Are you struggling to boost brand awareness, engage your target audience, and generate fresh leads? You’re not alone. About 73% of leads aren’t sales-ready when they first interact with your brand.
Meanwhile, almost 80% of your leads will never convert into sales.
With a strong digital marketing strategy, you can expand your reach and educate your audience. Educating your customers can help you draw them in and generate more leads.
How can you get ahead of the competition this year? What are the marketing trends for 2021?
Keep reading to find out! In this guide, we’ll review the nine marketing strategies for 2021 you need to succeed! With these tips, you can get leagues ahead of the competition.
Start reaching your customers and generating more business with these nine trends today!
1. Live Streams
With more people staying home in light of the pandemic, you need a way to reach customers online. As you ask yourself “what are the marketing trends for 2021,” think about your customers. How are they behaving right now?
More people are relying on the internet to find and order the items they need. People are now having meals and groceries delivered to their doorsteps. Limiting in-person interactions, even with friends and family, has become a priority.
You can use live streams to reach your customers without threatening anyone’s health.
Did you have a trade show or conference scheduled this year? You don’t have to cancel it. Instead, convert your event into a live stream.
You can use live streams for conferences, online workshops, webinars, or even short social media videos.
Before hosting a live event, take the time to market it to your target audience. Create a landing page on your website for sign-ups. Then, market the event on social media with a strong call-to-action (CTA) encouraging participation.
Don’t forget to use tools like email marketing to reach your audience, too.
As you market your upcoming event, focus on the value you’re offering your audience. Why should they take time out of their day for your live event? Do you have a guest speaker participating?
What can your customers gain and learn?
Since COVID-19 hit, the number of virtual events has increased by 1,000%. Canceling your events outright could cause you to lose customers. Instead, show them you’re adapting to their needs.
By following these 2021 marketing techniques, you can show customers you’re able to respond based on their habits and behaviors.
2. Search Engine Trends
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses optimize their web content for search engines like Google. A higher ranking on Google can help you:
- Boost brand awareness
- Increase brand recognition
- Strengthen trust
- Develop loyalty and customer retention
- Generate leads and sales
- Appear as a thought leader
- Built credibility
- Rank ahead of the competition
- Boost your ROI
About 70% of experiences online starter on a search engine. Meanwhile, SEO drives 1,000% more traffic than social media.
With SEO, you can position yourself in front of customers. When they see your top-of-page ranking, they’ll visit your website to learn more. Then, they can convert into a lead on your landing page.
While SEO isn’t a new marketing strategy, Google’s search algorithm changes constantly. It’s essential to stay up-to-date with the latest trends. Otherwise, your ranking could drop.
What are the marketing trends for 2021 in SEO? Here are a few to keep an eye on.
SERP Position Zero
Consumers can now type a query into Google and find the answer they’re looking for at the top of the page. They don’t have to click on a link or visit a website to find answers to their questions. Instead, Google uses featured snippets to display these answers as:
- Paragraphs
- Videos
- Numbered lists
- Bulleted lists
- Tables
- Q&A
Featured snippets appear in a prominent space at the top of searches. Reaching the top of a Google page ensures you’re the first company customers see.
You can format your website content to appear as a featured snippet.
First, take the time to update your keyword and audience research. Google’s machine learning is more focused on search intent this year. What are your customers looking for during a search?
Do they want to find a guide, your products/services, or directions to your store?
Keyword and audience research are essential for an effective SEO strategy. Otherwise, you’ll fail to create content your readers want.
Focus on the keywords you already have a strong ranking for. Then, use a schema markup plugin to improve your content formatting. Formatting your content with featured snippets in mind will help you boost brand awareness.
Voice Search
Do you use Siri, Alexa, or Google throughout the day? You’re not alone. Voice assistants are becoming a regular part of our lives.
As voice search becomes more popular, you’ll need to consider your target keywords. Voice searches feature longer search queries. These searches are usually phrased as questions.
Use your keyword research to determine what questions your customers are asking Google. Then, use those questions as your target keyword. Try to answer the question within the first paragraph of your post.
Then, go into more detail throughout the post.
Formatting your posts with voice assistants in mind can help your content appear for more searches.
3. Personalization
Who are your customers? What do they care about? What questions are they asking?
How can your product or service help solve their problems?
Focusing on personalization is becoming one of the big marketing strategies for 2021. Why? Namely, it affects every marketing strategy you use.
Consumers want to choose companies that care about their wants and needs. Otherwise, they’ll take their business elsewhere. After all, no one wants to see generic ads that have nothing to do with their lives.
Personalizing your content can help you better connect with your customers. Use empathy to show them you care. Then, draw them in with content that’s relevant to their needs.
Use personalization throughout your ads, content, and email marketing.
With email marketing, make sure to segment your subscription lists. Group your subscribers into smaller buyer personas based on:
- Previous purchases
- Behaviors
- Interests
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Marital status
- Household income
A female college student probably has different priorities than a father of three. Segmenting your audience will ensure your emails no longer sound generic. Instead, you can personalize the language and imagery to better connect with your audience.
4. High-Quality Content
Content marketing can help you educate your audience to draw in customers. It’s a key component of your SEO and social media marketing strategies. As you learn how to market in 2021, don’t forget to keep your customers in mind.
What questions are they asking? Use your content to answer their questions or spark their curiosity.
As you create content, focus on quality over quantity. Use your content to showcase your experience and expertise. Give customers a reason to trust you.
Demonstrating your expertise can help build your brand authority. You could even become a thought leader in your industry.
Test different content formats, including polls, quizzes, blog posts, videos, infographics, eBooks, and more.
Video Content
As you test out different content formats, don’t neglect video. Videos are engaging and easy to consume. You can draw in your audience and keep their attention.
Posting videos on your website can help boost your dwell time and click-through rate. Meanwhile, your bounce rate will fall. Improving these metrics can boost your SEO ranking.
In fact, Google loves video content. Remember, it’s a featured snippet format, too!
About 70% of customers prefer video to text when learning about a product or service. Meanwhile, adding video on landing pages boosts conversions by 86%. About 88% of marketers are satisfied with their video marketing ROI on social media.
Create live videos on Instagram and Facebook or a video series for your website. Look at your old blog posts for inspiration. Reformat old blogs into videos to keep customers engaged.
Interactive Content
You can also improve your website’s click-through rate and dwell time with interactive content.
Consumers are looking for new experiences online. Interactivity on your website can ensure you keep their attention and offer the experience they’re looking for.
Interactive content can include polls, quizzes, interactive infographics, calculators, and surveys.
You can use interactive content to boost engagement on your website. People love sharing polls and quizzes, too.
Use interactive content to learn more about your customers as well. Gather data that can further improve your marketing strategies for 2021.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
You can also use virtual and augmented reality to give customers a unique online experience.
Real estate agents are using virtual reality to allow home buyers to tour listings from the comfort of home. Makeup brands are using it to allow consumers to “try on” makeup products. Even Ikea uses this trend, allowing people to see how furniture would appear in their homes.
VR and AR can give people a taste of your products. It’s also great for boosting online engagement.
5. EAT and Transparency
Google looks for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (EAT) when determining search rankings.
Demonstrate your expertise by using your past experiences. Show consumers, you have hands-on experience and expertise they can rely on. They can learn from you instead of making costly mistakes.
Establish your authority in the industry by relying on other authorities in your niche. Look for studies, reference journals, and other reports. Consumers are more likely to trust data than someone’s word.
As you post online, make sure to create high-quality content. Prove your authority on the subject and link to trusted resources. Avoid using fluff within your posts.
Instead, focus on the value you have to offer.
Meeting the consumer’s expectations can help you build brand trust and loyalty.
Don’t forget to remain honest and transparent, too. Consumers won’t choose a shady brand that seems too good to be true. Instead, show consumers who you are and give them a reason to trust you.
6. Shoppable Posts
What are the marketing trends for 2021 on social media? Shoppable posts are becoming more popular. You can create shoppable posts that look like organic posts and blend into the user’s feed.
When consumers click on the post, they can find a link that sends them to your online store. Then, they have the ease and convenience to shop without clicking through your entire website.
Using shoppable posts can help you improve the online user experience, even from social media.
7. UGC and Influencer Content
Consumers trust people just like them. You can post user-generated content (UGC) to leverage that trust. Show consumers, you already have a community of happy customers.
When on-the-fence customers see smiling faces on your feeds, they’ll recognize other consumers already trust you. They’ll feel less apprehensive about choosing your brand.
You can attract UGC by hosting a contest. Tell followers you’ll feature their photos with your product if they tag you in the post. Make sure to use a branded hashtag, too.
You can also leverage existing brand trust by working with an influencer. Influencers can tell their followers about your brand, allowing you to reach more customers.
About 82% of consumers would follow a recommendation from a micro-influencer. In fact, working with influencers who have 50,000 to 250,000 followers can deliver a 30% better ROI per dollar spent.
8. Inclusivity
Consumers want to know their identity and diversity matters—and it does. Many consumers will move away from brands that don’t demonstrate enough diversity.
Don’t use stock photos with the same faces across your website and social media. Instead, show off real customers. Show consumers your brand includes everyone.
Become more involved in inclusive causes as well. Then, develop strong connections with your customers and show them you care.
9. Automation
How much time are you wasting repeating the same tasks day in and day out? With automation, you can save valuable time, effort, and money.
Start by automating your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. Google Ads can give you recommendations to improve your campaigns. You can even automate some of your headlines and ad language.
Are you using automation with your email marketing campaigns? Create triggers to ensure emails send based on customer behaviors. For example, you can send an email reminder when someone abandons a cart on your website.
Automation can help you close more sales, keeping you from missing opportunities.
What are the marketing trends for 2021? From live streams to automation, these marketing strategies for 2021 can make a big impact on your success. You don’t have to fall behind the competition this year.
Instead, give yourself a huge advantage with these 2021 marketing trends today!
Need more help? Contact us or text 1-631-405-4960 for free expert marketing advice today.