21 Digital Marketing Trends For 2021
Let us be done with 2020 already! A sentiment we all share and are praying for at this very moment all around the world. Having said that, as difficult the year has been for mankind, Digital marketing saw a boom and how! While social media was the talk of the town among individuals, digital marketing agencies harnessed on opportunities through social media marketing. After many months of a slump, as the market starts picking up momentum, what are the trends to be expected from the New Year? Whether you’re a big brand, digital marketing agency, social media marketing agency, or even yourself as a brand, keep reading on for some of the interesting digital marketing trends of 2021.
1. Inclusivity
Inclusivity will prevail in the way brands communicate with their audience. If recent times have taught us anything is that acceptance is coming in strong and people will stand by it. Digital marketing agencies thus need to construct their social media marketing plan to embrace inclusivity of sex, religion, caste, and choices.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become a friend of digital marketing agencies in particular. Not that AI isn’t already in process of revolutionizing the way we conduct business, but today’s informed buyers need more. Predictive analysis will thus grow stronger in the coming year with AI innovations.
3. Voice Search
Voice search will impact greatly how people search online. With voice assistants normalizing their usage among people, preference on voice search over words is simply the next thing. This puts a bigger responsibility for digital marketing agencies to optimize voice search continually. Focus on long-tail keywords, like for example, an individual will type “date today”, but ask, “what is the date today”.
4. Visual Search
Visual search will become increasingly popular, only because it’s just convenient. From an SEO standpoint for digital marketing agencies, image optimization on websites is a must. Place high-quality relevant images, while also ensuring labeling file names properly, and lastly, use alt tags that are picked up by crawlers.
5. Long-Form Content
Long-form content will perform better because of its in-depth topic exploration. Focusing your content strategy on creating strong content pillars and substantiating it with ample information should be a key focus for any brand or digital marketing agency in 2021. Long-form content will particularly work to your benefit because users will spend more time on your website, thus improving Google ranking; if a user finds all information on your website, then they’re unlikely to leave, thus decreasing bounce rates; and it will fetch you higher social media shares over time.
6. Semantic Keyword Research
Semantic keyword research will become a must while creating content. This means digital marketing agencies should create content keeping the user intent in mind, and not just Google ranking. Understand that the user isn’t after just one keyword in your article. Provide more related information, and this will in turn help Google analyze your content better and what sort of solutions you’re offering.
7. Sustainability
Sustainability will become the point of approval in the audience’s mind. As we move forward, a larger consensus of the world population is realizing their responsibility towards nature and planet Earth. In this regard, people expect brands and digital marketing agencies to do their bit compulsorily. Design experts have already predicted the dominance of minimalistic, nature-inspired elements for logos in the coming year, so it’s only advisable that social media marketing and digital marketing agencies turn their attention towards green themes.
8. Interactive Content
Interactive content will give brands a competitive edge as a value addition. Customers enjoy when brands provide more, as simple as quizzes as part of social media marketing, calculator on the website, etc. The point is how a digital marketing agency makes the customer wait longer at your shop. Content is king we all know but can we make it better with interactions? 2021 will see a shift in how a digital marketing agency or even social media marketing devises ways to interact with the audience more.
9. Videos
Videos will become an absolute staple, not that they aren’t already! The year 2021 will just see a magnanimous growth in social media marketing for video-based content. Ask any social media marketing agency or even a digital marketing agency, whether it’s your posts or ads, videos work well. Heck! It even works for sales pitches.
10. Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation will help personalize content in 2021. The focus of any digital marketing agency should be to segment the customer base to sizeable portions and produce content closely relatable to them. The simplest example is making two types of e-mailers in a month- one for frequent buyers and the other for rare shoppers. It’s work for your digital marketing agency but it will be worth it!
11. Social Commerce
Social Commerce will be the new e-commerce for its convenience factor. We’ve already seen Instagram becoming a huge e-shop solution for SMEs, so much so that biggies like Myntra and Nykaa also got on board the bandwagon. What’s better is if social media marketing helps user look-shop-pay, all at one place. Facebook is already finding ways to perfect it, so, it’s safe to say that social media marketing, especially for retail brands, will see preferential growth in 2021.
12. No-click Search
No-click Search will become a hotspot for websites. This type of search is basically where a user finds answers on the Google search page itself without clicking on any website. It sounds counterproductive to the SEO efforts of a digital marketing agency, but it’s actually increasing your credibility as those select few reliable sources. That’s a big win! And digital marketing agencies will be aiming for that in 2021.
13. Local SEO
Local SEO will give a boost to local businesses in 2021. It is the simplest way to get your neighborhood crowd to your business. Whether you’re a plumber, tailor, or beautician, you can get your business Google-verified with your Google My Business (GMB) profile, and reach customers who are closest to your shop.
14. Microinfluencers
Microinfluencers will prove to be more beneficial for your brand than influencers. Not that the latter will be preferred less in a social media marketing plan, but while they cost a lot, microinfluencers- whose followers are generally between 1k to 25k- will give more traction given their concentrated niche audience and higher engagement rate. Digital marketing agencies have already realized this benefit and it will only grow ahead.
15. Virtual Events
Virtual events will continue well in 2021 even with the world opening up because it’s cost-saving and gives access to more audiences. Although started out of a necessity by most digital marketing agencies, virtual events proved to be highly beneficial, for example, no need for visa arrangements or travel restrictions, thus giving higher ROI at a considerably low expenditure.
16. Augmented and Virtual Reality
Augmented and Virtual Reality applications will start becoming an important part of a digital marketing strategy in 2021. AR and VR have already been around, with brands like Ikea’s Place App and games like Pokémon Go, but it will be interesting to see how social media marketing is strategized around this by digital marketing agencies.
17. Geofence Marketing
Geofence marketing will grow in 2021 now that the world is opening up to people. This form of marketing places a radius around a particular shop and users receive push notifications in form of texts or any other marketing communication. This is a great way to influence visitors to your shop and will definitely be leveraged by digital marketing agencies ahead.
18. Advanced Data Processing
Advanced data processing will open avenues for innovations in digital and social media marketing. Given that we are already in the age of Big Data, digital marketing agencies are still not using it to its full advantage. With the Internet of Things connecting more devices, we are bound to receive data at an exponential rate. Combined with AI technology, it’s only a matter of time for digital marketing agencies to devise new ways of marketing personalization.
19. Chatbots
Chatbots will start becoming a must for every website and app in the coming year. In recent years, chatbots have transformed enormously, so much so that sometimes it is hard to distinguish them from a real human. The year 2021 will see advancement in this technology as well as becoming a standard requisite by all digital marketing agencies for their brands.
20. Mobile-Friendliness
Mobile-friendliness will influence the search rankings of your website. Google introduced mobile-first indexing back in 2018 and it’s only obvious since most of the internet users access via mobile devices. The coming year will see digital marketing agencies optimizing websites in this particular facet.
21. Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation trends will increase in 2021. Digital marketing has opened many avenues for marketing automation, from tasks like sending e-mailers to even predicting suggestions for a user through machine learning. In 2021, digital marketing agencies in particular will dive deep into this subject with ways to simplify and automate processes in different platforms.
Team – The Clicks Technologies (TCT)
