If you’re trying to market in the digital age, you might feel like there’s an onslaught of options available claiming to instantly grow your audience and bring in big money. The commonly suggested strategies involve posting content that’s time-consuming to create several times per day across half a dozen platforms resulting in more than an extra 40 hours per week of work that needs to be done in addition to all the regular work you’re already doing (you know, the stuff you’re trying to market digitally).

This is unrealistic, unhealthy, and takes far longer to pay off than people writing and selling ebooks would have you believe. The following will explore some essential advertising strategies that can produce real effects without destroying any semblance of work-life balance you’ve managed to grab onto.

Video Testimonials

The unsung hero of digital marketing is video testimonials. Reviews are important, yes, but they’re easily faked and no longer hold as much sway as they used to. Video testimonials where happy clients and customers talk up your product or service add more trust to reviews and are more likely to be remembered than written reviews. You can also schedule a single shoot date for multiple customers so that this approach isn’t taking over the time you’d normally be using to run your business.

When a client or customer is happy, ask them if they’d like to talk about it on camera. Thirty seconds to a minute and a half is plenty of time to get the message across. As a bonus, video testimonials can be thrown up onto your website any place where there’s a blank space and can be used to fill out your social media profiles. These videos can even be compiled into an advertisement that you use with Facebook ads for affiliate marketing or Instagram ads. Seeing real people talk about a product feels a lot different than seeing actors or influencers talk about a product. As well, it’s easy for viewers to sense whether the person is being genuine or not (which is pretty hard to do when it comes to written reviews).

Find Your Own Data

As the internet becomes increasingly regulated, you need to figure out how to get your own information about your audience and customer base. The EU has started the regulation, but other countries are expected to follow suit. All too soon, the data social media applications and other sites are sharing with you might be taken away, and this means if you want to keep strategically targeting your audience, you need to find a way to learn about them.

At the moment, one of the best methods seems to be scheduling virtual events. Live virtual events allow you to have real-time interactions with your audience; you can ask questions and watch the answers roll into the comments.

It also helps you build a real connection with your following, which is important given the instability of most social media platforms at the moment. Beyond this, most people are feeling pretty isolated right now, so any event where they can interact with people will be solving two problems at once.

Funnel To Your Own Real Estate

Again, given the regulation of platforms and the rapid pace at which algorithms are changing, you can’t simply trust that social media platforms are going to be doing all the work for you anymore. Your funnels should always be leading consumers to your own digital real estate where your own shop exists. As people all around the world grow increasingly divided and radicalized, you might find your work is suddenly deemed inappropriate by some fringe group who’s really loud. You might suddenly be kicked off a platform that you were relying on.

Create your own newsletter; focus on your own website; lead traffic to things that you own and control. Part of a good marketing strategy involves security and stability. It’s also time you start optimizing for all the search engines, not just Google, because people are making switches to alternatives at a rapid pace.

The above information should help you update your marketing approach for the current moment. Of course, the digital landscape evolves incredibly fast. This means that you need to be prepared to be flexible and move with it. You should constantly be revisiting your strategies and the current news and information available to make sure your strategy is continually updating to meet people’s expectations and give your business everything it needs to thrive and grow in an ever-changing world.