To keep things as light as possible, we just wanted to quickly update our guide from 2020 and give marketers and small business owners an update on where things are heading. Many of the trends from 2019, rolled over into 2020, and so they did in 2021. With a few noted changes that we'll focus on in our update.
Below are a few trends which could possibly rule the digital marketing stratosphere.
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One of the most effective digital marketing techniques next year will be video marketing. According to a report, 80% of the online content will transform into a visual representation. It will give an overview of the product and services with a tint of entertainment and humor.
Since the adoption of smartphones and social media platforms, video is still preferred as one of the best ways of marketing a product. A short video not only communicate a message effectively, but it is also capable of giving your campaign an emotional environment.
A big shift in video marketing will come in the form of using Instagram/Facebook stories as quick, bite-sized morsels of advertising goodness. Take those quick 3-6 seconds (more than 7 seems to lose viewer interest and tips them off to it being an ad) and get your unique message across. While not specifically seen as an ad platform just yet, Instagram is slowly rolling out more features for monetizing Stories. Though there is no way to set a specific budget for stories just yet, it's something I think they'll be adding in the near future.
The quick ingestion of shorts have become even more prevalent than ever. YouTube has even hopped on the train with the introduction of Shorts.
Moving on to the next trend... artificial intelligence.
AI doesn't just stand in as a placeholder for Allen Iverson anymore. It's been a full fledged powerhouse for piecing together everything from landing pages to brand images.
According to a report from Adobe, soon machines will be decisive enough to make strategic marketing decisions. R2D2 deciding to market to kids instead of their already entrenched parents? Yikes. No chance for baby Yoda, to keep eating healthy snacks. All you have to do is to store all your data in a machine server and you will get suggestions for your marketing strategies. With the AI learning more, these strategies will be in sync with your customer behavior patterns. AI will change the face of marketing immensely in the near future.
I am sure you must have encountered a chat bot while surfing on the internet. Bots are the life blood of the internet right now. Interacting with users at breakneck speeds, bots are now programmed to exhibit more personality to keep in line with branding. Moreover, in a recent report from IBM, 85% of all the customer service interactions will be done by machines by the end of this year.
You've used Alexa, Siri, and Google Home by now. If not, you've read about it. A research report says, 65% of smart speaker owners say that they don't want to go back to a life without a voice-controlled assistant. Smart speakers will continue to change the ways users interact and spend.
Have you tried searching content through voice commands? That's where digital marketing comes into play. All the SEO you do on your website must cater to voice commands as well. Keep that readability HIGH.
Cord cutting has been the rage for the last few years for sure. With Netflix pumping out hits, Hulu, and other streaming services following suit, its hard to disagree with cord cutters. According to studies, people will spend approximately 2.5 hours online and up to 3 hours watching television. This shortening gap will send advertisers to spend their budgets more on Internet and social media ads than ever before.
We ingest content daily. Blogs, news articles, watch YouTube videos, and scroll our social media feeds. Content is king, and likely always will be. With Google's recent SERP changes, relevant content along with proper site branding (favicons are back in style baby!) will be the tie breakers. Keep pumping out content, and cultivating followers, because they'll keep your brand relevant.
If you're still looking for information regarding digital marketing trends or SEO, connect with TopOut Group and let our experts help you with some deeper insights on digital marketing trends we foresee in 2021.
