If we are to describe the year 2020 that we had in a few words or so, no word is as more fitting as this— rollercoaster.
For the marketers, the past year was indeed a series of rollercoaster rides putting everyone on the edge of their seats as the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Many businesses, even those long-standing ones, suffered great losses to the point of closing while some are left barely thriving.
As the consumers try to cope to fit into the new normal, market demands on products and services have been changing more often than before leaving marketers and business owners to rethink their ways on how they deliver. In today’s new normal, a lot has happened in the digital scene which only proved how timely and relevant it is to have a place in the digital world especially for businesses.
The upsurge of online activities during the pandemic definitely made digital marketing an important tool that created various opportunities, especially for eCommerce. This only proves to show how unparalleled digital marketing is when it comes to resilience to the ever-changing market.
Digital Marketing strategies such as SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and others are still very much relevant and applicable these days only that today’s digital marketing trends have made it more useful. With that in mind, here are some Digital Marketing Trends that you definitely need to watch out for this 2021:
1. Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation is the application of software to automate repetitive marketing tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, as well as ad campaigns. This strategy is used to perform such activities efficiently while providing a more personalized experience to the customers.
With the existence of affordable automation software, and with increased online marketing activities, marketers will seek more productivity and efficiency in marketing their business so you can expect automation to be used widely this 2021. Marketing automation presents a myriad of advantages, from saving time in accomplishing daily marketing tasks, to increased lead generation to shortening sales procedures. Marketing Automation technology is an easy and efficient tool for managing your digital marketing efforts.
One example of a marketing automation system is Mailchimp, an all-in-one marketing platform that offers AI-powered and user-friendly tools that small businesses can use to grow their platform. With Mailchimp you can send marketing emails, automated messages, create targeted ad campaigns to your desired audience, and create landing pages, as well as run analytics for your platform.
2. User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content (UGC) refers to any content produced organically by users, not by brands. UGCs are often shared by brands to their social media accounts, website, and other marketing channels to boost the credibility of the brand. These types of content often come as testimonials in the form of text, videos, or images featuring the brand’s products, especially when shared by reputable and famous personalities or the so-called influencers help improve the authenticity of the brand. As a result, UGCs help creates more engagement and reach for the brand.
UGCs have the power to influence the purchasing decisions of consumers which is why influencer marketing has become a new mainstream marketing strategy today with social media as the most efficient platform.
One of the best examples of this is the use of social media platforms such Instagram and TikTok which allows users to be creative in adding posts to increase their followers and engagements. UGCs can spark the desire for your brand into the masses without much effort especially if the posts that feature your brand go viral around social media.
3. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is definitely not a new digital marketing trend. However, what makes it still relevant as a digital marketing strategy today is the ever-changing algorithm updates of search engines like Google which is the main target of your SEO marketing efforts. Knowing how fickle search engines are, marketers and website owners should always be on the lookout for the latest updates that Google imposes in their algorithm. Some algorithm updates may be minimal and may not be impactful for your ranking, however, there are occasions when search engines do drop out some major algorithmic changes that definitely have a pull in the SERPs.
As the goal of Google is to provide relevantly and the best result for every search, Google tends to make thousands of changes each year in an effort to improve its job to the Internet users. This only means that you will need to be at the top of your marketing game and keep up with what’s new and how the updates are going to affect your platform. After all, these updates can either make or break your SEO efforts so you need to be able to be proactive in following the updates.
4. Video Content
Good quality content has always been the cornerstone of any great digital marketing strategy even up to this day. Websites are ranked using top-quality content and people are always drawn to good-quality content that helps them or interests them in any way. While there are many other types of content, it’s undeniable that video has surpassed the usability of those static content and has taken over the field of content marketing. With the help of social media platforms such as Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, as well as embedded ads, people now are becoming more convinced and interested in video content where the ways of promoting your business are endless. All you need to do is create content that accurately reflects your brand, and display it on your platform, or social media profiles.
5. Chatbot Marketing
Chatbots have been in use for a long time now and have been useful in catching the attention of your audience by interacting with them allowing them to send relevant information about your brand in real-time. The fact that you don’t have to hire someone to do your customer service round the clock is one of the things that make chatbots a great feature for your app or website. With the use of AI Technology which is what enables chatbots to do their work, relaying information from your brand to your audience is getting simpler than ever. Talk about instant customer service, marketing data collection, providing consumers personalized product recommendations, sending ad campaigns, and basically whatever help draws your customers into your brand, chatbots are definitely one great addition to your digital marketing tools.
6. Social Ecommerce
Social Media platforms today are not just channels where you can socialize online, not anymore. As far as socializing is concerned, it has extended its purpose to as far as exchanging goods and services using the platform which paved the way for social eCommerce. Social ecommerce refers basically to a trend of exchanging goods and services directly from social media channels.
Since social media allows people to communicate, such a trend is already low-key happening not until the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic started affecting the way we purchase. E-commerce has become one of the primary platforms that have been seen great usability at this time. And with that, the trend of Social e-commerce has become natural. Catching on this trend, major social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook has already released updates on added features that allow users to engage in eCommerce.
In a nutshell…
It’s undeniable that the industry of Digital Marketing has simply continued to grow even in the midst of the pandemic that has given us a new normal to live in at the present. Digital marketing has been such a huge help especially for those businesses trying to thrive and with technology which has continued to evolve, doing marketing task has become more efficient and helpful than ever. These are only some of the digital marketing trends that have seen the potential for growth this year and for sure there will be more other trends that will come out in the future that we definitely have to watch out for.
