8 Elite Digital Marketing Trends to Watch

Jul 20, 2021

<a href="https://www.ewrdigital.com/author/mike-filewiczewrdigital-com" target="_self">Mike Filewicz</a>

Mike Filewicz

Creative Director and Award Winning Branding Expert

Digital Marketing Trends of 2021

With the events of the past year, a lot of businesses have realized that they must use digital marketing in order to stay ahead of their competition. And with 2021, online marketing has adapted and new digital marketing trends have emerged to keep up with the consumer’s needs and their ever-changing behaviors. Here are a few of the best Digital Marketing Trends that you can start implementing by yourself in 2021. For the best results, we strongly recommend hiring an Enterprise SEO Company like EWR Digital to boost results and get the best out of your online presence.

1. Create Stories on Every Platform

8 Elite Digital Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2021

As if there weren’t enough things to keep up with on social media, YouTube recently launched its story-like function. That shouldn’t be surprising, given that Google owns YouTube and needs to keep up with Facebook’s growing “watch” feature.

But it does mean that you have to create more content than ever and publish it to more platforms. Whether you want to put the same stories on every platform or change them up is up to you. Ideally, the stories should be different versions of the same content. If you have the resources to do that – go for it! But if you can only afford one story-type material per day, you post it on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube simultaneously.

Why Focus on Story Content and Ads? Stories are unique because they’re fast (like Snapchat), which adds a sense of urgency. They’re also full-screen, which gives you more of your audience’s attention. You have more options for posting stories, and they’re growing quickly as a media form. If you haven’t made stories part of your content, 2021 is the year to do so!

2. Stop Chasing Likes

Everyone freaked out in 2019 when Instagram hid likes. Most influencers who depended on likes to show their worth to brands panicked, but the change made businesses fret as well. While it does change how we look at our competition and the effectiveness of our posts, it’s not a bad thing. Hiding likes puts everyone on an equal playing field than ever before.

Sure there’s still the “others” vs. “hundreds of others” vs. “thousands of others” distinction, but who knows if they’ll keep that around? This update aimed to reduce pressure on creators and individuals to put out the “perfect” pic. Instead, Instagram hopes that brands and users will communicate and interact with others more, making it more of a community-based app than a competition.

It’s more important now than ever for your brand to like and interact with other accounts. If you’re not creating as much as you’re consuming, you’re doing it wrong. Plus, rumor has it that the more active you are with other people’s content, the kinder the algorithm will be to you.

Engage more and worry about how many likes you get less – while still staying true to the quality and strategy of your posts.

3. Get a Chatbot, Like Yesterday

People like chatbots; that’s a proven fact. They don’t like chatbots that pop up with a loud dinging sound when they forgot they left on their computer sound. If you’re going to use a notification sound on your chatbot pop-up, do everyone a favor and set the volume low. Nothing makes someone click out of a page faster (bye-bye, nice bounce rate) than the incessant sound they weren’t expecting. Your chatbot should be able to answer common questions and recognize an array of spellings/phrasings.

If you can afford to have a person or a service that mans your bot, then do that – people like talking to real people. If you can’t, make your chatbot as person-sounding as possible, without the intention to “trick” someone into thinking the robot is a human.

You can try out the “leave a message” forms, but few people end up filling them out. It may be more cost-effective, conversion-wise, to use a 24-hour service than to have hours your chatbot works/sleeps.

On a final note, test your chatbot pop-up system on a few different people before it goes live. Incessant flashing, bouncing, or having it pop up multiple times around the site could annoy clients more than it helps.

4. The Rise of Micro-Influencers

With Instagram taking away the like counter feature, working with micro-influencers or niche influencers is a better strategy than ever. We know that like numbers aren’t the best way to grade the success of a post anyways, due to the algorithm and existence of bots.

Instead, giving your micro-influencers a code or a discount they can share with their followers gives you a better idea of whether or not you should work with that influencer again. These personalized codes are easier to track than likes and encourage conversions rather than exposure.

When it comes to “grading” the success of your collaboration, don’t hold your influencer to a higher rate of conversion than you usually get through Instagram or Facebook ads. If they get more – great! But if it’s the same or almost the same, that’s a success too.

5. Shoppable Posts to Increase Conversions

While we’re talking about Instagram (though, yes, Facebook is a good place for influencers, too), let’s talk about shoppable posts. You can use plenty of apps and features to show what products are in a specific post, which is especially helpful as Instagram doesn’t allow hyperlinks in the comments/description.

Someone is much more likely to convert if they can click on the item they like in the photo and then be taken to that item on your page; rather than finding your link in the bio, find that individual item. Remember – you want to make it as easy as possible for your client to convert.

If you’re not ready to use shoppable posts yet – at least use your “swipe up” feature in stories to send people to the appropriate pages. No one likes searching through pages of inventory to find that one shirt they saw on their feed.

6. Optimizing for Voice Search can you help you reach 1/4 of the adult population

More houses have Alexa and Google Home now than ever, which is changing how we search. Now, instead of just optimizing for typed or written keywords, you need to consider conversation-based ones as well.

For example, someone isn’t going to say, “Alexa, a coffee shop near me.” They’re going to say, “Alexa, where’s the nearest coffee shop?”.

If you want to pop up for both searches, you have to add to your keyword strategy. It’s a complicated process, so we recommend you work with a professional who has experience optimizing for voice searches. If you don’t work this into your digital marketing strategy for 2021, you’re missing out on 66.4 million people who have a smart speaker in the US alone. That’s almost 1/4 of the adult population.

Alexa, who’s the best digital marketing agency?

7. Quicker Page Speeds

8 Elite Digital Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2021

While this isn’t technically digital marketing (it’s page design), it still has a lot to do with the success of your site. There’s no excuse to have a slow loading page in 2021, not with all the server options and web hosting sites available. While you used to have long load times, now you only have about four seconds for your page to load before someone clicks out and goes to your competitor. If you want that sale, you better make sure you’re loading in three seconds or less (four is the max).

While some of the loading time has to do with the visitor’s connection, it’s more to do with how your site is built and the amount of bandwidth you have. Don’t cut corners when it comes to updating your web design or paying for a bigger server. If you do, you’ll lose sales, lower your quality score, and probably get kicked off the front page (if you were there in the first place).

Talk to your web designer about things like “ghost pictures,” placeholders, or other aspects that show your page is loading so your customer doesn’t stare at a blank screen.

8. Video is a Must-Have Digital Marketing Trend in 2021

We’ve been saying that digital marketing trends were going towards video for years now, and that’s still true. Except now, if you’re not already making videos and using them, you’re officially behind. The past few years have taught us that these videos don’t have to be Hollywood quality – they have to be passable. As long as you have clear visual, audio, and decent editing, your video is good to go!

Digital Marketing Trends in 2021

Nothing about the digital marketing trends above should surprise you. They’re all things that we started seeing this year, or even in years past. You could even argue that these are no longer digital marketing trends – they’re digital marketing requirements at this point if you want to succeed.

And while that sounds intense, it holds. Thankfully you have professional marketing agencies who can help you turn these digital marketing trends into realities for your business. Contact us today to see how we can help you with your digital marketing goals.