Top Digital Marketing Trends For 2021

2020 was real chaos, it was unpredictable, and many businesses had to either adapt or face loss. But that’s gone, for now, you should be looking for what’s coming and what you can expect.

We saw many Digital Marketing Trends coming up, while businesses were forced to reshape and adapt their marketing environment. We could see, during the pandemic, eCommerce sales skyrocketed, with people spending their time at home.

There was an increase in social media usage with videoconferencing becoming the new normal in person-to-person communication. Brands were also seen to shift the way they communicate and connect with their consumers.

Now, that’s the past, we’ve entered into a new year, read on to know what marketing trends will continue to perform in 2021.

Here is a shortlist for you:

1. Social Media Engagement 
2. Featured Snippets
3. Local Listings & SEO
4. Influencer content and live-streams
5. Customer Segmentation
6. Voice Search
7. Interactive content

Social Media Engagement

Social media platforms are already a great way for business to understand their consumers and market products/services. Even during the pandemic, it was seen that there was increasing in the amount of time spent by people online.

Whether it’s for knowing about a product or brand, businesses/marketers should grab the opportunity created by consumer shifts. Spending more resources on social media marketing will increase the reach to a new audience and re-engage with the old ones.

Featured Snippets

In Google, Featured Snippets refer to position zero in the search results. It displays extra and relevant information, to provide the best answer to the searcher’s query. 

Usually, in SEO, we create a strategy to rank high, i.e., position #1 on the search engine results page. But now, and in the coming years, ranking in “position zero” will increase organic traffic, drive sales or leads.

Hence, shifting your SEO strategy towards “featured snippets” can benefit your brand or business. If you’re going to target featured snippets, make sure you target long-tail keyword phrases like questions.

Local Listings & SEO

With Google’s frequent local SEO algorithm updates, if you’re a local business, make sure you appear on local results. Local SEO is more influential than broad SEO. People search for a business in their location have higher intent in purchasing.

Having listed higher in local SEO listings can easily help in covering a searcher to a customer. Also, make sure on your SEO strategy, use or target local keywords.

Influencer content and live-streams

During the pandemic, events and socializing with family, friends were not happening. People were forced to and preferred to stay at home. It led to an increase in the number of people consuming live-streams.

Whether it’s a live-stream of their favorite brand or celebrity, in the end, it means, people immediately connected to that content. Meaning, in 2020 and 2021, human-driven content, especially via an influencer’s live-stream, can tap into consumers’ minds and create trust.

Customer Segmentation

Customer Segmentation is grouping your target audience based on specific traits or behaviors. This is currently a popular trend because it allows you to tailor your content that suits your target audience accurately.

In customer segmentation, you target a specific audience of a large number instead of targeting general audiences of a small number. You hand-pick content and provide to your segmented audience, which works best for customer engagement and personalization.

Voice Search

Results a different in voice search queries in contrast to text-based search. Though voice search is not currently a part of Google’s algorithm, it’s still dominating search results. 

From an SEO perspective, a business’s consumer shifting and adapting towards voice search should start implementing voice search components.

For those going for voice, make sure you optimize your content for voice and make it more conversational and direct to sync with queries. Using voice search, you will not only stay relevant and visible but also increase traffic.

Interactive Content

Content with interactive elements, whether on social media or website, tends to engage visitors better with the brand so need to read about Digital Marketing Trends. You will not only provide value to them but learn more about them.

For example, suppose you’re a loan provider, if you add a simple loan calculator on your website, you will provide value to your visitors and learn more about them. The information you will collect by adding an interactive element can help in refining your offer-target and personas.

Final Thoughts

2020 forced almost every brand to think deeply and long to connect to their audience and customers. With shops getting closed, people staying at home, spending more time online, it was a time to shift the communication channel.

The above seven trends can help you increase your website’s traffic, generate more leads and sales, as well as retain your customer base. Understanding SEO content strategies and digital marketing trends will help in knowing how they will impact the competitive landscape.

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