The year 2020 has been the most unpredictable year in that it set a precedence for how businesses should be run mostly online.
The point is – now is the time for marketers to take a close, hard look at how they embrace their digital presence and what trends to follow. Only when they have a clarity of goals, KPIs, and performance metrics and how different strategies can help them adapt in this ever-changing environment can they thrive successfully.
In the face of ever-possible adversities, below are the trends to pivot your digital marketing efforts in 2021 –
Artificial Intelligence
Table of Contents
Artificial Intelligence is hands-down the #1 front runner among all the trends and tech predictions in the year 2021 and beyond. It has become integral to almost all businesses. The technological trend carries several advantages such as –
- Improved customer service
- Ability to predict customer behavior for better strategizing
- Influencing the decision-making process of customers by offering recommendations based on their preferences, likes, queries, previous buying history, etc.
- Help exceed customer expectations
The good news is – AI technology is becoming increasingly affordable to small and big businesses alike. That means, almost all marketers can leverage it. No matter the scale of your business; everyone can deploy AI via things like chatbots and stuff.
Video Advertising
If you want to stay relevant in 2021 and beyond you can no longer ignore video content. Almost all platforms are adopting the trend of publishing bite-sized as well as longer form of videos. And, there’s a reason for that.
The video-based format has a ton of things to offer –
- It explains products and services better
- Because of the nature of the content, viewers can better retain what they saw
- It’s multifunctional
- Can be repurposed to other platforms such as LinkedIn stories and Instagram reels
- More engaging content
- A better way to communicate with audiences
As mentioned earlier, videos have a better recall value. Besides, viewers today expect more visual content as attention spans are getting shorter and videos help to grab attention better than anything else.
Voice Search
Thanks to the growing popularity of devices like Google Home, Siri, and Alexa, voice search has disrupted the tech industry. Everyone is slowly moving from typing-based search queries to voice-based ones.
That’s why marketers must be careful while choosing keywords and search phrases. That’s because the selection of words during a voice search is different from regular queries. They tend to be longer, more conversational, and casual.
Voice search is something to embrace as they present a rare and unique opportunity for businesses to level the playing field. They have greater capabilities to attract a younger demographic.
Be sure to focus on things like –
- Picking long-tail keywords
- Including question phrases
- Including simple/casual language
Make sure that the keywords you pick align with your tech SEO strategy. You should also have a mobile-friendly site to measure the best possible voice search experience.
Google Ads
Google Ads continue to remain a very much viable and relevant part of a successful digital marketing strategy. You can hyper-target your audiences and generate quality leads. When conducted successfully, you can gain exponential success from the campaigns.
Google ads allow an automated bidding system wherein you can adjust your bids in real-time. In this way, you can maximize the return on investment.
It’s one of those pivot digital marketing that you might want to start contemplating in 2021.
Additional Tips
Focus on Customer Retention and Branding
Online merchants will continue to face these 3 risks in 2021 and beyond:
- An ever-increasing online marketplace growth
- Massive competition in the online sphere
- The rising cost of advertisement and customer retention
One of the best ways to elevate your digital marketing in current times is to focus on strong branding and customer retention. Make sure you have a good agency CRM software to track your efforts. The latter is going to be much more important today.
With the rising cost of customer acquisition, getting your customers to come back for subsequent purchases could mean the world in terms of better profit margins.
To make that happen, companies can use things like loyalty points and subscriptions to keep customers engaged.
Other than that, a strong brand with a unique voice that is recognizable at different stages of the funnel is another crucial thing. To that end, brands should use printing logos at packaging and invoices to increase the stickiness factor.
Conduct More Virtual Events
Virtual Events started as a thing of necessity during 2020 since most of us were in lockdown and had no other avenue to connect with brands than virtually.
But, the trend is here to stay now. Not only it encourages added safety – but it also opens up a brand new way in which people from around the globe can come together and connect.
Companies realized the power of virtual meetings. There are no visa issues, cost constraints, or travel restrictions. Virtual events have easier access points than inviting people to travel abroad and spend thousands of dollars. There’s better room for higher participation and attendance.
To have a winning digital marketing campaign in 2021 and beyond you must focus on –
- Inviting great speakers
- Create fun courses
- Producing rich content
All provided virtually.
Bottom Line
This year is going to be all about showing resilience. The most important thing is going to be how well you can engage your customers. If you can ensure engagement, customers are bound to come to you. Other than that, sticking with these above-mentioned tactics is sure to do wonders for your online campaigns.
