2021 is a strange and challenging year for businesses globally. The pandemic affected every aspect of our lives. People have changed how they shop, work or behave socially, and even companies have shown significant changes in their work culture and digital marketing / e-marketing strategies. Home workstations are becoming the best coworking spaces for families with two more working professionals. Digital transformation has become the only viable option for businesses to stay active and relevant.
The first half of 2021 has not been much different than last year. Companies are still actively working online with employees stationed remotely. Digital marketing is becoming a lifesaver for businesses to acquire new customers, retain existing ones, build engagement and generate revenue in this “new normal”.
Top Digital Marketing Trends of 2021
To prosper in this period of capricious market changes, marketers and entrepreneurs should consider these digital marketing trends to remain competitive in 2021:
- Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is the new buzzword in every industry. AI fine-tunes the majority of the content on social media platforms to keep us engaged for long. AI is a complex algorithm that learns itself by analysing vast amounts of data about a specific topic and figuring out the best patterns. It can collect valuable insights into user behaviour, campaign performance, and analysis to optimise digital marketing campaigns and overall customer communication.A chatbot is a compelling use case of AI in practice. For example, MasterCard has a Facebook messenger bot that uses natural language processing software to decrypt the customers’ needs and respond humanely to automate handling payments. Furthermore, AI is being implemented in other areas of marketing, including automated communication, personalisation, digital transactions, product recommendations and content creation. For example, JP Morgan and Chase have adopted an AI-powered content writing assistant named Persuado.
Voice Search
As per a research done by Review42 on voice search, 55% of teenagers use voice search every day. This significant adoption by an entire generation shows how relevant voice search will be in the long term. In addition, smart speakers such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home or Siri are increasingly finding space in households. Consequently, users are becoming more accustomed to requesting information using voice search.
Moreover, Google claims to have achieved 95% accuracy with their voice search. With increased precision, the usage of voice search has gained traction. As a result, more and more online shopping is being done through voice results.
Because of these factors, businesses need to start optimising their content, including voice search in their digital marketing ideas. The best way to do this is by creating content with a more “conversational” tone and natural style, which is in sync with how customers ask questions. Keep a mobile-friendly site ready and create queries into questions. By keeping your content voice-search optimised, you will be able to reach new audiences.
Video Marketing
Video is one of the most versatile and engaging formats that not only provides a real-life pictorial representation of what is going on but is also easy to share across multiple platforms. Customers appreciate it because it is easy to digest, appealing and entertaining. On the other hand, marketers like it because it can generate a considerably good ROI through multiple channels. Easy access to anyone with internet connectivity, both to watch and produce, is another major reason.
As per Tech Crunch, around 1 billion hours of YouTube videos are watched around the globe every day. Social media is a great platform to share videos and reels. According to Seotribunal, a website that contains a video is 50 times more likely to bring organic search results than plain text. Be well aware of the latest video marketing trends such as live streams, user-generated video content, interactive AR content, training & educational videos, virtual events and many more for your digital marketing strategy.
Personalisation
Personalisation is the next big thing that has become an industry standard. 80% of customers say they are more likely to enter into business with a company that offers personalised experiences. However, the app density on Google Play Store and App Store is too high. Apps need to ensure they provide users extremely personal and smooth experiences to be used frequently. AI-integrated apps are the way to go.A few examples of companies that are using personalisation successfully are:
- Cadbury’s launched a personalised video campaign that matched a Dairy milk flavour with users based on behavioural and demographic data from their Facebook profile. The campaign generated a 65% CTR and a 33.6% conversion rate.
- EasyJet created a data-driven email campaign that used customers’ travel history with the airline to develop personalised stories and suggest places they’d like to travel next. As a result, about 12.5 million emails were sent, garnering a 25% higher CTR than non-personalised emails.
Conversational Marketing
Conversational commerce enables a dialogue with the customer. In this day and age, customers appreciate two-way conversations; hence, brands don’t just talk about themselves but also listen to customers’ problems. With the advent of Chatbots and social media, modern marketing has become more conversational. When customers have a question, 82% seek an immediate response. Conversational marketing is about establishing a real-time connection between brands and customers. This form of digital marketing is available across several channels, allowing customers to be flexible about the type of device, platform and schedule that works best. With chatbots, brands can now resolve issues faster and create relationships with as many customers as possible in a short time frame. The chat assistant needs to know how and when to influence the customer to purchase while taking them through stages of the sales funnel.
The end goal of conversational marketing is to improve customer experience through a feedback-driven model that nurtures greater engagement and loyalty.
Influencer Marketing
It is a type of marketing strategy where we emphasise certain key leaders in the industry are enjoying a significant number of followers to drive your brand’s narrative. Brands should partner with influencers who have already built a strong sense of community and work closely together to ensure their messaging feels both relatable and authentic.
Amid the pandemic when people are working remotely, keeping their outdoor visits to a minimum and social distancing, influencer marketing comes as a viable option for businesses as one of their digital marketing strategy to maintain constant engagement with their audience and influence them to purchase their products and services.
Daniel Wellington, a watch brand doesn’t invest in traditional advertising and is often endorsed by fashion and style bloggers. DW enlists thousands of influencers to promote the brand by giving out free watches and drives consumer action by including special promo codes with their influencer-created content.
OutlookThe world of digital marketing is highly dynamic. New trends and technologies are a mundane phenomenon. We can never really anticipate what the future of digital would look like. However, keeping up with trends is crucial, and you must strive to embrace new technologies, tools and strategies to stay relevant for your customers.
__________________________________Author – Team Truworx
Truworx – The Coworking Space provides various shared workplace solutions and is one of the best coworking spaces in gurgaon focusing on its core values of trust, client-orient approach and flexibilty.
