With the chaos of 2020 now behind us, it seems almost impossible to accurately predict what will be coming next for the digital marketing sector in the year ahead, yet we’ll look ahead to what we can expect from the next 12 months.
Most notably, eCommerce sales went through the roof, people spent a lot more time on social media, and video conferencing became the norm. This has led to a major shift in the way brands connect with their consumers.
Digital marketing consists of a lot of strategies. In fact, it’s a holistic approach to do different types of marketing activities across different online platforms. These methods get upgraded on a regular basis as new technologies emerge across the globe.
So, as we turn into the New Year, what marketing strategies will continue to permeate in 2021?
Here are some key strategies to consider:
1. Invest in machine Learning and Artificial intelligence (AI)
First of all, the artificial intelligence (AI) will be quite popular in the coming years. Machine learning is another important part of digital marketing.
2. Share your content on Social Media
In 2021, make sure you share your business videos across different social media platforms. Unlike the images or written content, a good video is more effective as far as grabbing the eyes of the visitors is concerned. This is really important if you are going to market on the leading platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.
According to the latest research, 80% of people like to watch videos on the internet. They don’t want to read articles or blog posts that much.
3. Optimize your sites for Mobile Devices
In 2021, your marketing strategies should be focused on mobile technology as well. According to the latest Google algorithm, your site should be optimized for mobile phones or you may get a penalty from Google.
Nowadays, mobile phones are one of the most popular devices across the globe. The New Year will grow the mobile video consumption by up to 30%. On the other hand, the demand for desktop computers and laptops will continue to decline.
4. Consider Mobile apps
In the world of digital marketing, mobile technology is the latest innovation. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the most effective digital marketing tools in the here and now.
With the help of this cellular technology, you can compete with your competitors to stay ahead in the field. Without any doubt, if you have a mobile responsive website, you can grow your business to a large extent.
So, you may want to tap into the mobile apps as well. One such app is Whatsapp business. According to a source, mobile apps have generated $88 billion, give or take, in recent years.
5. Focus on the Customer Experience
For your business, customers play the same role your blood plays in your body. Therefore, it’s important that you work on the consumer experience. This will help you increase your sales over time.
If your customers are satisfied with your products or service, they will keep coming back for more.
6. Chat-Bot Marketing
Safe to say that you must have encountered a chat box while surfing on the internet. In this era of being a busybody, running a company and interacting with each and every customer becomes a real challenge. Chat boxes are one of the most widely implemented applications of Artificial Intelligence. Not just do they display results at a faster rate, they are also humorous and offer a personalized experience to the clients. Moreover, in a recent report from IBM, 85% of all the customer service interactions will be done by machines by the end of this year.
The Facebook messenger connects over 2 billion people, so Facebook chat bots have become a real and popular solution to boosting up the digital market. Since chat bots can be used to generate human dialogue, it can be used to reply to customer queries, spread important information, and to provide user-friendly assistance to the buyer/page visitor. However, you can create your own chat bots, with automated replies via text or message, and the customer will not even realize whether they are interacting with a customer care provider or a bot.
7. Live-streams and an increase in influencer content
Stay at home orders meant events were canceled, and consumers were unable to attend in-person events. They weren’t even able to socialize with their friends and family.
This led to an uptick in the number of people tuning into live-streams, whether it was a branded live-stream, a live video from their favorite celebrity, or an online workshop.
On Facebook, live viewings spiked by 50% during lockdown periods, while viewings on Instagram surged 70%. TikTok use shot up in 2020, and there’s a good chance we’ll see this upward trajectory continue to play out in 2021.
Human-drive content like influencer live-streams can create trust, and tap into the ‘in-the-moment’ connection that 2020 consumers crave.
Amazon Live really got going during the pandemic. Influencers took to the platform to promote their favorite products during live events. What’s more, the live streams were shoppable, which meant viewers could make purchases while they were watching.
People nowadays not only look for the popularity of an influencer but also look for the quality of follower. Classic marketing strategies like word-of-mouth marketing and advocate marketing, are now being popularized in the digital marketing field. An advocate influencer instructing and convincing the people who are completely away from the world of advertising does a great job in gaining organic customers. Reaching out to the masses on social media, promoting a product, and creating a good community of netizens in bulk, influencer marketing is sure a bold and new technique.
8. Increase in voice and visual search
An increasing number of consumers are searching via voice-activated tools like Alexa. Perhaps that’s due to people have been stuck at home, with limited opportunities for conversation, or perhaps it’s simply because this type of technology is more readily available (about one in four American homes has a smart speaker of some kind). 65% of smart speaker owners say that they don’t want to go back to a life without a voice-controlled assistant.
But it’s not just voice search that will prevail in 2021 – we can also expect other creative search methods to rise to the top, like visual search.
Tools like Google Lens enable consumers can search for whatever they can see. This means marketers will need to focus even more on image alt-text and sitemaps for images. Over the next year, visuals will become increasingly important in the SEO game.
It’s going to be profitable too: Retail Customer Experience estimates that by 2021:
“Early adopters that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search will increase their digital commerce revenue by 30%.”
9. SEO
Search engine optimization is the best way to remain on the top of the search engine return page by using and enabling certain keywords which increase the hit score according to the type of business. For long-term strategies, this is possibly the best way out, as it is cost-effective also. The investment is not indefinite as once a site gets ranked, it will remain so; increasing the influx of traffic and in turn, increase in sales. If a company is looking for outsourcing on a digital platform, opting for SEO is no doubt a suitable choice.
10. Easy-to-consume content
2020 also saw people leaning on easy-to-consume content – things like podcasts that can be consumed on-the-go or newsletters that land directly in subscriber’s inboxes.
Content is not just about facts and figures, it must be easy, clean, and lean
Studies show that 55% of Americans now listen to podcasts, while newsletter mentions were up 14% during lockdown.
Advertisers are spending more on podcasts too, which is a hint to their continued success in 2021.
Convenient and readily-available content like podcasts and newsletters will help brands connect more deeply with customers and provide a more intimate way to stay in touch.
In the year 2021, content will have the same importance which it had in previous years.
So, these are the digital marketing strategies that you may want to consider in 2021 to give your brand that needed cutting-edge.
