Digital Marketing Trends that are Shaping 2021
Marketing is evolving
Digital marketing trends have completely shifted and evolved during the past year, which means that our marketing strategies must be dynamic to quickly adapt to the reality that surrounds us. Considering that consumer trends have changed, marketing must evolve and find new and better ways to obtain excellent results.
Finding the right digital marketing tools and platforms to enhance your marketing efforts will depend on your goals and the specific marketing areas you want to tackle. For starters, focus on the smaller tasks, the ones you are most likely to fulfill. Once you have mastered those, move on to bigger and better areas.
What are your Marketing Goals?
Some of the most common marketing goals are:
- Create more engaging email marketing campaigns.
- Produce better and relevant content based on analytics.
- Engage with users on social media.
- Generate actionable ads.
Once you and your team have decided what specific goals you want to address, searching for the best digital marketing tools begins.
Digital Marketing Trends
As marketing evolves during 2021, these are trends to be aware of to stay ahead of the game:
Social Media
Social Media continues to be top-of-mind for every marketer. It provides excellent results, allows them to create engaging content, and cost-effectively reaches a broader audience.
After a hectic year, many businesses are trying to find the best way to recover and generate revenue faster, and social media becomes an efficient way to do so.
As consumer trends shifted, more and more users turned to the digital world to buy everything they needed. In recent studies, 70% of users bought something online in the past months, and there was a 66% increase in discovering new products or brands through social media. Therefore, more social media platforms will implement e-commerce, as have Facebook and Instagram.
These are some of the social media platforms that have become great spaces for marketing efforts:
1. TikTok
TikTok has become one of the biggest and fastest-growing apps in the past few years. Even though its target audiences are centennials and millennials, it has slowly accepted the incorporation of advertisement and the use of profiles solely for marketing purposes.
With this new and refreshing app, your brand will explore its creative side and access a diverse audience that’s eager to find new and unique products.
2. Clubhouse
Clubhouse is the new app everyone is talking about. It’s a social networking app based solely on audio-chat, not video. It combines many aspects that we as users love, like interaction, conversation, interesting people and topics, and exclusivity.
Currently, it is only available for iPhone users and it can only be accessed with an invitation from a Clubhouse user, and the users have two invites available.
Even though the app is in its beginning stages and just recently became mainstream due to an interview with Elon Musk, it’s slowly becoming a great space to go back to basics and network with incredible people.
For 2021, the app will have new features. Soon, it will be available for everyone, bringing new marketing opportunities by creating the space where valuable and relevant conversations happen.
3. Instagram
Instagram continues to be one of the most popular platforms for marketing. For 2021, the focus will be placed on implementing better and faster e-commerce tools that allow users to search for and buy their desired items quicker.
With the implementation of “Instagram Shop”, the app has streamlined the choosing and buying process, obtaining incredible results.
Another feature recently added to the e-commerce tools was “Shoppable Reels.” Now, users can watch a Reel and buy directly from the video.
Shorter form content will be leading the way on Instagram, following the steps of their fellow TikTok.
Another big trend for Instagram is carousel posts and memes. Although these aren’t new, they will continue to be the best form of content for Instagram users since they allow the audience to feel identified with the post and easily share it with friends.
In line with the trend mentioned above, users will have to up their creative game. Since there’s an oversaturation of accounts, businesses must find new and unique ways to communicate their value. Experimenting with new and intentional content that targets specific audiences will allow your business to stand out from the vast ocean of posts.
Lastly, influencer marketing will increase during 2021. Since there’s more focus on selling, it’s a perfect way to get your product out there with someone that has a significant following.
Email Marketing
One of the fundamental areas of marketing is email campaigns. Even though some may argue that email is dead, it’s not, and it’s here to stay since it continues to be a cost-effective strategy that brings tangible results and drives revenue to many businesses.
Additionally, an email campaign is relatively easy to structure and schedule. Nowadays, many tools can assist your team in creating and executing the best email marketing campaigns without having to be directly involved 24/7.
These are some of the top-rated, easy to use, valuable tools for email marketing:
1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a fantastic platform built for everyone. Even if you are a novice marketer, this platform will guide you along the way to start your email marketing campaigns successfully.
It’s one of the most popular platforms, and it’s easy to use and provides insights that allow your marketing efforts to be personalized to your target audience.
2. HubSpot
Hubspot is a widely known platform in the marketing world. It provides many unique features for email marketing like its drag and drop editor function, scheduling emails ahead of time, data protection, and personalization. HubSpot offers some limited free features that can allow your marketing efforts to take off!
3. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an easy-to-use software that allows you to integrate your entire marketing strategy, not just email. It combines email, text messages, live chatbots, Facebook ads, and anything else your business needs to generate better and faster results.
4. Zoho Campaigns
This platform will allow you to create exceptional and personalized designs that engage with your current audience while helping you find new clients to work with. Zoho Campaigns provides a wide range of tools for your business’ email marketing needs.
Content Creation
In 2021, marketing strategies focus more on providing helpful content for their audience instead of selling their product or service. Now, the focus is put back on the following:
- Adding value.
- Being helpful.
- Aligned with present-day trends.
- Content created based on data and metrics.
- Adaptable depending on the targeted buyer persona.
Content does not have to be extensive; on the contrary, the user wants their information as quickly as possible. Most people who search for something on google do not want to spend more than a couple of minutes finding their answer.
Creating long-form content is not as important to rank on Google as it was before. Now, it’s more about the quality of the content and the overall user experience. It’s fundamental to have the user intent in mind when writing content.
Another significant trend for content during 2021 is updating and repurposing your pieces. Leverage those fantastic articles and videos you have already created and update them with more recent information. Use your article as a video, and your video as the topic for your new podcast, and so on. A fantastic topic does not have to be limited to one piece of content; it can be repurposed and used in many ways.
How to know what content to create?
There are a wide variety of topics that can be useful for your specific audience. But knowing what content to create also depends on what your target audience is and what your objectives are.
Here are some platforms that allow you to know what people are talking about and what they want to know:
1. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is an easy-to-use platform that allows you to discover relevant content by just adding a keyword for a specific topic you’d like to write about. It will provide immediate content ideas to enhance your content marketing efforts.
2. Answer the Public
Answer the Public is a great tool that breaks down your keyword into questions users are asking. The platform divides it into what, when, where, and how questions, which is very useful to know the exact title to use for your content pieces.
3. Google’s Related Search
A handy and free tool that allows you to know what the audience is looking for is at the end of your google page. Scrolling down until the bottom of your page, you’ll find some suggestions from Google about other topics that relate to your initial query.
4. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a fantastic tool that allows you to find great content, and with its filter option, narrow down your search to specific elements you’d like your search to show. Even though this platform is not free, it’s worth the investment since it gives you unique insights and data that will allow you to enhance your content marketing strategies.
5. SEMrush
Even though SEMrush is used more for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, it’s also an excellent tool to find topics and questions users are searching for. By simply typing in a keyword, SEMrush provides topics and questions related to your query. These questions allow you to understand what the user is looking for and know what you should write about.
Ad Campaigns
The same issue arises with ad campaigns as it does with email campaigns. Most may think that ads are not the most practical or up-to-date marketing method.
Tips for Facebook Ads:
- Ads should feel more like organic content, and their design shouldn’t stand out; it should blend in with the other content on the user’s feed.
- Facebook is a more casual platform that calls for more simple grammar instead of stuffy and formal copy.
- Gear towards video ads. These ads do not have to be created with high production levels, and their copy can be more relaxed and informal, allowing the ad to mimic the audience’s regular feed.
- Keep these video ads short.
- Experiment with copy lengths. Depending on your audience, they will like shorter or longer sentences. Include emojis as well.
These are some of the trends shaping 2021; they will allow businesses to create better and unique content for users to engage with. Most digital marketing trends continue to focus on the user and how your content can benefit them, creating better customer journeys and driving revenue to businesses working hard to get back to normality with their enhanced marketing strategies.
Kathy Monroy is an experienced Communications Specialist and Journalist. Driven to go above and beyond, Kathy produces high-quality content specializing in transportation and logistics, marketing, sales, and technology. Her goals include becoming an expert and an authority in her line of work, always providing her audience with the most relevant and useful information.
