In recent years, digital marketing grew at a breakneck speed with the digital transformation of businesses worldwide and the abundance of data. Measuring the returns on investment (ROI) of campaigns has been one of the core concerns of marketers, but with digital marketing, one can precisely measure the ROI of any campaign. The efficacy of traditional marketing platforms like television and radio is waning, and marketers are putting money where the audience is. The market for digital marketing software expects to reach $182.21 billion by 2028, with an annual growth of 18% between these seven years. However, those familiar with the industry also know that it is a type of industry where each part moves, and knowing which trends are in demand is pivotal. Read on to find the top 6 trends that are guaranteed to succeed in 2021.
- Content Marketing
Content marketing (CM) is a marketing approach that is all about uploading attention-grabbing content consistently to attract and retain your target audience to derive profitable customer action. CM now dominates the digital marketing trends. Around 88% of B2B marketers believe that posting great content makes people revisit the website and perceive you as a credible source.
Content is the focus in online marketing after Google’s algorithm update in 2019 to penalize low-quality content in research rankings. Posting excellent-quality content is not just about written blogs; it includes files, videos, infographics, or digital flipbooks. Flipbooks are not widely used, but they can change the look and feel of your overall content as they provide interactive features in digital publications. If you believe that visitors do not read your eBooks, try converting them to flipbooks using an online flipbook creator; you will notice an increase in visitors reading your new-look eBooks.
- Customer Service Chat Bots
Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered customer service chatbots are increasingly gaining popularity in various businesses as they play the role of the virtual “concierge” round the clock without needing breaks and overtime payment. Since AI is continuously evolving, these chatbots are improving with it and are flexible enough to be adjusted from websites to social media accounts.
Chatbots now interact with visitors naturally while maintaining the brand’s communication tone and consistent quality service as they don’t get tired or overwhelmed with more queries. By 2019, about 80% of the businesses reported having planned to start using chatbots in 2020 to benefit from 24/7 service. Digital Marketing Institute suggested that 43% of customers preferred messaging a chatbot over customer service centers.
- Video Marketing
Video marketing has outpaced all other forms of content regarding customer satisfaction and response in buying and selling online. A critical factor behind the popularity of video marketing is that people who use cell phones like to watch and share video content and often ignore written content. Live video streaming has seen a rise in the number of businesses using it and the viewership, particularly when combined with a celebrity, athlete, or influencer interacting with the audience.
Many studies verify the popularity of video marketing, such as ImpactBND shared stats that 72% of businesses believe video marketing has enhanced their conversion rates. Moreover, 70% of customers have shared a brand’s video, and 52% say that watching a video gives them more confidence about their purchase.
- Personalized Marketing
You might have visited a shop’s website, browsed through the products you were looking to buy, or gain information, then left without making a purchase. Later on, you received a message from the retailer that the price of the product you wanted to buy has dropped. It means your retailer knows the power of personalization. It is old human psychology that we love to hear our name or see it in print. People, while shopping online, are at times confused or at the borderline about making a decision. When you send a personalized email or notification to them offering a discount can bring them back to the website to complete the purchase.
Email marketing has become very effective with the combination of automation and personalization. All you have is to make sure the customer is not bombarded with emails or notifications, get them to opt-in for your email services, and send only relevant emails for the best results.
- Voice Search
Thanks to technologies like Alexa, Google, and Siri, voice search now shows no signs of slowing down, and it will have a significant impact on how brands market themselves and create content online. Though some statistics predict that 50% of searches online in 2021 will be driven by voice search, this figure is not very far in the future.
A quarter of US households now owning Google Home, Amazon Echo, or some other smart speaker has led to the boom in speaker businesses. Similarly, a report by PwC stated that an increasing number of customers, especially those aged 24 to 64, who already use voice devices, plan to use them more in the future.
- Hyper-Local Marketing
The concept of local marketing itself is not new, and brands have recognized the value of local marketing by offering customized products and experiences over the years. However, with the rapid growth of IoT devices and higher expectations of customers for a personalized experience, the concept of geolocation is now coming into play as competition heats up.
That’s why geolocation services are now there to step things up, with almost 8 in every 10 businesses using location data in marketing strategy and 94% plan to do the same in the future. This type of marketing goes well with local SEO strategy, giving businesses higher rankings in local search results.
No matter the type and size of a business, digital marketing is now the future. It is a dynamic field where new trends emerge and go quicker than any other field. The voice search feature, which once was considered an extra feature that hardly anyone bothered to use, is now expected to rival type search. The importance of each trend may vary for businesses, as the internet has a wide variety of companies.
