8 Digital Marketing Trends Set for 2021

• Updated on: 2021-03-16
• Read original article here

With all the boom and doom of COVID-19 in the past year, 2021 comes forth with a major global shift in digital advertising. According toa researchthe searches have drastically changed over the time period os covid-10 arrival. The profound impact of digital marketing in the past year bores new trends and ideas to reach a wider audience for businesses, benefiting them greatly.

It is well known that  E-commerce has gained huge popularity over the years and with it comes the need to E-advertise. While digital marketing provides great value to online stores it has proven equally beneficial for traditional markets as well.

Digital marketing is the GOAT (greatest of all time) of all marketing activities. The purpose of marketing is to create a need and add value, yet digital marketing acts as a lead magnet which is why it is the main component. 

The possibility of brands reaching a greater audience is all thanks to digital marketing. Otherwise half of what we know about different products and services available in the world would still be unknown to us.  

Digital marketing gives you the flexibility to analyze useful data you have received from your customers regarding their choices and preferences and channelise your marketing campaigns according to the preferred target audience.

There is no doubt that it has opened new doors towards a more interactive and authoritative approach with clients.

The reality of digital business pivots becoming permanent is not far and digital marketing is the way to go. Digital marketing trends are required by businesses to generate more traffic and hit their target audience.

 Let’s have a look at our top 8 picks of the latest digital marketing trends set for 2021.

Research suggests that around 93% of online shopping begins with search engines like Google or Yahoo. When a client sits down to do some research on a product or service, they type it down on their favourite search engines for better guidance. If your content does not show up on their search results, how will they be aware of your online presence?

To improve your SEO ranking,passage-based indexingpermits Google to rank the most specific, relevant content from a particular page and not simply theweb page itself. So rather than Google ONLY considering the importance of a whole page, it will specifically display the relevant segment of the content that suits the intended search.

On-page SEO, backlinks,site’s speed, UX signals, SEO techniques and Google’s ranking factors that position relevant content will apply as well. 

The purpose of google passaging is to give the opportunity to improve the ranking of single pages provided thatthe page is well organised and optimised.

SEO is a great approach for generating more online traffic and reaching the audience intended. Researchers have analyzed that while paid ad only reaches 10% of the audience, passage-based SEO drives 70% more traffic. More than one billion users use Google daily to find the products they need. So it is highly effective. Taking advantage of the right SEO reporting tools could help you a lot here. 

Visual search has advanced the searching mechanism, making it more accurate than ever. It has proven to be one of the most convenient ways to search for a product and companies are racing to get their visual search SEO on top. 

Amongst all the visual search tools,Google Lensis hands down the most well known and most preferred one. Designed by Google, the purpose of this tool is to land you directly to what you are searching for.

Another cool thing is that it can scan and decipher the text, for e.g it can examine a restaurants menu and filter the Google reviews and enlist the popular dishes on the menu. Tourist spots can be identified and discovered using visual search tools as well. What’s cooler is that it can recognize animals and plants, and it likewise does what is the focal point of the tool: visual hunt. 

In case you’re strolling past a boutique shop and you happen to catch a sight of a watch or shirt that you truly like, you can snap a photo of it and run it through Google lens. It will show similar pieces of clothing, some perhaps significantly less expensive. You won’t need to open your search bar and type ‘dark shirt with a blossom’ example and search for a long time in an attempt to discover anything like it.

In today’s world influencers are like celebrities. They have the same impact on people’s lives as any celebrity and their opinion mostly appears to be the only opinion that matters. Influencers are the strongest people when it comes tosocial media managementand marketing.

Influencer marketing is a kind of trial and test mechanism whichincreases the reachof an audience willing to buy a product when they have authenticity on the product or service. 63% of onlinebuyers trust an influencer’s opinionmuch more than do the company’s own advertisement.

With that being said, let’s assess which social platform is suited best forinfluencer marketing.

Instagram with 1 billion active monthly users tops as the best influencer marketing platform. However, if we generally discuss all platforms, analysis has shown that businesses witnessed a 58% increase in buyers andInstagram growthafter theyhired influencersto market their products.

With the use of digital marketing growing, it is predicted that influencer marketing will exceed far more than a trend. 

“Customer service is the new marketing”. This statement is slowly being taken over by AI robots. The time has come when humans manage the back end developments and let program-driven robots handle the front line.

Chatbots is a recent example. Marketers believe that the adoption of smart technologies will foster faster solutions and quick engagements. They have acknowledged that it has streamlined the workflow in an organized manner.  82% of people have reported that they appreciate immediate responses from brands and businesses for their queries.

Ultimately conversational marketing is there to improve user experience. It facilitates by providing one-on-one, real-time interaction between the brand and its consumers. Consumers can easily ask for queries about the services or book an appointment immediately with no hassle.

Brands have planned to let their front end operations such as customer handling and assistance activities be controlled by smart robots. 

 As per requirement, the companies aim to deliver to their consumers. Approximately 36% of companies havestarted using chatbots, emails and live chat for their sales and it has shown a significant 79% increase in customer satisfaction. This has led to growth in sales and immersed the overall user experience.

Interactive marketing is the fastest growing digital marketing trend. It provides an instant access interactive approach. This type of marketing makes consumers feel as if products are being customized per their interests, likes and suggestions. Some interactive marketing experiences that have recently emerged include polls, quizzes, augmented reality ads.

If you’re able to pair interactive content with a highly engaging content strategy, such ashosting webinars, the conversion rates collectively will be higher than most other tactics you can try.  

It is completely useless to market products without knowing the preferences, likes and suggestions of your target audience. Well, this trend has made data collection much easier. For example, interactive quizzes give the audience a chance to participate and give useful feedback, hence keeping them engaged. Instagram live can be hosted with an ongoing poll alongside, interlinking the two types of interactive marketing.   

Considering the 91% of buyers interested in interactive marketing businesses should invest in a more interactive approach to increase their audience reach. 

It provides a more engaging and memorable experience, leading to more traffic and thus maximizing reach. 

According to surveys, companies have witnessed a 20% increase in their sales with the deployment of Artificial intelligence. There is a new marketing feature instilled with a controlled mechanism calledprogrammatic advertising.

Programmatic advertising comes with the utilization of AI to mechanize and automate ad buying. Instead of paying for an ad, programmatic advertising allows brands to send out targeted ads to a very specific segment of audiences. 

An example of programmatic ad buying is real-time bidding. This automation is considerably more proficient and quick, which accelerates the chances of conversions.

Programmatic advertising has brought an evolution to digital advertising.  Digital display ads will be 86% programmatic by 2021, as predicted by E-marketers. 

From one perspective, this development has furnished a new opportunity to reach specific audiences with front line innovation. 

As we know AI has gained huge momentum, it will spread its wings further and become a game-changer from 2021 and beyond. 

Video content is the leading trend of content marketing in 2021 and beyond. The pandemic has put light on its significance which ensures that the massive leads it generates won’t be slowing down at any point in the future.

99% of advertisersare willing to move with video marketing strategies in 2021 and 95% of marketers are able to invest more dollars invideo marketing tacticsto sustain their revenues.

 It is rapidly turning into a core marketing strategy of any business and brands have  solidified their positions and progress by engaging the audience with creative video contents. 

It is a fact that short-structured video content is arising as a leader. While long-structured content also has a spot, short videos pose as the dominating strategy –  According tosysteme.iocompact video marketing is a practical approach for brands that need to interface with their clients and remain on top of their minds.

They are essential, effectively absorbable and can lead to conversions. One just needs to take the success of TikTok as an example during Covid-19  and understand the demand of the audience for short and engaging content.

It is amazing what we can do with the advancement in technology today. Have you played PokemonGo in which you come across wild Pokemons in your street? Yes, that’s what augmented reality is.

IKEA has launched their application called IKEA Place where they give users the opportunity to test IKEA furniture in their house using their smartphones. The furniture seems to appear as if positioned within the space and can be moved and adjusted according to the user’s preference. This a very practical and innovative approach that is reshaping the world of digital marketing.

While Virtual Reality seems to be very exciting Augmented Reality promises a more realistic approach and is more implementable.

Visual artists at Sephora have programmed AR in such a way that clients can come and use different makeup products on their skin through an application before purchasing them, giving them the freedom to test and try according to their liking. 

The world we know today is owned by digital experts and in order to keep up with the ever-changing developments, one must understand the importance of digital marketing and be able to use it to their own advantage.

Digital marketing experts are well aware that with the constant advancement in technology, change is inevitable. They are required to stay up to date with the latest trends and advertising methods. It is essential to adapt to new changes in order to gain an edge over the competitors.