The top five digital marketing trends of 2021 you need to know and adopt

Digital marketing evolved tremendously in 2020, with forced lockdowns and a huge shift toward the online world meaning that virtual platforms and campaign redesigns became the focus for many businesses. Read on to see our predictions for the top five digital marketing trends of 2021 that you should know about and implement into your businesses marketing strategy, in order to survive and thrive going forward this year. 

• Video content 

Video content has already become a large part of many companies’ marketing strategies in 2020, and this trend is only going to grow in 2021. With 54% of consumers claiming that they want to see more video content, there’s no question that companies will have to shift their focus towards this new form of digital marketing and give the people what they want. 

‘Video content’ covers a wide range of approaches: demos, video ads, interviews, informative, vlog, and animated videos are just a few that spring to mind. To successfully implement video content into your company’s marketing strategy, it is important to make sure that the content you produce reflects your brand and appeals to your target audience. A fintech company, for example, might benefit from looking at informative videos to explain the premise of their technology, whereas a women’s health education app might be better off looking at an animated style of visual. 

Another emerging style of video that we are seeing more regularly is live streaming. With the restrictions and challenges that we faced in 2020, many businesses turned their attention towards this option. With numerous social media platforms providing live broadcasting features, we predict that this is only going to grow in 2021. 

• Chatbots

Whilst we strongly believe that human communication is vital to your marketing strategy (to ensure authenticity), there is plenty of room for other options… enter the chatbot. Lots of businesses have already started to implement chatbots into their online platforms, and our guess is that they’ll become much more commonplace in digital marketing in 2021 and beyond. 

So, what are chatbots? They are digital platforms that businesses use to interact with customers, in a conversational tone that mimic the way a real human would talk. They benefit both you and your customer, they’re win-win! 

Some benefits of chatbots for your business include the low operation costs, the opportunity for data collection, and the flexibility to personalise the user experience. Gone are the days of clunky automated responses; there are a multitude of chatbot options available to businesses nowadays which offer a new level of conversational capability. A good chatbot is undifferentiated from a real person’s voice. For your customer, they provide instant solutions. With the fast-paced world that we now live in, we are all looking for an instant fix to our problems, and chatbots promise just that. 

• Social media e-commerce 

Ecommerce through social media is enabling businesses to maximise their commerce presence across a plethora of platforms. In the digital-heavy age that we live in, consumers are looking for instant ways to purchase the products they love, and brands are wising up on new ways to sell their products immediately. Instagram launched a perfect solution in 2020, with ‘shoppable posts’. Other platforms have now followed suit, such as TikTok partnering with Shopify, for example. 

With the majority of millennials spending more time on social media than any other sites, focusing your commerce attention on these platforms is definitely going to work in your favour. Your audience will likely be ‘hanging out’ on particular social media platforms, so it’s important to figure out the channels where you can find them and easily communicate with them, and then focus on these. Customers can simply click on the shopping icon of any of your displayed products and be either directed to your e-commerce website or straight to check out without having to leave the social media app they’re on. Again, we come back to ease for your customers and an immediate solution to the fast-paced nature and “I want it right now” mentality of the modern-day consumer. 

• Personalised ads

If an advert that has absolutely no relevance to you pops up on your screen, you are likely to be a little annoyed, or at least just ignore it, correct? The same goes for your customers. It doesn’t make sense for you to blindly mass advertise without a second thought to who is seeing your ads, and more importantly, who is clicking on them. The more clicks you get, the more conversions you get. 

Personalised ads through direct targeting will improve your advertising success and ensure that your brand is only being presented to those who fit your target audience and are therefore more likely to engage with your content. With content tailored to the individual customer, you’ll see more interaction and, ultimately, loyalty. Businesses are getting smart with their advertising and realising that today’s consumers love everything to be customised, and actively dislike generic and irrelevant adverts. In order to prosper in 2021, personalised advertising should definitely be incorporated into your digital marketing strategy. 

• Influencer marketing

According to The State of Influencer Marketing 2021: Benchmark Report, the influencer marketing industry is set to grow approximately $13.8 billion (that’s about ￡9.98 billion) in 2021. This doesn’t seem that surprising, when 87% of people have stated that they’ve been inspired to make a purchase because of an influencer. 

Influencer marketing - which involves an influential individual using their platform to promote or raise awareness of your products - is a solid method in many businesses’ digital marketing strategies. There are influencers in pretty much every niche or industry, so it’s definitely worth exploring some pertinent partnerships for your brand. Influencer marketing can take the form of a review post or vlog, an article, a ‘shout out’ on social media, a product placement style photo, or testimonial advertising, among other things. 

It’s worth remembering that paid influencer advertising must be clearly marked as such, in order to comply with the Advertising Standards Authority. 

Last thoughts

So that’s our top five digital marketing trends of 2021 you need to know and adopt, in order to stay ahead of the curve. We are confident that 2021 will be a year of continued digital transformation, and innovation & adaptability in your business’ marketing strategy is key to standing out from the crowd.