Top four digital marketing trends for 2021
2020 got off to a troublesome start with the devastating bushfires and then the coronavirus hit us out of the blue. We all had to socially distance and bring our sanitised hands on deck to not only adapt our workplace but also the digital marketing strategies for our clients.
Small businesses, not-for-profits and governments had to be agile and pivot their strategies to find new ways of engaging with their customers, from changing how they created content to how they delivered it. And the ever-changing and unpredictable environment will continue in 2021.
And the consumer increased their connection with digital whether through attending online events, online shopping, connecting with loved ones through social media or consuming mindless hours of entertainment.
Redhead Digital Marketing worked collaboratively helping out clients to adapt to the coronavirus from trialling Facebook lead advertising, running live video sessions and for many small businesses launching their very first website.
Those brands that quickly changed and responded to the needs of their customers surprisingly had a bumper year with an elevated increase in sales and request for their services.
We learnt a lot of valuable lessons in 2020 and what is and isn’t important in the context of the ‘new normal’. We plan to use these learnings in 2021 to our clients’ benefit.
We’ve taken some of our learnings and done some research to provide you with some digital marketing tips for 2021.
Video Marketing Strategy
Video is going to continue to grow. If you’re a small business and you aren’t using video in your digital marketing strategy, why aren’t you? It’s cost-effective and it’s a great way to engage with your target audience.
Video is the most commonly used marketing content with more than 1 billion people using YouTube. This year live streaming is set to become a $70 billion industry and mobile video usage rises annually by 100 per cent with 1.5 people more likely to watch video on their mobile phone.
If you don’t have video in your digital marketing strategy then 2021 is a good time to incorporate it. Even if you start off small, make a start and think about creating video content that will resonate with your customers and will increase your video views.
What content is going to be the most useful? Are you going to offer live webinars and Q&A sessions, or provide a series of training sessions? Think about what content will be useful to your customers – many want to engage with you in real-time, so what’s going to be the best way to do this?
Stand for a Purpose
Purpose was one of our key trends in our 2020 digital marketing tips but the pandemic changed the speed at which companies are embracing it across their entire organisation. And the brands who continued to churn out social media posts with no purpose or thought behind them saw customers walk away. They didn’t realise that customers didn’t particularly want to hear about the products they had on offer during a pandemic.
Those companies who were purpose-led showed how they were helping customers, staff and communities through the coronavirus and they gained more support from customers because of it.
From banks deferring loans for their customers, Tribe offering free training sessions with top marketing experts whilst marketers were stuck at home and brands partnering with not-for-profits and charities to help them through difficult times like Suncorp pledging $1 million to The Smith Family.
Purpose-driven brands will continue to grow faster than their competitors in 2021 as customers seek out products that directly understand their needs.
Artificial Intelligence
Most businesses have fully embraced artificial intelligence (AI) to automate routine tasks, enhance storytelling or automate their online advertising freeing up time to focus on marketing strategy. But what they’ve found is that it’s lost a bit of its lustre and its not the silver bullet that’s going to elevate their brand to superstardom.
Rather, AI has helped enhance marketing for example with chatbots they can handle the boring routine queries but they can never replace the extensive knowledge and care factor of an experienced customer-care service agent.
This year many small businesses will be looking to save money and resources. AI can help in this area and small businesses will be looking at trialling some of the great automation tools that are built on AO to save time, effort and money.
From helping to manage content creation, distribution, social media monitoring and analysing what competitors are doing. Small businesses can get smarter and save money in the long run by using artificial intelligence in 2021.
Agile Marketing
If 2020 taught us anything, it was that life can change in an instant and if our businesses are going to survive, they need to learn to adapt and pivot to grow and succeed. Many businesses were agile and quickly responded to the pandemic and new needs of their customers and many didn’t and were left behind.
The companies that were agile, listened to their customers’ needs, they talked to their customers and discovered how their products or services could help them during the pandemic. They also analysed data from their social media channels and CRM to discover more about them.
And they were quick to market with new content or new products working collaboratively with their teams at speed to quickly meet the needs of the customer and consequently, these brands saw elevated sales and brand growth in 2020.
In 2021 small businesses are going to continually need to adapt to change and ensure what they’re selling is relevant to their customers by using agile marketing techniques, or they will become another Kodak.
2021 is going to be another year of constant change. With limited resources and budgets, as a small business, you can’t do everything, so you need to have a clear digital marketing strategy that details the direction you want to go in and what digital marketing techniques you are going to employ to get there to meet the needs of your customers. Redhead Digital Marketing is here to help you, book your free consultation today.
References:
Deloitte 2021 Global Marketing Trends