure out where they’re most likely to hang out online. For example, if most of your customers are 50-something grandmas in suburbia, you might hit Facebook for interaction. On the other hand, if your users are teens, try Tik Tok. 

Even the time of day you post may differ based on the location and lifestyle of your customers. If you aren’t sure of your clients’ habits, survey them to find out more. 

4. Test Results

Your return on investment (ROI) must make sense for your online marketing budget. With all advertising, it’s easy to throw a lot of money out there and not see any noticeable results. Instead, create separate landing pages for each campaign and track the ROI for each separate ad on each separate site. 

If you put a Facebook ad campaign up, send the traffic to a specific landing page and track how many convert into customers. If you go with content marketing, make note of the different places where you shared the content and look at your website analytics to see if there is any increase from those sites. 

Test your campaigns and track their success. Doing so helps you know what to repeat and what to let go of in the new year.

5. Create Fresh Content

Think about what you haven’t offered in the past for content and embrace new trends. For example, one consumer study found 58% of buyers wanted to take free online courses from brands. People are hungry to learn how to solve pain points or gain new skills. Figure out what fits in your niche and provide it. 

Pay attention to what competitors offer and look for holes in content. What does your target audience want to know that no one else covers? What are you an expert in and know more than anyone else? 

One key to figuring out what content to create lies in the questions you get from current and potential customers. Answer those queries and you’re on your way to providing high-quality pieces. 

6. Embrace New Technologies

The state of tech constantly advances. New devices create the need for different types of marketing, such as smart speakers increasing the search requests via voice. Think about popular technology in the general marketplace and also in your industry. How can you utilize it to reach new customers?

For example, augmented reality (AR) has come a long way with higher resolution screens on computers and mobile devices. Companies such as IKEA use an app to tap into the power of AR and place an item in the room the person might want to place the thing. The user can see exactly how the product fits and looks before buying. 

Figure out what new technologies work well for your business model. Embrace the ones that give you an advantage and promote them through your digital marketing. 

Keep Traditional Elements

Although you’ll try and track new things to see how effective new efforts are, you also should keep using the digital marketing efforts you’ve found successful in the past. Each new year is an opportunity to skim off the things that aren’t working and add in new ones that might. You won’t know what is most effective until you try it and pay attention to ROI. 

Eleanor is the editor-in-chief of Designerly. She’s also a freelance web designer with a focus on customer experience. She lives in Philly with her husband and dog, Bear.