Trends are something every digital marketing specialist must constantly follow. Aside from helping you improve your business forecasting, it will also enable you to come up with better ideas for your services. This will ultimately help you provide better digital marketing packages.
Now as with the previous years, 2021 has played host to a plethora of trends that changed the digital marketing industry for better or worse. Check some of them out below.
Artificial Intelligence
For quite a while now, people have been talking about how AI will take over every aspect of our lives. Indeed, this has been the case in the digital marketing industry in 2021 and in previous years. Even now, you’ll encounter an AI-based chatbot whenever visiting one of your favorite websites or apps. And with its ability to learn on its own, it will continue to improve how we do business in the online sphere. Take JP Morgan and Chase for instance. To improve their content, they decided to team up with the AI-powered Persado.
Video Marketing
Employing videos in marketing campaigns is a great way to significantly improve conversion rate, brand awareness, and sales. Plus, it’s a great way to show long-form content on any device, particularly on phones where reading texts can be challenging sometimes. People find videos more captivating than other forms of content. By adding it in your own marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to optimize your brand’s digital presence. That being said, 2021 has seen marketers creating various types of videos to up their client’s brand. Some of the most popular video content this year include livestreams, short-form videos, and virtual events.
Voice Search Optimization
2021 has also witnessed more people (notably those from the younger generation) adopting voice search in their everyday lives. This trend is due to various factors. One, Google recently managed to achieve a 95% accuracy with their Voice Search (or so they claim). This makes using the technology a whole lot easier (not to mention attractive). Two, many big brands are integrating it in their products and services, with Amazon and Google leading the way. You can simply take a look at Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home as prime examples. The best part is, this trend may very well continue for 2022, with many experts forecasting that online shopping will be done via voice search, too.
Augmented Reality
Like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) allows you to experience products and services without actually buying it. However, many digital marketers prefer AR over VR due to its real-time interaction, as well as its accurate 3D representation of real and virtual objects. In other words, it will let you turn your static advertisements and content into a one-of-a-kind 3D experience. This will lead to better user experience, as your digital marketing packages will be delivered in such a way that your customers will be left awed by your product or service.
Social Media Stories
While social media stories began when Snapchat first introduced it in 2013, it was only in 2016 when it actually started becoming popular. Today, people heavily use it to post about their day-to-day activities, and digital marketers use it to improve engagement with their target audience. As an added bonus, it helped brands across the world establish their authenticity and authority in their respective industries. By integrating social media stories in your campaigns, you’ll be able to significantly improve your digital marketing packages as well. And to make sure it delivers your desired results, each story must come with appropriate CTAs.
Chatbots
One of the best applications of AI technology in the digital marketing sphere are chatbots. Used by businesses to automate online conversations, it has helped many brands tremendously improve customer engagement. For one thing, it can help streamline your customer service, answering FAQs and responding quickly. It also allows you to provide 24/7 customer service, as unlike real people, AI can work tirelessly. And believe it or not, consumers love interacting with chatbots more than actual people. This 2021, Google recently launched LaMDA, a project that aims to revolutionize chatbot systems. Aside from improving the usual features, it can help customers with their transactions.
Influencer Marketing
Asking celebrities to promote your brand is not exactly a new thing. But with the rise of internet usage these days, it’s not uncommon anymore for businesses to team up with influencers and online personalities, too. By working with these individuals, you can expose your brand to their followers, thus widening your target audience and boosting your sales. 2021 has seen the influencer industry growing by billions of dollars, with many agencies popping up to meet the demand. This goes to show that influencer marketing could be the next big thing in years to come.
Geofencing Marketing
Certain businesses have also introduced geofencing to promote their brand this 2021. In case you don’t know what that is, geofencing is a type of location based marketing that relies on GPS, RFID, and other data to reach out to the target audience. Take Starbucks for example. Through geofencing, they can send push notifications to customers who use their app whenever they’re within an area where they have a store. This allows them to promote great deals they’re currently offering, enticing customers to buy their frappes. In short, geofencing allows you to boost your profits by targeting customers within your business’s area.
Personalised Remarketing
Remarketing involves serving consumers with ads in case they visited your website but didn’t end up taking a specific action (i.e., inquiring, buying etc). It basically gives you a second chance to convert website visitors into customers. And it’s been heavily employed to positive effects by many digital marketers this 2021. Remarketing can be accomplished in several ways. By using platforms like Outbrain, as well as by investing in Google ads or Facebook ads, you can remarket your brand to people who are interested in your product or service.
Always Watch Out For New Trends
The trends listed above have made waves this 2021, and it’s likely that they’ll continue to do so for the following year. At any rate, you need to be constantly looking out for new trends in the digital marketing industry. That way, you can continue to provide premium digital marketing packages to whoever wants it.
