Digital Marketing In 2021: Key Trends To Keep An Eye Out For

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely toppled the way businesses operate. Thanks to the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus, the retail landscape has transformed dramatically throughout the world, with customers nowadays forging new shopping habits and increasing their expectations of brands.

Years from now, when people look back on 2020, they will characterise the year by the global pandemic. And marketers will split into two major digital marketing periods – the time before and after COVID-19 changed the digital landscape.

With the evolving global landscape, the hottest digital marketing trends focus more on enhancing the customer experience, targeting the users, diversifying content strategy, and redesigning websites. Investing your time and resources in these crucial times might help you propel your business forward in 2021.

Wondering how to update your digital marketing strategy for the coming year? Here are a few top industry trends that might prove the best bang for your business' marketing.

Do you own a small business? If so, the most significant thing you can do is making sure your local listings are up-to-date and verified on various search engine platforms. For B2C businesses that draw customers mainly on a local level, Google My Business Listing provides significant information about operation hours, services and geographical location. And keeping your information up to date allows customers to know the changes in your hours, or any other information you would like to convey.

Businesses of every size need to be prepared for dedicating more resources to social media marketing in 2021. During this pandemic, marketers are increasingly making customer retention a priority and it is expected that this will continue into 2021.

With lockdowns being imposed, the pandemic has increased the amount of time people spend online including how they research brands, organisations, products and services. This consumer shift has created new opportunities for savvy marketers to boost their reach with new audiences as well as re-engage with long-term customers. So, if you have been putting off adding social media services to your marketing strategy, now is the time.

Speaking of automated, Google ads marketers are constantly tweaking and adjusting their campaigns, keywords, and bids for getting the most for your advertising dollars. However, the only problem is that all the tweaking comes at a cost: higher management fees and more hours. It is here that automated bidding comes in handy, allowing Google to automate prior moves for adjusting your bid in real-time.

Although automated bidding isn't something new, continuous improvements made in the past year means that it is due to break-out in the coming year. The increased reliance on automated bidding tactics means that time can be devoted to optimise other crucial aspects of PPC performance. This will ultimately deliver a better outcome at a lower cost to clients.

Adding interactive elements to social media or websites can provide great value for visitors, ensure they engage with your brand and learn more about you. Suppose, as a realtor, you add an effective mortgage calculator to your website. Not only are you offering value to your visitors, but also learning about them based on the data they enter into the calculator. Getting this information can aid you in refining your personas and offer-targeting.

Organising contests are another exceptional way to increase your reach and visibility quickly. The fastest way to get your brand in front of a wide audience is to have your existing customers enter a Facebook competition. You can take it a step further by making a referral contest where you promise an attractive reward to clients who help bring in new business.

It takes less money to keep existing customers than to earn new ones. So, marketing experts recommend businesses to exert more effort in the final stages of a buyer's journey. This is because happy customers tend to share their experiences with friends and provide referrals to help increase your revenue. Also, they are more likely to give you honest and direct feedback about issues that will help strengthen your brand.

With the world continuing to experience the lingering effects of the global pandemic, businesses will continue moving into the "new normal" – digital marketing post-COVID-19. Keeping an eye on the trends listed above can help you keep your marketing strategies fresh and relevant to your audience. Time to boost your website traffic, generate increased leads, and grow sales, even while retaining your hard-earned customer-base!