Internet marketing trends are the most unstable thing in the Digital segment. The advent of two or three new tools may completely change buyer priorities and erase global strategies hard-created by marketers. But if you take a good look, you will definitely find several trends to guide you in developing a digital strategy.
The time has come for rethinking. The world has changed so fast and dramatically that now 100% of business owners have realized the urgent need to develop the web version of their business. In turn, Digital Marketing has also adapted to the realities of life, i.e. acquired new methods, tools, and trends. In the near future, modern methods of Internet marketing will dominate, thus, let’s discuss them in this article. Read on!
Top 12 Big Trends in Digital Marketing in 2021
In 2020, the standard “ad-click-site-buy” scheme of online shopping works no more. Purchase mechanisms are becoming more technologically advanced and much more complex – point solutions are a thing of the past.
New methods of online marketing include a set of trends:
- personalization and dialogue with customers;
- understanding of human psychology;
- process automation;
- promotional material quality-transparency ratio;
- etc.
Digital technology is a breakthrough in the marketing world. They appear and develop so rapidly that sometimes, it’s impossible to keep track of them. Here are 12 key digital trends that will change the face of the market and business in 2021.
1. Switch to Mobile
There is a stable growth of purchases made from mobile devices. Desktop PCs are losing their position in e-commerce. That’s why it’s necessary to optimize websites for mobile search and improve their loading time.
2. Intensive Analytics
Online business requires constant improvement in terms of the methods and quality of analytics. The purpose of web analytics is effective cost optimization.
3. Messengers
Active use of messengers in promotional communications is part of a more global trend, Omnichannel commerce. But we’d like to highlight the messenger marketing segment separately. We shall not claim that in the near future, it will completely replace email marketing, but we are absolutely sure that many companies will use it (a lot).
Our confidence is based on statistics:
- Messengers are used as the main means of communication by more than 60% of people aged 18 to 44 years;
- 70% of online buyers choose the second option between “call the seller” or “send a message”;
- Only 13% of users negatively react to advertising messages in messengers;
- When it comes to messages from brands, the click-through rate is 90%.
Among programs for sending and receiving messages, Facebook Messenger ranks first in the marketing-effectiveness rating reviews. By today’s standards, given the number of registered Facebook users, the integration of Messenger into business processes provides huge opportunities to brands.
Here are some examples of how Facebook Messenger can be used in marketing strategies besides advertising:
- Collect user data that cannot be obtained through email (gender, age, interests, marital status, etc.). Installing Messenger as a tool for authorization on a website reduces this process to one click. As a result, site visitors are more willing to register, and the company quickly increases the user base;
- The partial solution to the “abandoned cart” problem. You can reduce the number of unfinished purchases by sending reminders to your buyers via Messenger. Open rate, and, accordingly, the effectiveness of such reminders is tens of times higher than email. Plus, a reminder can always be accompanied by some personal bonus.
Collecting large volumes of data and effective working with them is essential to establish high-quality marketing processes. Now there are a lot of tools available for data collection and structuring. Also, there are enough specialists who know how to use them right:
- Visualize Big Data in a format understandable to marketers so that they can rely on it in making strategic decisions;
- Separate it into groups for specific tasks – targeting, remarketing, mailing lists, etc.
We believe that the potential of Big Data is much greater, and working with it is a global trend that is just beginning to emerge.
5. Augmented Reality
AR will help create close interaction between the client and the brand. It’s similar to VR but much easier and more affordable in terms of implementation for average businesses. According to a study by Gartner, in 2021, more than 70% of companies will implement immersive technology. Thus, potential buyers will be able to create a design-project of their own apartment, “try on” some clothes, and learn the necessary information just by pointing the smartphone camera at the object of interest.
6. Alternative Promotional Sites
In April 2020, TikTok earned over $78 million in the App Store and Google Play, overtaking YouTube, Netflix, and Tinder. By the number of monthly downloads, the app overtakes even giants like Facebook or Instagram (in February 2020 alone, it was downloaded by more than 1.5 billion users). 41% of TikTok’s audience are young people aged 16 to 24 years, which makes TikTok a great platform for advertising. In addition, it has several undeniable advantages:
- Unique tools such as masks or Hashtag Challenge;
- Low competition among advertisers (as opposed to Instagram);
- Loyal audience;
- Advantageous pricing policy and opportunities for influence marketing.
High competition in the online space and constantly changing rules of search engines will result in the need to search for many different sources of traffic. The most progressive method of advertising will ensure a high level of trust of the target audiences. At the same time, it’s highly important to find a suitable platform for advertising. There are even options available to buy TikTok followers if you want a bit of a jumpstart, just be aware of the risks involved.
7. Voice Search Optimization
According to analysts’ forecasts, 55% of search queries in 2020 fall on voice search. Consequently, in 2021, its popularity will only grow. Such optimization can significantly increase the recognition of your brand and contribute to its promotion.
Use programs like Jetson AI – they remember voice commands, track queries, and create automatic scripts for typical actions (e.g. shopping).
8. Chatbots
Another trend is a virtual conversation partner, ready to find out users’ needs and answer their questions 24/7. You can communicate with a chat-bot via voice or text messages. Thanks to this, chatbots are an indispensable tool for business automation on the Internet. You can create your own full-fledged chatbot for Facebook using a special service and embed it in your brand’s group to answer the most common questions of customers for you. The same works for Instagram or Twitter.
Automation of communications. This task can be solved by the correct chatbot setup. With a chatbot, a company creates a positive user experience of interaction with the brand (instant answers to questions, 24/7 support, etc.), reduces the load and costs on the call center. Objectively, you can transfer processing of 70% to 90% of customer communications to chatbots.
9. Personalization
Sad fact: 97% of visitors of an average resource do not turn into customers. The reason is simple – companies offer their users the wrong products. Fortunately, this problem is solved by personalization. Do you want to increase your online store sales? Configure the system so that it remembers your customers’ purchases and later shows them products similar to those they have purchased before. Here are a few statistical facts:
- Personalization works in 90% of cases, i.e. 90% of customers reach the purchase stage;
- 65% of users repel generalized ads;
- When Starbucks first introduced coffee cup customization, its annual income increased to $2.5 billion.
10. Neuromarketing
It will be one of the most futuristic and impressive trends in Digital Marketing in 2021. Neuromarketing involves studying consumer behavior and ways to influence it. To do this, neuromarketing measures and analyzes the activity of the human brain and nervous system, which allows you to choose the types of content according to your content experience most positively perceived by people.
With the acquired information, you can make changes to the existing marketing strategies or create a new one that will be a trigger for a certain audience segment. Thanks to neuromarketing, by the way, companies all over the world have started to play with package colors or set prices at $9.99 instead of $10.
11. Live Broadcasts and Streams
Live broadcasts are watched 3 times more often than regular videos recorded in advance. Why? Users are impressed by the feeling of “belonging” to events taking place here and now. As a result, Twitch, a streaming platform whose audience is growing every day, is now one of the most popular broadcasts.
Even today 60% of users choose to get acquainted with the product via video, rather than reading articles, reviews, or studying the product offline. Thus, live videos can become an excellent marketing tool on Instagram or Facebook. Announce the upcoming Live announcements in advance and promise your audience to provide valuable information live. It may be a discount code or a lottery among your viewers.
12. Classical Method Improvement
None of the traditional methods in Digital Marketing will become a thing of the past but they will have to be improved. The basis will be a deeper psychological understanding of the buyer. Using one marketing channel will not be possible anymore. Building a successful company with a single promotional means is almost impossible these days. Thus, you have to improve all available spheres including CEO, advertising, native promotion, clinging content, etc.
- Conversion optimization. This way you can get more profit from the resource with minimal financial investments. In other words, in order to get twice as much income, you don’t have to try to double your attendance – just double the conversion rate.
- A comprehensive approach to Internet marketing. It’s necessary to focus on a common set of questions in terms of site promotion: work out usability trends, monitor the quality of your content, correct SEO-errors, provide convenience on mobile devices, etc.
How to Successfully Apply These Methods
To make traditional and new internet marketing methods really work and provide great results, you should involve qualified specialists in the digital sphere. First of all, a professional marketing specialist will start working with audit and analysis of the real state of the Internet resource. Based on the results, a set of measures that will be most effective in a particular market segment has to be chosen.
Conclusion
The key to making a profit in the digital sphere is the correct positioning of your business. Achieving your goals is possible only through the formation of a positive image of your company, increasing brand awareness in the market, improving consumer loyalty, and gaining constant traffic from your target audience. These tasks are exactly what Internet marketing is all about.
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