The Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends In 2021
Digital marketing trends are a prerequisite for all industries, along with their products and services. Without digital marketing, your products won’t sell, which will immediately lead to business downfall. Back in the day, before digital modernisation came fully to life, a Facebook page and a simple website were enough to get the company running. But today, with the widening of the digital landscape, there are so many platforms to reach out to.
It gets harder to keep up with everything at stake, especially with the growing rise of competition in the market today. Today, we will be compiling the top 10 digital marketing trends for you in 2021. These trends will help you take your business to the next level.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing consists of advertisements delivered via digital channels like social media, search engines, email, website design, and smartphone apps. By utilising these media channels present online, digital marketing involves a technique by which businesses endorse their brands, products, and services.
Nowadays, customers rely mostly on digital means for researching their desired products. For instance, according to Google marketing insight, 48% of customers began their inquiries on the search engines, while 33% used brand sites, and 26% did their search via mobile applications.
10 Digital Marketing Trends In 2021
Here is the list of the top ten digital marketing trends in 2021 for you:
Facebook isn’t struggling, but it is no longer the top performer of social media. According to a study from Forbes, about 41% of FB users are 65+ in age. Facebook is starting to lose its touch with the younger demographics. Youngsters are more into Instagram, Tik Tok, and Snapchat, which offers more visual and interactive experiences. After the data breaching scandal with Facebook in 2018, this platform is starting to lose significant credibility. The majority of the people are growing tired of its cyberbullying, the proliferation of fake news, and political propaganda.
TechCrunch speculates that Facebook is almost dead to Gen Z. Future digital marketers need to analyse who their marketing target is because Facebook might be unfitting for certain campaigns. Why? Because it is failing to keep up with the younger demographics. Facebook is still big as many Americans are continuing to check-in. Still, marketers should be extra cautious, especially on making sure if their target is present on Facebook or not.
There are over a billion users on Instagram today, with the platform being a hit, mostly with the kids. It is one of the fastest-growing online platforms today. The majority of the users on Instagram fall under the younger demographic, mostly under 30. But there is one potential issue that marketers should keep an eye out for with Instagram.
The platform decided to get rid of the likes feature. Many influencers are voicing out their opinions about this movie. Yes, it does lead to an uptick in content quality; however, multiple users are starting to drift away from Instagram, searching for vanity metrics somewhere else. Marketers should keep an eye on the impact this move could have in 2021.
Chatbots
Chatbots are artificial intelligence (AI) technology software that takes a virtual concierge in communicating and assisting users in fulfilling their objectives. Chatbots tends to interact with users naturally via text chat windows and verbal interactions. As the system starts collecting more data insights, this AI constantly improves service by learning more about its consumers. Chatbots offered weather reports and certain basic functions of customer support on Facebook in 2018 and 2019. It allows personalised and focused interactions.
About 80% of companies are interested in using chatbots this year. Why? Well, because it offers 24-Hour service, immediate responses to customer grievances, and no need for overtime pay, breaks, or vacations. According to Tidio’s research in January 2020, about 43% of customers prefer an online chatbot to the phone customer support centre. It is undoubtedly one of the rapidly growing digital trends for this year.
Videos
Without video marketing, there is a 90% chance that your business won’t flourish. Text-based content isn’t enough because consumers are mostly attracted by visuals, especially when marketing your services and goods online. People are constantly watching and sharing videos from their smartphones today. According to ImpactBND statistics, 70% of customers share a brand’s video, 52% of customers are claiming that watching product videos helps them be more confident about their online buying decisions.
Video marketing is super engaging, especially when it is a live video. When it comes to digital marketing, live streaming is an effective method, especially when it mixes with influencer marketing. An influencer interacting directly with its followers through comments is an effective tactic for video marketing. About 15 million active users on Twitch every day, most of whom start tuning in to watching live videos from major influencers.
Great Content
Content marketing is another major component of digital marketing. The quality needs to be great, and so should the targeting and context. Google is starting to develop a sophisticated and deeper understanding of online content. So, marketers need to think carefully concerning their target market and tailoring their content in 2021.
A piece of wise advice from Google is that, instead of chasing the newest SEO trends, try to stress the importance of a website with well-written content, fast speeds, and useful links. Google will prioritize content that is current, in-depth, and accurate with the user’s intent.
Personalised Email
Email marketing is a major form of communication for a ton of purposes. Billions are using it every day, and email is here to stay forever. But generic email marketing isn’t as effective and is constantly evolving. The combination of personalisation and automation makes email marketing crucial in 2021.
Triggering your email marketing to something unique and specific is a great tactic, such as a consumer browsing a product and then following it up with a demo video or a promotional price inside a personalised email. This technique is super effective in drawing more consumers. Email is usually the final trigger for motivating action. It is best when you combine it with your remarketing tactics.
Interactive Content
Interactive content consists of anything that the consumers can swipe, interact with, or click online. You can expect more people in 2021 to interact with quizzes, polls, augmented reality advertisements, and 360⁰ videos. It offers engaging and immersive experiences to the people. Consumers crave this fun and memorable content from companies as it helps them better connect with the brand.
Voice Interaction
Verbal interaction with your device is so much easier because of smart devices like Alexa, Google, Siri, Cortana, etc. But there are certain challenges associated with it because a voice search is different than typing a query, especially in the results. Text-based research will display the results on a single page at one go. But conducting a verbal search through a device will only show a few results.
It may frequently supply you with just one choice. Marketers need to write the content in a conversational tone utilizing keywords that consumers will speak instead of typing. It will help you secure featured snippets from Google or the coveted zero spot.
Messaging Apps
Social messaging applications are more than just staying connected with your loved ones. Businesses from varying industries are starting to take a keen interest in applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. There are over 1.3 billion active monthly users on Facebook Messenger, with the users sending ten billion+ messages per month. Also, WhatsApp has over 1.6 billion users, sending about 55 billion messages per day.
People are mostly active on messaging apps. Plus, the messenger is easily expected to be the #1 marketing channel worldwide in the next 5-7 years. So, it is smarter for businesses to start connecting with their target on these platforms. Messaging applications enable businesses to have a wider audience reach by using short and personalized texts.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel marketing consists of marketing across numerous platforms such as email, website blogs, applications, and social media. It allows businesses to start connecting with consumers on digital touchpoints, bringing an improved user experience. You can generate better results by delivering a cohesive company message and consistent voice across every channel.
According to ClickZ, omnichannel marketing tends to bring about 3x more engagement than an approach with a single channel. Also, you get to witness customer retention, purchase frequency, and average order value by having multiple channels.
Conclusion
Almost every businessman in this day and age possess a successful online presence. Some new tools and technologies keep coming up, which plays a huge role in expanding their businesses. It forces both the companies and marketers to start adapting to the new changes every time.
So, it is always important to keep up with the newest digital marketing trends to beat your competitors. We strongly advise you to assess these current trends to know where your resources are going and targeting them. In this way, you can have a successful and stable business.
For an updated list, please read our blog on the digital marketing trends for 2022.
