Now that kids have gone back to school, it's time for us to also update our knowledge and come up with new ideas. How? Best way to do that is by always keeping up with the future trends in marketing.
One of my favourite activities is reading through industry reports and analysing news and consumer behaviour. That's the recipe for discerning or recognising upcoming trends in marketing, advertising, content or sales. It's not simple predictions. It's well-studied data. So, having said that, time to tell you about the hottest digital marketing trends to follow in 2021.
1. Relationships
You've noticed that cold sales are out of the window. Thoughtless, random ad campaigns don't do the trick either.
What's going on?
Well, people are tired of stuff. Yeah, stuff. Because if you are offering your products or services to strangers that's exactly what they see in your offer. Stuff. Instead, they should see value.
Now, showing the value of your product or service is not simply down to the way you write or develop your content. That's an essential part, but it's not all.
Relationships matter.
For you to be successful in digital marketing in 2021, you need to nurture and deepen your relationship with your audience. The best way to do that is by forming a closed community (think Facebook groups for instance) and regular one-to-one interaction (email marketing or direct messaging).
Be sure to be authentic. And when I say one-to-one interaction I really mean you take the time and speak to your community members in a way that doesn't make them feel like just one of the people you sent your email template or chat box script to.
It's hard, it's time consuming, but it's worth it.
Large following doesn't mean more conversions. Small, but close communities where relationships thrive bring those high sales numbers.
2. Influencers
Influencers are back in the game. After many of them were threatened in 2019, due to several social media changes, they are once again going stronger. Most of the marketing, for any business is moving online, thanks to COVID. And that means fierce competition between brands.
There's only so much creativity any marketing team can come up with to shine above and beyond the competition. Eventually, we will be flooded with similar content and ads everywhere we go online.
So what do we do? We care less and less about any ads and promo content from brands. We listen to our friends and those who inspire us.
Word of mouth marketing has always been the best form of marketing. I don't see any other strategy or technique replacing it.
And that's exactly why influencers are surfacing again as game changers for a lot of businesses. They are the digital bridge between the brand and the consumer. They are the new friend who you've never met in person but inspires you so much and you secretly want to be just like him or her.
Influencer marketing can be dangerous for brands when they choose the wrong ambassadors. How to Find the Right Influencer is a great article that might help you in your quest for the perfect blogger, YouTuber or IG Queen.
3. Partnerships
There's power in partnerships few businesses realise and take advantage of. On my online course on how to start and run a successful business, I have a whole session dedicated to forming strategic partnerships.
During the pandemic and after life started to look a little bit more like normal, a lot of businesses were badly hurt. Some were simply destroyed. But it's partnerships with other brands and companies that helped some stay afloat.
Partnerships are an amazing tool for growth. They help you reach a new audience, form new relationships and of course, increase your sales.
You can partner with businesses who share your brand values or target people similar to your ideal client. Not your direct competitors, of course, but if you can pull that one off, a lot of publicity and attention is to follow!
There are different types of partnerships. You can supply some of your products to the store of your partner. You can work on a new joint project together. You can cross-promote or cross-sell your products. You can create referral codes. You can simply boost your brand recognition by partnering with well-established organisations or individuals and tapping into their large and engaged audience.
4. Digital Marketing - Pretty Much the Only Marketing
Even though we won't live in lockdown forever, and COVID will not stay with us till the rest of our lives, it's already impacted the way we live and will continue to live.
The events industry was the one that suffered the most during the pandemic and it will be a very long and hard road of recovery.
Having less people going out and doing things outside of their home has killed the effectiveness of almost any marketing channel or technique other than digital marketing. And if you need to remember 3 main points to work on for your digital marketing campaigns in 2021 these are:
Content (Content Marketing + Content Sales)
Personalisation (Smarter AI + Ultra analysed user behaviour)
Design and Accessibility (Mobile and Apps continue to be peaking in importance for almost any business)
A Few Final Words
Digital Marketing in 2021 creates a close partnership with sales, data analysis, AI and other newly-developed technologies. Innovation is key, but so is attention to the individual. It is likely that this is one of the industries that will rapidly grow in the next few years. New jobs are being created and the execution of these strategies will require more human work, despite the indisputable progress artificial intelligence is making.
If you need a new beginning, perhaps that's the chance you shouldn't miss.
