2021 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch
There is always massive interest in digital marketing trends and innovation in marketing as we get closer to a new year. There is no better way to stay ahead of your competitors than by educating yourself about the what’s coming, shifting and no longer relevant.
So what should you expect?
The focus on customer behaviour and personalised marketing will expand.
Personalised marketing means having the control to reach a specific group of customers within a larger group of customers. Companies will continue to collect user data from list segments, surveys, or studies, allowing more relevant and compelling email and social media campaigns to take place targeting audiences based on their buying, interests, and behaviours online.
Netflix does this best.
Netflix is famous for its viewing recommendations, using an algorithm that’s consistently improving and changing to match the needs of its audience. The streaming giant has a solid strategy for personalisation – based on previous actions; it aims to entice the right viewer to the right content.
Video will continue to dominate
Marketing through video content was the most dominant marketing trend in 2020 and will only continue to expand. Video is undoubtedly more engaging as it appeals to our visual and auditory senses together.
If you own a business or run the marketing team, its the ultimate storytelling tool, you can quickly get your message across to your consumer. Think How to use videos, customer testimonial videos, behind the scenes or event coverage videos. All are great content examples to improve customer engagement with your brand further – and the beauty is you can now easily share it across every social platform!
Find your Mirco-Influencers
One of the most topical changes is influencer marketing, and what changes are coming. The key to influencing in 2021 will shift to a focus on the Micro-Influencer. While they may be relatively micro in reach, they genuinely influence people’s decision-making. With small but strong followings, they are as powerful as you can get as their engagement levels tend to be high. Given a lot of micro-influencers create their content and manage their accounts means brands can easily connect with them and be featured more frequently.
Podcasting for the win.
In terms of digital marketing trends, podcasting is the fastest-growing medium online. As our pace of living changes, people are valuing their time more than anything else and are wanting meaningful content to be readily available anytime. Listening is a sense that can be done on the move, following customers anywhere they go. There are limitless possibilities with podcasts, by offering longer and more conversational content unlike the bitesize nature of video content, you can personally connect with your listeners and share honest and meaningful content, through a natural style of promoting ‘sales’ messages.
Your customers want transparency.
In a post-pandemic world, consumers expect transparency from the brands they love. As a business, you need to be asking yourselves ‘How are you helping?’ and ‘Why are you even in existence?’ – as your consumers will be making decisions based on how you market these answers.
To be transparent, and you need to:
- Work out your brand’s core values be willing to share and integrate these into marketing campaigns
- Make sure that ‘selling’ is not your only goal.
- Be open with your customers- share with them as much as you can about who you are as a business.
- Create a safe space and encourage customers/followers to give suggestions to help improve your products or services, basically facilitate a community around your brand.
- If customers have concerns or questions, respond immediately by setting up the proper channels ( Facebook groups, chatbots, Instagram DM)
