Regardless of the size of your business, your company should be keeping up with digital marketing trends. Doing so is crucial to growing your business successfully. For online businesses as well as brick and mortar stores, keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends is essential if you plan to successfully compete in today’s global economy. No matter your market, these trends are most often driven by demand determined via social media comments, customer feedback, surveys, polls, posts, and more. 

As more and more consumers flock to online shopping, digital marketing trends are critical to your success whether you are marketing products or services. Here, the team at Digital PR powered by Exults shares the importance of keeping up with digital marketing trends, including a close up look into Amazon versus Walmart, and which one your business needs to follow for the greatest gain and future success. 

Amazon Versus Walmart

Soon, Walmart will launch Walmart+, a membership program designed to compete with Amazon Prime. With Amazon Prime celebrating its 15th anniversary, many marketing pundits wonder if Walmart’s long delay stems from their failure to identify changing digital marketing conditions earlier on. The launch of Walmart+ is the company’s latest effort to compete with Amazon’s leading multidimensional shopping platform. 

Today, Amazon Prime ($119 annually) offers:

• Expedited free shipping
• Delivery of groceries
• Exclusive discounts at Whole Foods
• Access to a vast collection of TV shows, movies, music, and more.

Conversely, Walmart+ will charge $98 on an annual subscription basis and will include:

• Additional free shipping options
• Gasoline discounts
• Same-day delivery on groceries and other products.

Marketing experts are questioning if Amazon Prime members—many loyal Amazon customers for 15 years and counting—will make the switch to Walmart+. This year—with the advent of coronavirus and the ensuing panic-buying by consumers—boosted Walmart sales to record highs, but still left Walmart’s e-commerce existence at merely one-eighth the size of that of Amazon.

Amazon Prime boasts 150 million members around the world, and remains a major reason Amazon’s value hovers around $1.5 trillion. By comparison, Walmart’s net worth is valued at  $386 billion. 

Industry leaders are wondering if Walmart simply waited too long to adapt and embrace market trends, while Amazon worked to master the e-commerce environment that exists today. Amazon also features a cloud-based web development platform and a seller-free homemade item platform among its niche market offerings. 

Amazon has the obvious edge as the expert in services and strategies, which may take Walmart years to perfect. During Walmart’s anticipated learning phase, Amazon will likely move towards its next conquest in the world of commerce and technology. If it holds true that Walmart lost their ability to compete by failing to identify and embrace digital marketing trends for years, it could make the company’s effort with Walmart+ too little, too late.

Internet Marketing and Digital Strategies – The Keys to Your Success

Amazon embraced the advantages of Internet marketing as the leader of their industry, while Walmart appears to have remained complacent. Therein lies the lesson and significance of staying on top of digital marketing trends to your business, no matter its size. Internet marketing and digital strategies are continually evolving, which means you need to keep up with changes and updates to rise above your competition. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have put their marketing efforts on hold indefinitely. Instead, your business would be better served by proactively investing in upgrades for your website, developing digital marketing campaigns, and expanding your digital strategies for your future success.

In other words, now is the time to emulate Amazon!

Though your company is probably operating on a smaller scale, you don’t want to miss out on the coming digital marketing trends. Rather, you should embrace forward-thinking strategies that will ultimately drive traffic to your website, increasing your sales and your customer base. Take this time to develop your strategies to appeal to your target audiences, advancing your business to be the leader in your industry. 

Now is the ideal time to enhance the customer security of your website, showing your customers how much your brand values the security and safety of their information:

• Embrace conversational marketing, using customer feedback and data to improve engagement, build brand loyalty, and deliver fast effective solutions for your customers.
• Offer live support and customer loyalty programs—if you don’t already—to personalize your approach and build relationships with your customers.
• Develop interactive content that encourages customers to participate (polls, surveys, maps, calculators, etc.), keeps them engaged, and provides them with unexpected value. 

Don’t hesitate, make the effort to stay on top of digital marketing trends and leverage them to your advantage now and in the future. If you are uncertain of where to begin or need help enhancing your internet marketing and digital strategies, Digital PR powered by Exults is ready to help you leverage the power of digital marketing trends in your business.