The time has arrived when marketers must scrutinize their marketing strategies and KPIs to make sure they are positioned to successfully adjust their marketing tactics in the coming year. Only agile digital marketers who can remodel their strategies accurately and quickly will survive and thrive. Those who will end up victorious are those who stick to their goals, and enter the next year with a solid plan. Read on to find out which 2021 digital marketing trends will impact your small business.
Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing has become one of the most exciting trends in digital marketing that has brought together messaging, conversational interfaces, innovative processing of search queries, and rapid adoption of smart speakers. In the Gartner Hype Cycle, conversational marketing came across as a crucial innovation. Another technology that made it to the list is—artificial intelligence—which is the bedrock of conversational marketing.
Marketing through conversational UI is being served as the fastest method to go through the sales funnel by using real-time communication prowess. It builds a lasting relationship and creates a genuine value-added experience for the buyer and customer. People no longer have the patience for traditional marketing funnel that moves them through multiple steps that are sometimes redundant. It is because the processes are painful, impersonal, and too cold. Less than 20% of people open email, and not even half answer cold calls. Even the landing page conversion rate has fallen to a meager ~3%.
Conversational marketing is composed of three steps—engagement, understanding, and recommendation. The lead conversion ratio becomes higher, as well. With conversation marketing, the web portal transforms into a more human-centric buying experience from being a generic catalog. Marketers get a chance to learn a lot about customers and buyers by having an exact context. They can comprehend which features are useful to them and where the pain-point lies. The lead conversion ratio becomes higher because you get tailored insights into what a customer wants. It cut shorts the long, painful process of the traditional sales cycle and brings better returns on investments.
Video is No Longer a Choice
If your organization has not already implemented video marketing, get on board now. You cannot afford to miss the bus. There is no comparison between video and text-content when it comes to selling services and products online.
Falling data costs make it possible for consumers to watch more and more video content than ever before. Watching videos about anything under the sun, at any time, has become possible due to handheld smartphones. Let us have a look at these statistics:
- 71% of marketers believe video content brings better conversion rates.
- 54% of consumers want to see more videos about products to guide their purchasing decisions.
These statistics prove that video marketing has become a highly engaging activity. We also see a new wave of YouTube/Instagram influencers who market the products through live streaming. It creates a buzz around the offering—culminating in a powerful way of putting products and services across.
Personalized Email Campaigns
Despite the prevalence of social media, instant messaging, etc., the good old email is yet to lose its charm. Billions of emails are sent daily for academic, scientific, legal, industrial, commercial, and personal purposes. As long as the email is here to stay, email marketing would go on, too.
However, the point here is that marketing through email is continuously evolving and getting better. Email automation has made its way into email marketing as well, which has personalized the whole email experience. If implemented correctly, personalization can be a great revenue booster. And personalized email marketing is not new. It has been in use for many years for bettering marketing endeavors. All research points that personalized email campaigns get better email opening rates and click-through rates than anonymous generalized emails. This has the potential to be one of the most powerful 2021 digital marketing trends.
So, keep in mind: if personalization in your emails is missing, you are missing out. For a personalized email marketing experience, you need to collect your customers’ data and craft emails targeting specific requirements of customers. After collecting enough data about your potential customers, you can plan accordingly and tailor your emails by having an approximate customer profile.
Facebook Lagging…
Facebook is no longer the king of social media marketing as it used to be some years before. Forbes’ research tells us that more than half of its users are above the age of 60. I am not suggesting that Facebook has become a thing of the past for social media marketing; yet, it can be said for sure that it is lagging behind other channels in catching up with the younger generation. Younger people are more prone to trying new products and experiences. The interactive and more visual experiences offered by TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram appeal to them more.
Do you remember the data breach that happened at Facebook in 2018? Add to it the brash political propaganda and fake news. All these have made people resentful and frustrated with its policies. TechCrunch has gone to the extent of saying that Facebook will be dead to Generation Z. Hence marketers must understand that while Facebook might have a significant share of users, they must make sure the demographic they are targeting is available on the platform and, more importantly, considers it credible. Otherwise, it may result in the wastage of marketing money and efforts.
Instagram Leading
Side by side, we also see a meteoric rise in the popularity of Instagram with younger generations. Currently, it has more than a billion users. Most of its users are below the age of 30. Other avenues of social media marketing, such as TikTok, have cut across the national borders in terms of popularity. Influencer marketing is the most used way of marketing on TikTok. Research shows that more than 85% of the marketing happening over TikTok is through social media celebrities that generate brand awareness and sales.
So, give other channels of social media marketing a try, mainly popular with the younger demographic, and do not just stop at Facebook.
Get Involved, or Get Left Behind
The world of marketing is evolving. Trends and buzzwords come and go. And it was always like that. But the basic remains the same throughout all ages. Marketers must connect with their audience and communicate the USP of their products and services. Consumer-focused content would remain the best way to build a solid emotional bond with the customer. However, you also must ensure that your message is not getting concealed in the maze of mediums. So, channelize your energies and efforts in putting across a customer-centric message according to these 2021 digital marketing trends.
