As the most disrupting year comes to an end, the digital marketing landscape seems to be more chaotic than ever! with COVID-19 hitting and changing the digital game for good, advertisers boycotting Facebook ads, to Google’s volatile updates, and unprecedented congress hearing attended by Amazon, Google, Facebook & Apple all together for the same time! the future looks pretty foggy for small & medium businesses, especially in Arabic speaking countries, as the Digital Marketing Trends take time to hit the scene, and how relatively slow digital marketers adapt to global changes technological trends and updates.
Our team has been keeping an eye closely, surfed the internet and gathered 3 Digital Marketing trends you should keep an eye on during 2020 and beyond.
The Rise of Arabic E-Commerce Businesses
During the lock down, interned traffic have at least doubled globally, with an unusual mobility restrictions, people where looking online for things to buy, expecting that the majority of Local businesses are prepared with proper digital presence, and e-payment solutions and delivery services, the businesses who weren’t ready and well optimized for it, have lost a significant amount of brand awareness, locality, and appreciation by their customers.
The majority of businesses we work with have realized that digital is no longer optional, e-Commerce is not a new trend, but the lock-down has fasten the shift towards it.
The focus on social media remained essential, yet the customers “expectations” from local businesses has increased, having a decent website is a must even for businesses outside Amman, and it doesn’t require a great investment to get a WordPress, WIX or even Weebly website to strengthen your brand image, there is many great resources online to to get it done.
All these CMS’s – Content Management Systems- come with powerful and sufficient solutions for eCommerce, Woo-commerce gives you the most control over other easier solutions, but is pretty easy to get a Shopify store as well, the options might be overwhelming but local businesses should get going, connect with our team and hopefully we could help you choose the right one for your business needs.
Also, with Amazon opening a branch in Jordan, and finally acquiring Souq.com, it’s better to avoid a direct competition with the giant, if you are starting out a business, consider how it could be beneficial to get your products there, while promoting it on your own.
Social Media is here to Stay
Social Media has disrupted the internet marketing scene since it’s rise in the early 2000s, it was used as a top and bottom of the marketing funnel, with many businesses relying solely on Facebook, with low competition it could be sufficient for some niches, yet people receive information through various channels, so it’s wise to consider building your Social Fortress during the early stages of launching a business, from an SEO Marketing stand point, it makes your Brick & Mortar business more legitimate, we will dive through it later in our blog.
in recent years, it’s role changed towards the top of the marketing funnel, it’s main purpose is brand awareness and consideration -relatively to business type- and search to be the sales driving channel, for example, we work with a Medical Beauty equipment reseller, the first thing we did was slashing his social media expenses and investing more in search, as the majority of his audience wouldn’t follow a boring B2B page or search for “Quanta XX123” systems on Facebook, it turned to be the best thing happens to his business!
But for a restaurant, Facebook and Instagram remain the bread and butter to get the customers coming, food images are more appealing and fun to digest, and it’s enough for customers to get the lip smacking images stuck in their heads until they make a branded search query and go visit by themselves.
So which social media platform should you focus on in Arabia? it depends! Twitter gained higher traction in Gulf countries compared to Jordan, we believe it’s an opportunity to invest wisely in, as digital habits may shift and twitter is not going anywhere. claim your business profile and use an auto publishing tool to distribute your digital marketing materials to all, we are not saying you should crazy and claim 200 social profiles, but at least 5, and focus on 3.
BTW, we never heard a client saying ” We are really good with Twitter marketing, but we don’t think it’s worth the effort!” doesn’t make sense.
Viral Digital Marketing - TikTok
Viral Marketing is the ideal scenario, yet it will never be achievable by all, it takes bit of luck, perfect timing, and most importantly, amazing content! by amazing we mean all – Unique, Optimized, Relevant, etc-
There could be endless opportunities for a content to grow and get shared and discovered, from political to cultural or temporary events that grabs attention for a day or two, but it’s effect would be visible and profitable for businesses behind it.
Now optimizing the content to get discovered by implementing the right keywords and hashtags can get your wheels rolling, but the Content Marketing itself is what would make it get the shares and social signals you require, keep an eye on TikTok to catch the wave in it’s early stages, despite younger generations using it solely and excessively, they are a reputable decision makers when it comes to purchase, and they share more often than older generations.
LinkedIn has it’s algorithmic secrets and tricks to get more views, YouTube as well.
Digital Marketing Trends will keep evolving, so is the algorithms, the best the thing you can do is to learn how to learn, then relearn.
So which Digital Marketing Trend is right for your business?
The good news about having a business in the MENA region, is that you can notice the Digital marketing trends in it’s early stages, just keep and on global trends, and be one of the first to implement it.
The bad news that it depends, and that’s the case in Digital Marketing Trends all the time, stay tuned, sometimes you win, others you will loose, but as long as your doing slightly better than your competition, it’s enough to keep your business growing.
Great Arabic SEO Tips and Techniques, this is a great resource for SEO beginners and Advanced Digital Marketers