As digital trends change every year, marketers should always be aware of the changes to easily adapt to emerging technologies and stay ahead in the digital market. Now is the perfect time to think about what changes are occurring in this area and how businessmen and digital entrepreneurs can prepare for it. Business people, who have to plan their activities early and anticipate changes, should always be concerned about digital marketing. Their business future depends on that if they advertise online for getting clients, prospects, or leads.
Read on to discover 10 digital marketing trends for 2021 that will help your business not just survive, but thrive in this age of innovation.
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising means using AI to automate ad buying so you can target more specific audiences. Real-time bidding, for example, is a type of programmatic ad buying. This automation is much more efficient, which means higher conversions and lower customer acquisition costs.
Most search-driven manual advertising campaigns (even those performed with professional tools) focus on three targets: the keyword, time of day, and location. Such tools like programmatic demand-side platforms can use hundreds of targeting signals to individualize the advertisement and even target according to lifestyle or behavior habits when integrated with customer data platforms.
The digital market is to be really improved by programmatic advertising and marketers will definitely take full advantage of this sort of advertising.
Data-based marketing
Marketers will increasingly focus on machine learning and automation algorithms to deliver tangible business results. Although in the past it has been possible to achieve good results with basic marketing methods, nowadays we are working less and less with this method. Consumers expect to receive messages that respond to their personal needs. Advertisers who use machine learning to leverage their own data can more precisely control bidding strategies through predictive models.
Does it mean consumers will get more personalized ads? Of course, along with personalized messages and incentives to buy your services or your products.
Inclusive marketing
Today’s consumers want more than product information from brands. What they really demand is the brand’s perspective on topics that matter — and how they positively contribute. In 2021, a brand’s view on issues such as diversity and inclusion, climate change, and sustainability will become even more important.
For example, consumers expect to hear from diverse voices, and so we should consider identity, culture, and representation. Famous brands have already contributed to a global shift in mindset and that helped them acquire a certain personal relationship with the consumers.
So, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is not dead, but it’s only been refined, inclusive marketing being an interesting and useful by-product.
Personalization
If you want to stand out in 2021, you need to personalize your digital marketing strategy – and that means personalized content, products, emails, and more. Personalization helps the users find what they are looking for in a faster manner leading to increased customer satisfaction and better customer retention.
For example, when you want to study cases about the importance of personalization, it’s hard to overlook Netflix and Amazon, with their tailored recommended products or movie titles.
Marketers can use website personalization:
• To build brand loyalty
• To understand the needs of your visitors
• To nurture and convert visitors
It’s not only about personalizing the ads! It’s about personalizing the communication with the customers and catering to their needs.
Voice assistants
Siri! What’s the best pizza store in town?
Alexa! Can you tell me what’s the best laptop for gaming?
Hey, Google! What’s the fastest route to the closest shopping mall?
Voice assistants will become a more prominent contact point for customers in 2021.
“By the end of this year, there will be over 1.6 billion people who regularly use voice assistants, and their interests will not only focus on checking the time or sending messages,” writes Manuel Roman, Head of Consumer Marketing at Google Spain.
As consumers, we are heading for a conversational economy, one in which home voice assistants will play an important role. By responding to customers’ emotions and needs when interacting, brands will be able to create much faster and more effortless experiences for consumers.
Mobile experience
It’s not a new one, as Google Mobile-First Indexing has been rolled out for quite a while. Though, by 2021, consumers will expect a flawless experience on all channels, including mobile devices. However, mobile conversion rates remain the same as those on the desktop. Marketers that want to stay on top of the mobile trend can:
– Invest in new technologies such as AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages & PWA (Progressive Web Applications)
– Create experiences for different consumer search behaviors
– Look for advanced measurement techniques to better map the consumer journey
Here you should pay attention to the UX/UI of your pages. Does the user have an interesting and engaging experience on your website or your app? If so, he will stay longer and he might make a purchase. If not, make sure you’d change that asap.
Visualizing search
This year has marked 20 years since the invention of Google Images. Consumers are increasingly relying on images when looking for answers, deciding what services or products to buy, or even looking for inspiration. So much so, that from 2016 to 2018 “image search” increased on mobile by over 60%.
Finding the right combination of text and images can lead to extraordinary results. In 2021, we will continue our search visualization experiments to help marketers and advertisers adapt and develop their campaigns in this visual era.
The rise of Chatbots
We expect chatbots to continue growing in 2021 — and they’ll likely see become more “normal” in the eyes of the consumers. In other words: people will see them become more widespread and usable.
By 2021 we expect chatbots to be the first place someone goes to order a pizza, choose a mobile plan, or even book a hotel room. Chatbots enable your users to do all of this without the hassle of downloading a native app.
Chatbots save money – you buy them once and implement them, after that, they will be able to answer consumers’ questions and demands 24/7. No pause, no breaks, no sleep, no vacation. They’ll be there answering questions to website users. Non-stop.
Content marketing will become more important
Relevant, quality content remains one of the most effective tools that generate opportunities and lead to conversions in digital marketing.
When talking about content marketing, lots understand only text content, which is wrong. Content means texts, images, videos, info-graphics, podcasts, posts, etc. Everything that could be posted, shared, read, heard, and visualized means content.
That’s why we say that digital assets (product images, brand, portfolio, video, etc.) and creative materials must also be considered. The difference between the last years and the next ones is that the consumer public is starting to ask for much more in-depth materials. Highly specialized and focused content will grow in 2021 as it has proven very effective in the recent past. This trend for the coming year consists of content that recognizes the particularities of each consumer and offers a complete and personalized experience.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that focuses on using key leaders to amplify your brand message to a larger market. Influencers can be well-known celebrities, but more often they are Instagram or Tik Tok personalities with a huge number of followers, who can help spread the word about your business or product through their social channels.
Influencers have already built a loyal following of people who trust them. So when they tell their fans and followers about how great your product is, there is a much higher chance that their audience will convert, simply because they need the product and trust the influencer.
But do pay attention: make sure you match the influencer’s audience and typology with the nature of the product. You won’t need Rafa Nadal to advertise your online software programming classes, for sure, but you will need him for advertising for a restaurant, tennis equipment, or a yacht producer.
In conclusion
2021 brings a new technological dimension to digital marketing. If you’re out-of-date with the digital marketing trends, you’re limiting your brand in both reach and reputation.
Basically, digital marketing means the same — giving people what they want, when and where they want it, and 2021 technology is just opening new doors to get there.
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