15 trends of digital marketing in 2021 which you cannot ignore

Digital Marketing Published on 26 October 2020

Are you fed up with your old email marketing strategy? Do your designers roll eyes every time you ask them to sketch the same old Instagram posts? 


If your answer is in affirmation then you need to be keyed into the possible trends of digital marketing in 2021 for your digital marketing strategy to remain effective in the upcoming year. 


Whether you rely on social media, email marketing, SEO, content marketing, or paid online advertising to generate winning leads for your business and convert users into loyal, paying customers, our carefully compiled set of trends of digital marketing is just what you need to start the most anticipated year.


Top 15 Trends of Digital Marketing in 2021


  1. The Storytelling Trend
  2. Artificial Intelligence Trend
  3. Voice Search Trend
  4. Video Marketing Trend
  5. Interactive Content Trend
  6. AI-Powered Chatbots
  7. AR-VR Technology
  8. Social Messaging Applications
  9. Customer experience Marketing Trend
  10. Bidding through Google Apps
  11. Personalization and Experimentation with content
  12. Intent Data
  13.  Zero Click Search Results
  14. Enhanced User Experience
  15. Semantics



The Storytelling Trend


An average user’s attention span is around 8 seconds and it is getting shorter every subsequent year, which is why Stories are becoming increasingly relevant. Stories are engaging, dynamic and quite addicting to watch. Youngsters prefer visual stimulus, they reach up to the things that are more visual and interactive, therefore more users these days are preferring watching Stories.


In 2020, many brands have already adapted Stories to their social media content strategy. According to the social media management company Hootsuite, today around 65% of brands are either posting their stories on Instagram and Facebook, regularly, or they have solid plans to do so in the nearest future. 


Through Storytelling, you can create a series of engaging stories that are connected or include a visual narrative. As evident by data, it is an effective trend of digital marketing which will help you draw more attention, and boost your brand awareness.


Artificial Intelligence Trend


In businesses, AI can be employed in so many different ways. In Digital Marketing, it comes with a destructive power (for your competitors, relax!). One can use it for analysis of data, search patterns, customer behavior patterns, or performing human-free automated tasks. 

AI greatly reduces the workload and can execute complex tasks in a few minutes or seconds.


Voice Search trend


Consider this According to research, it is said that by 2021, 70% of all the searches will be voice searches. Brands should optimize their contents for text and voice searches. With smart devices in hands and homes, customers are reluctant to use their fingers all the time.  


Video Marketing Trend


It should not come as a great illumination that we believe what we see. Product videos are a great purchasing stimulus to the viewers, as they come to know how a product works and utilized properly.  With DIY videos, narrative stories, local stories you can initiate your first Video Marketing campaign.


Interactive content Trend


If you wish to enhance your brand awareness and want customers to stick, creating interactive content for your brand is a must. 


Customers now do not get swayed away by your 50%, 90%, 200% discount cliches. First, they need to judge what a product is all about. For this they prefer to watch 360- degree, AR-VR Videos, see Infographics, need to participate in polls, quizzes, assessments surveys and webinars. If you truly wish to reap benefit from Digital marketing in 2021, you must employ this one!


AI-powered chatbots


AI is not always about the machines taking over the world. If you’ve imagined it that way, it’s high time that you visualize it the other way- the way by which you can give your customers instant 24x7 support, instead of existential dread. 


You can free your employees by getting bots to do the work, and without offending you can easily ask them to, ‘get a life!’


AR and VR Technology


As of 2020, global spending on AR and VR products and services stands around 100 Billion USD, it is estimated to double up to 200 Billion USD by 2021. AR (Augmented Reality) can give your customers a great interactive experience of a real-world environment by giving them computer-generated perceptual information. 


Customers can “see”, ‘feel’, “touch”, “move” and “smell” your product. Isn’t this a great way to earn brand loyalty?!



Social Messaging Applications


Facebook Messenger scans more than fifteen billion messages that are exchanged among individuals and digital marketers every month. We assure you that Social media applications like WeChat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp will no longer be restricted to communicate with your friends. These apps can help you meet your customer, and help you stay connected with them, just like friends. 


Though brands need to be extra careful that they don’t forcefully invade their customers’ personal spaces.


Customer experience Marketing Trend 


Perhaps, one of the greatest benefits of Digital Marketing is its ability to make customers look for your brand even when they weren’t intending so. 


Suppose you were browsing some news events or sharing a document with colleagues on the mailbox and suddenly this Ad pops up which asks you to buy shirts which you looked at a week ago. As annoying for customers it can be, it can be a super opportunity for brands to sell. 


Now around 60% of Instagram users said that they usually find a product while they are browsing Instagram. We told you so!


Bidding through Google Apps


If you’re speculating that Google has gone old-fashioned, you’re proceeding into deep waters. Google stays ahead at least a decade from the calendar at any given time. The transformation of Google Ads into Google Adwords, machine learning enhanced bids would help you escalate your conversion rates.


Personalization and Experimentation with content 


There’s a flood of information on the Internet. The generic, boring content doesn’t catch the eye anymore. Personalization hence is a must. Personalization can be achieved foremost by understanding the customers’ persona. The more data about the customer is, more personalized a content can be curated. Experimentation with forms and variety also becomes crucial to keep appealing to customers.


Intent Data


This is something straight out of the world. 


Genies are hard to conquer in the 21st century, but if brands work on the Intent data, they can simulate the genie-effect. 


Confused? Suppose you were just thinking about having a product for a few days, and as you were watching YouTube, you get the Ad of the exact product you were wishful of buying. Bingo! You have your product. Isn’t that straight out of the world?! It seems like but, believe us, it’s just the connivance of the brands, they know the people’s searching, browsing, clicking and viewing history. 


Marketers can use this trend of Digital Marketing in 2021 as a secret weapon


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Zero Click Search Results


A “Zero Click” is a search result where the user gets answers without opening any website. Search results under Google properties, such as Knowledge graphs, snippets and YouTube videos comprise the Zero Click elements. 


According to recent data in 2019, astonishingly around 50 per cent of Google searches were Zero Click Searches. 


Therefore, brands should work innovatively in this segment


User Experience


User Experience (UX) is a permeating reality in the digital marketing structure. If the users don’t get what they need they are going to bail out, it’s as simple as that. 


Google Search now features “UX Signals” into its rankings, thus the pages offering poor user experience would be left unranked by Google, therefore it is important to work on these rankings. 


Mobile Optimization can greatly enhance the UX.


Semantics


Not everyone possesses a great choice of words. SEs and marketers cannot expect people to enter perfect phrases in their searches. So, to get customers’ desired results, they do not need language lessons, rather the webmasters have to figure out, make sense on their behalf and suggest to customers what they need. As paradoxical it sounds like, it isn’t!   


So, these are some of the trends of digital marketing to adopt in 2021. 


It is strenuous to appeal to users with the same old tricks that worked a year or two ago. To help your business stand out from the massive competition, squeeze out maximum benefit of digital marketing. Still Confuse what is digital marketing?


Digital Darwinism becomes real here, so, Get involved, or get left behind!


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