How to Stand Out in a Sea of Digital Saturation
The year 2020 was challenging. The pandemic impacted marketing across the board, more so digital marketing. Both small and big brand names started working with digital marketing agencies to create more digital content than they have ever had to meet consumers' digital experiences.
The trend did not slow down in 2021. The rampant adoption and use of digital solutions such as apps, social media, and smartphones have further saturated digital marketing, where consumers are overloaded with information. According to Keith Weed, the former chief marketing and communications officer of Unilever, brands need to minimize bombardment, immoderate frequency, and retargeting to improve people's perception of advertising.
While the prevailing market conditions demand that companies have an online presence, this alone is not enough. It would help if you had a solid digital marketing strategy to stand out from your competition. But, before we look into how you can find success in the digital market, let us first define these two critical concepts—digital saturation and digital fatigue.
What is Digital Fatigue?
With several Americans working jobs that require them to be in front of a computer for approximately 8-10 hours, it is not surprising that, on average, people see up to 10,000 ads daily. Undoubtedly, digital advertising enables consumers to see more messages than traditional advertising. Nonetheless, you want your messages to be seen and want them to ignite a response within the viewer.
Given the rate at which consumers are bombarded with digital and traditional ads, they are becoming numb to adverts, such that their responsiveness is declining. This phenomenon is referred to as digital saturation.
What is Digital Saturation?
Saturation refers to the state that arises when something is combined, added, or absorbed. Consider this definition in a digital market to understand what digital saturation is.
Too much digital content is trying to compete for one of the scarcest commodities: attention. "Saturated" does not even begin to describe digital marketing channels. Brands are rapidly increasing their advertising budget like the internet is about to go out of style–well, maybe it is in some ways.
Most things in the digital marketing space go out of style in the long run or become less effective. For instance, let us consider ad fatigue, a scenario in which consumers cease converting from overexposure to the same ad content. With every business investing in similar digital marketing strategies, it stands to reason that these marketing techniques will see a decline in returns. Why? Because consumer audiences become harder to impress with every passing year. It becomes increasingly hard to leave an impressionable influence on a cohort who believes they have seen it all.
5 Tips for Standing Out in a Sea of Digital Saturation
Getting your content noticed today can be as tricky as navigating down the Mariana Trench. To help, we have carefully crafted five tips you can employ in your marketing campaigns to help combat both digital fatigue and digital saturation and ensure that your messages are not only seen but responded to:
1. Create a Consistent Omnichannel Strategy
Your company's brand strength alone is insufficient to get and keep consumers' attention. Unsurprisingly though, all top brands seem to flourish when creating memorable and engaging digital experiences.
Think about an industry-leading brand like Amazon or perhaps a smaller local brand. You'll notice that consumers' affinity for that brand is not being driven by one channel—such as the use of either social media or email marketing—but rather by its consistent interaction via a wide range of digital channels.
Using an omnichannel approach in your digital marketing will ensure consistent messages across critical channels like social media and emails. Still, it will also enable you to leverage the reach and power of paid search and sponsored content, apps, and videos. It will enable you to offer your consumers a seamless, customer-facing experience that they not only desire but demand from the companies and brands they trust.
2. Keep Track of Metrics That Matter
Having an online presence does not suffice to overcome the headwinds of cutthroat competition and a saturated digital environment. It would help track how well your ads perform across various platforms to remain competitive (Link Measuring Success Blog).
Once you have placed your ad on a digital platform, you need to keep track of it to determine whether or not it is effective. First, you should decide which activity is considered a success for your company. Is it a high number of followers, website visits, or social media likes?
Activities such as visitors purchasing a product, sharing their contact information, and claiming special offers show that they respond to your ads. Conversely, metrics that show minimal purchases, a high bounce rate, and unopened emails tell you that you need to change your approach.
3. Make Use of Traditional Advertising Methods
In this technological era marred with billions of digital advertisements, the adage of "what is old is new again" seems to fit traditional marketing techniques such as word-of-mouth and direct email that are experiencing a rebirth of sorts. The relative outperformance of these traditional marketing methods is partly attributed to factors like digital fatigue and digital saturation.
Traditional advertising methods (Link Traditional Advertising Blog) still have the power to capture viewers' attention and ignite their curiosity. Unlike some digital marketing techniques that have fleeting experiences, the physical nature of most traditional advertising techniques enables them to create a long-lasting nostalgic and emotional connection.
Consider reaching out to your audience through traditional advertisements such as flyers, newspapers, mailers, and billboards.
4. Create a Different Message
The core of effective marketing is the uniqueness of the message you produce and not the production around it. Many companies forget that fundamental truth. No two entities are alike.
Once you dig deep into what makes your company stand out, you cannot help but come up with a unique marketing perspective that your audience will want to pay attention to.
5. Use Original Content When Advertising
In today's digitally charged world, original content is a vital component of a sound digital marketing campaign, and it enhances your brand's image and reputation as being trustworthy.
To stand out in the oversaturated realm, you need to create original content for your marketing rather than repurposing your competitor's content. Carry out extensive research that your industry needs to be conversant with and produce content around that topic. While it may take a little bit longer to gain an audience, they will be much more loyal once you do.