The Next Big Things in Digital Marketing Trend

It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, what type of industry you’re in or what products and services you offer.

The question is: are you making use of digital marketing to reach your customers? If digital marketing is not on the top of your list, we hope this article will change your mind!

We cannot emphasize enough how crucial digital marketing is for all business and company owners; especially in this time and age. If you plan on staying relevant and competent in the marketplace, then you must not leave out digital marketing. 

Don’t worry; digital marketing doesn’t have to be complicated! In order to help you prepare to expand your business the next year, we’ll show you what digital marketing is and what big things to expect in the digital marketing trend for 2021!

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the use of the Internet to widen your influence and reach customers. Digital marketing also involves the use of tools and apps such as mobile devices, social media platforms, websites, search engines and more to interact with your audience.

Hence, this form of marketing aims to target a specific customer base and have a two-way interaction between the company and the customers.

Business owners can explore many digital marketing channels. For example, there are website, content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and more. 

Nowadays, digital marketing is continuously changing. It is important to keep up with the latest trend in the digital landscape to stay relevant, sustain your online presence and not fall behind.

The Next Big Things in Digital Marketing Trend

As mentioned, digital marketing is always changing and evolving. As we are entering a new year filled with new possibilities, it is only essential for us to take advantage of new technologies and tools to keep up with the pace and showcase our brand (or business). With that said, here are a few big things to expect in the future of digital marketing trend :

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Marketing Automation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is dominating the business industry, taking up many jobs and will continue to do so in the future. However, AI is also a significant commercial opportunity for companies and industries, providing a ton of benefits for those who utilize it. 

For example, AI can help companies and businesses sustain a competitive advantage, move into new businesses, accelerate growth, reduce staffing costs and more.

Not only that, but AI also helps businesses to enhance communication, analyze customer data, track sales, predict customer behaviour patterns, and reduce workloads.

Besides that, marketing automation that includes chatbots plays a vital role in the world of digital marketing. From the customer’s point of view, interacting with a chatbox is convenient and comfortable as they are available 24/7 and give prompt answers to their questions. 

2. Shoppable Posts

Shoppable Posts are gaining more and more attention in these few years. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, shoppable posts or social commerce is when customers buy directly through social media posts, without having to leave that app. It simplifies the buying process of the customers by providing everything they need (product details, payment method and shipping options) all in one platform.

Hence, shoppable posts are indeed a one-stop-shop platform for all users. Business owners can expand their usage of social media from connecting with their customers, showcase their products and services, build their brand image and offering a convenient and straightforward social commerce.  

3. Optimize for Voice Search

Have you heard of ‘smart’ devices such as ‘Siri’, ‘Alexa’ and ‘Google Voice’? We’re pretty sure you have at least once in your life! These devices rely almost entirely on voice queries to serve their customers.

With the growing number of these ‘smart’ devices, we can see how verbal interaction with tools is starting to help those who are frequently on-to-go. These machines are catching up with our preferred way of interacting.

Voice interaction in the digital marketing world provides convenience and instantaneity, by helping us conduct searches at the sound of our voice, and offers us a few choices at most. That is unlike a text-based search where the results are displayed one screen at a time. Users can use the voice search practically anywhere and anytime, in just a matter of seconds. 

Overall, a voice search strategy is not only about staying relevant in this time and age, but it also creates a unique and personalized customer experience that will build relationships with the customer and the brand.

4. Influencer Marketing 

Although influencer marketing is not a new concept, many businesses and companies are starting to take an interest in this marketing strategy. Initially, brands thought that by partnering with massive influencers would bring more benefits in promoting their products. However, the result turned out to be costly and ineffective. 

Hence, the term micro-influencer was born, where it refers to medium-sized influencers popular enough to be influential and have better engagement rates. Micro-influencer marketing offers a different approach that is more effective in relating and reaching target individuals. 

Hence, influencer marketing is expected to increase year after year. Companies can start looking for influencers who have followers that may be interested in their product, and start a collaboration or an outreach today!

5. Video Advertising

If you have not involved yourself in video marketing, it’s high time that you should. Video advertising is another great way to market and promote your products or services through visual content. After all, the majority of us are visual learners.

Nowadays, people are watching more videos than ever. These videos range from advertisements, entertainment purposes, educational, instructional and more. Just look at Youtube!

Video marketing can allow you to convey your story. If you feel its harder to get your message across through written text or pictures; then you can opt to make a video instead! There are many platforms where companies can spread their influence and stories through videos, such as Youtube, Instagram and the recently famous TikTok app. 

Business owners can also highlight the benefits and features of a product and service through vlogging! Vlogging is rising in popularity for its personal and direct nature; perfect to connect and relate with the audience on a deeper level!

6. Visual Search

A visual search is a new type of search that will revolutionize the way we currently look for items online! Nowadays, besides typing out what we want to know in the search bar, we can also upload an image online to search! 

For example, Google, and a famous Chinese online shopping website Taobao, has introduced a visual tool that allows users to take or upload a picture to find out more about it; such as where to get it or its relevant information! 

Users can also utilize the Google Lens feature in terms of finding similar apparel and where to buy them, use barcodes to find information on a product, get summary or read reviews about a book and more!

7. Content Marketing

Let’s not forget about content marketing! We’ve covered a lot on content marketing in our previous articles. It is one of the most crucial aspects of business and marketing approach.

However, content marketing is still, and will always be an essential and timely component of the digital marketing world. 

However, there will be more emphasis on content marketing as the years go by, to keep up with the fast-paced and hustle-and-bustle of the digital marketing world. With that said, there are more responsibilities for the company to produce quality, impressive and engaging contents to stand out from the crowd, and attract the audience. 

Business owners should make no mistake, because content marketing is a timely and crucial strategy to maintain their online presence, and show their audience why they should choose to do business with them among the others.

There you have it! We hope that this article will excite and prepare you to understand the changes and trends that are unfolding in 2021. “Get Involved, or Get Left Behind”, this saying resonates with all the business owners today to keep up with the fast-paced and evolving digital marketing world.

Indeed, there is no time for a business to stand still! If you’re feeling overwhelmed and not quite sure how to keep up, don’t worry; we’ve got just the thing for you! You can get all the help you need from a credible creative design agency like Walk Production.

There is a range of services for you to grow your business with us, such as social media marketing services, content writing, SEO services and more. With that said, Walk Production is a comprehensive one-stop solution for you to fulfil all your marketing needs!