The arena of digital marketing is constantly evolving with a plethora of new possibilities which makes it difficult to pinpoint what the future holds. The paradigm shift that this pandemic has brought in the business world has left many marketers and agencies amused while predicting digital marketing trends and strategies in 2021 to stay ahead of the curve. So far the previous year has seen ample businesses expanding their product portfolios online and employees working remotely and as a result, the ongoing pandemic will witness more companies to invest in digital marketing strategies and digital marketing trends to evolve with the dynamic business environment.
So what are the key digital marketing trends to consider in the upcoming years? Well, for sure you need to engage your current customers and generate more online traffic that leads to soaring sales and revenue. Below are the latest nine trends to be considered when you are making an online shift!!
1. The rise of engaging social media
Brace yourselves to involve more resources to social media strategies in the upcoming years. As per the researched data, during the second quarter of 2020, social media marketing budgets accounted for nearly 24% of the total marketing budgets in the U.S, up from 13% in 2019. In 2020, advertisers increasingly made customer retention and lead generation first priority, which is surely expected to last in the upcoming years. 2020 saw a drastic change in the increase of screen time within the users including how they researched products, brands, and organizations. The consumer shift also created new opportunities for people to incorporate inbound digital marketing to reach new target audiences and retain loyal ones. Adopting these smart strategies like developing a content plan, make regular posts, monitor and drive customer responses and reviews, and attract new business; is going to flourish your business beautifully!
2. The budding Micro-Influencers
The word Influencer has become a part of our daily lives with people who have built and attracted a commendable social following by producing quality and engaging content. These influencers can be Instagram stars, YouTube celebrities, or Facebook and Twitter influencers. Influencers are quite relatable, and their followers have the faith in whatever they do. Therefore, the opinions they convey can influence their target audience’s behaviors, a trait that most brands want. In the future, brands will increasingly turn to micro-influencers as they explore incorporating influencer marketing into their digital marketing trends mix. The lower cost and higher ROI offset the issues that arise from working with micro-influencers, such as extra management work and resources.
3. Interactive Marketing Content flourishes
Having interactive elements added to your website and social media platforms is a great way to retain visitors, adding value to your website and increase involvement with your brand and content, and learn more about them. For example, you must observe in many real estate websites where realtors can add a mortgage calculator that offers great value to visitors and spurs their engagement. It also allows the realtor, to learn more about your visitors based on the data they key into the calculators. You can then use the information collected to refine your personas and offer-targeting.
4. Video Content at the heart of digital marketing
One of the dynamic ways for businesses to interact with users and help with decision-making in social media is video content. Popular online activities for mobile and internet users are watching videos for music, entertainment, information, and DIY tips. This is because users have more confidence in products when they see a video about them. When done right, product videos encourage consumers to make a purchase, sometimes are educational and popular among mobile users and shared multifold via social media. As a natural instinct when you are scrolling on any social media platform, you tend to pause on a video to simply see what the video is about. It is no secret that video content is more engaging than photos on social media.
5. Google Listings and Local SEO drive online marketing
If you are an owner of a business, allowing raising your walk-in customers and expanding your online presence are the most appropriate strategies to verify and keep current on your local listings on the various search platforms available to you. For B2C businesses that rely primarily on local customers (like a car dealership or dental office), online listing services like Google My Business are invaluable. These services offer information such as your services, service hours, and geographical location.
6. Mobile Inbound Marketing is the ultimate future
The most versatile marketing is mobile marketing. Mobile has become our best friend, our partner for life of. The number of people who are consuming online content on their devices are spurring on unimaginable levels every day. Mobile marketing produces instantaneous results and has a huge potential for things to go viral. As a result, brands will continue optimizing their content and websites for mobile devices in the future.
7. Customized content for in-depth user experience
Content personalization is now a superbly impactful marketing tool, kudos to the increased online traffic in the past years. It helps you to build effective sales email campaigns, educate your audience, drive new and repeat business to your website, and achieve other goals in the digital realm.
However, customization will go beyond just personalizing email messages. It will include artificial intelligence (AI) input to make data analyses more effective and efficient to allow personalization and customization to another level. AI solutions can help you select the perfect email template for the target individual and develop content that fits their needs. It will also allow you to make consistent content decisions in the future.
8. Chat bots and AI will complement Content Creation
AI and chatbots are the new essentials of an effective website. These will enhance content creation and delivery strategies and become unavoidable parts of the global user experience. AI (Artificial Intelligent) is definitely going to drive the content creation process through the supply of relevant data, source information, references, and the provision of authority to the content your marketers write. Moreover, as chatbots become intelligent, they will deliver information and support marketing campaigns seamlessly.
9. The power of voice search
Voice search is exactly not a part of Google’s search algorithm, which is the most renowned and popular search engine worldwide. Yet, it is powerful and drives the search results. Advertisers and marketers expect voice search to become talk of the town due to several factors like the increased usage of digital personal assistants like Google or Siri app.
