As we all are aware of the fact that how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced each aspect of our lives. Right from how we work, to how we behave socially, and how businesses operate all over the globe.
Moving to a digital ecosystem has now become the only feasible alternative for several businesses.
More and more businesses today are moving online and employees also continue working remotely or in a hybrid environment for much of the next years.
Digital marketing trends have become a lifesaver for businesses to stay at the top, get new customers, maintain current ones and make large revenue.
For any business that wants to experience growth and development, it has become crucial to adapt and improve its digital marketing strategies accordingly.
Trends always arrive and leave, with the pace of development growing each year. Digital marketing trends have always observed many unexpected declines and progress from the time when the internet started.
And today the latest digital marketing trends are among the top concerns for most business proprietors.
So, to give a powerful fight in this competitive world, every digital marketer today needs to continuously invest time and energy to learn and upskill, to get a successful future in digital marketing.
As the landscape of the Internet is constantly growing and evolving, so will be the technology in the 21st century, it will undergo a process of constant growth and acceleration.
Digital marketing in 2021 will need a different and multifaceted strategy, including some of the experimented trends of prior years while profiting from the opportunities provided by developing and innovative trends.
This will help businesses fine-tune their approaches for the best possible sales figures.
The digital marketing trends for 2021 revolves around two different ideas. The first one is the general individual efforts, speaking real problems and tailoring content to satisfy the individual for more personal engagement.
And the second one is much more technical optimization that your satisfied customers can’t see, i.e. fine-tuning, like SEO, and the structuring of campaigns.
What is the Future of Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing has now become one such factor that makes a significant impact on the growth of any business.
It works as the driving force behind any entrepreneurial business to make people aware of the brand so that they can avail the products or services offered by it. It, therefore, helps expand the scope of a business’s operation.
The future of digital marketing is full of opportunities, seeing the continuous improvements in the technology space, digital marketing is growing at a very fast pace.
Therefore, anyone looking to build a career in digital marketing is on the right path. Even for business owners that want to integrate digital marketing, the future will demand digital marketing as a need, and therefore right now is the proper time.
Also, Read – 8 Best SEO Trends to Drive More Traffic in 2021
9 Latest Digital Marketing Trends for 2021
Defined below are the key digital marketing trends for 2021 that are necessary for your business to engage and maintain current customers and produce more traffic, leads, and revenue:
Online Search Trends:
1) Voice Search
Nowadays voice search has become the number one trend that all businesses need to focus on. Voice search has changed how marketing professionals optimize websites to rank for targeted keywords and questions.
When you use voice search, your query is normally answered quickly without the need to scroll through several options available on the screen. And for text, you tend to scroll the rest of the listings on a search results page.
This is the advantage with voice, that the user tends to go with the first thing that appears as that normally answers their questions thoroughly.
The popularity of voice search has directed to one of the most important shifts in utilizing keywords.
2) Automated and Smart Bidding Strategies in Google Ads
While running a Google Ads campaign, marketers invest lots of time and resources in manually optimizing their bids and keywords.
This seems very time-consuming plus there is a lot of guesswork that could be harmful to your campaign.
Here, Automated bidding on Google Ads can help, it takes away all that guesswork and supports businesses to reach their objectives more efficiently.
Google takes care of analyzing the data and sets the bids accordingly to enhance your campaign’s performance.
Utilizing context clues like time, ad creative, and user device, it can estimate the probability of conversion and then generate a bidding strategy around those estimates and perform incremental enhancements over time.
3) Zero or No Click Searches
Usually, when you have a question, you type and search it into Google, and choose the article that best answers your question or provides you the information you need.
But you must have noticed that sometimes the answer is suggested to you in the form of a paragraph at the top of the result page.
This is known as a zero-click SERP, where the answer is displayed directly at the top of a Google search result.
Here the entire information associated with that question is given at first sight by the search engine.
So, the SEO strategy adapted must therefore be devised in a way that provides people with comprehensive information about the work done by the business.
Social Media Trends:
4) Interactive Content
The influence of media interactivity has jumped forward with the evolution of the internet, particularly after blogs and social networks become so much popularized. Content marketing has always been a trend in the digital world.
But for 2021, digital trends are considered more of a best practice. Presenting interactive content is a trend that moves together with personalization.
Interactive contents are dynamic elements that encourage user participation in order to communicate your message.
Adding interactive portions to your website is an excellent way to provide value for visitors, get them engaged with your website, and discover more about them.
Some of the most successful interactive content ideas are:
- Assessments such as Quizzes
- Surveys and Polls
- Interactive videos
- Calculators
- Games and Contests
5) Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is an essential part that influences business productivity and performance. Employees’ skills and expertise are important, but their dedication and commitment to the company are essential as well for long-term growth.
If you have a business with various employees that are committed, engaged, and passionate about the work they accomplish, this can be a great asset not only to your business but additionally to your online reputation. Consider an example of LinkedIn.
You must be having your company page where you share articles and post events, however, to get more engagement and traffic, have your employees share and comment on those posts.
And they should be encouraged to discuss it online while mentioning or tagging the company and sharing compelling stories. This can help build your online community in a natural and relatable way.
6) Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a kind of social media marketing that uses recommendations or endorsements to promote products from influencers and content creators that have a dedicated social following and are recognized as experts within their niche.
For effective influencer marketing, you don’t always require a huge star or social celebrity. You should search for people with growing fans on new platforms, and understand how they communicate with their followers.
This type of marketing comes with various rules and conditions. For example, it is expected to reveal certain types of financial relationships, so influencers utilize the #ad hashtag on social posts.
Make sure to completely research the rules in your state and implement them for your team, yourself, and the influencer you are working with.
Also, Read – 8 Best Social Media Platforms for Business in 2021
Web Development Trends:
7) Mobile-First Websites
Mobile has transformed the way the world works. It has influenced every aspect of life. Businesses today are increasingly adopting a mobile-first digital approach because of the increase in mobile users and mobile web usage: around 78% of all teens utilize their smartphone rather than a laptop and users access about 70% of all media through their phones.
This simply indicates that whenever a website is created, it should be planned out on the smallest screen first to provide the most satisfying experience to mobile users while adding features intended to increase mobile use.
This can include streamlined navigation menus, touchscreen-friendly navigation, and other functions like collapsible menus and more.
8) Chatbots
Chatbots are AI-powered software programs that facilitate conversations with your customers. They can be programmed with varying responses based on what a user wants or questions.
Applying the same kind of AI that’s seen in smart assistants and voice search, chatbots utilize instant messaging to chat with visitors on your website. Chatbots are an excellent way to bridge the gap between sales and marketing.
These chatbots work help in collecting information, qualifying leads, and establishing your sales team for success. Chatbots provide 24/7 service, essential information, and immediate answers to your consumers’ questions.
This saves you money and time by not spending on additional consumer service employees without losing customer service.
9) Video Marketing
Videos today are the fastest-growing form of content. From TikTok to YouTube, people are absorbing video content in more substantial quantities.
People understand visuals like illustrations, images, and video better than written content. It’s easier to watch a quick video than read a lengthy article.
Research shows that around 84% of people have been convinced to purchase a product or service after watching a brand’s video. Best of all, Video Marketing offers one of the highest conversion rates of any form of marketing.
For efficient marketing and promotion, it is essential to incorporate video marketing into your business’s digital marketing strategy. Defined below are the benefits of video marketing:
- Consumers respond well to videos.
- Videos increase engagement.
- Videos are an efficient way to show off fresh and existing products.
- Videos are simple to place together and cost-effective, particularly when compared to graphics and copy.
Conclusion
Digital marketing trends for 2021 progress towards automation and personalization. These trends in digital marketing and SEO provide us an idea of the overall direction in which something is growing, developing, or moving.
These trends help you to strategically develop and structure your plans to provide your business with a competitive edge.
They aim at providing users super personalized content and to relieve the burden on marketers, all with the help of automation tools powered by artificial intelligence and the latest strategies.
We’ve identified nine areas where managers should invest their time and resources.
If you are not able to understand where to start, start here — because these nine business trends can help your business grow and succeed. All the best for taking the opportunities from these digital marketing trends in 2021 and beyond!
