It has become a tradition on my blog that one of the articles I write to end the year, I dedicate to the trends in digital marketing that will mark the following year, in this case, 2021, and even more so in this case, after such a turbulent year on so many levels, and that we will not forget so easily. In this blog, we will discuss all Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Afford to Miss in 2021.

In 2020, he had pointed out as trends in the marketing sector the attribution models, corporate responsibility, customer lifetime value, control of technological monopolies, contextual searches, the rise of micro-influencers, the importance of customer loyalty. customer, the satiety of advertising, click-baiting and smart speakers.

If there is a trend that has marked 2020, it has been the health crisis, and for this reason, the news has been a source of information for the entire population, who have turned to TV, social networks and the press daily to find out what’s new. But they have also made click-baiting sadly news, due to the large amount of unreliable and false information that has flooded the media, as with the United States elections, in which there has been another substantial news spike on a global scale.

1. Stories

In 2020, the stories have reached the rest of the social networks that had not yet incorporated this type of content, and in this case, LinkedIn and Twitter have decided to assume the stories as new functionality for their users, in the case of Twitter, the has dubbed as Fleets.

Stories with a mode of creation and dissemination of ephemeral content that is tremendously popular for millions of content creators, but it must be taken into account that all social networks assume the stories as their own content makes the differences between networks become even more blurred. This happens when we find the same stories on Twitter or LinkedIn when the objective and target of both social networks are diametrically opposed.

The same is true of Instagram Reels, the mini-video format that the camera’s social network launched in August 2020, and which tries to compete directly with Tik Tok. This social network has been sweeping the teen target for a couple of years. Currently, we find many videos on Reels that are the same that have been shared on Tik Tok, which makes the essence of Reels get lost again.

2. Advertising in audio format

YouTube is going to launch a beta to start with advertising in audio ads format, which aims to be the frontal competition with Spotify. Audio advertising can be one of the formats that revolutionize the global advertising landscape, being able to complement the advertising mix of thousands of publishers.

You have to take into account how YouTube users receive the landing of audio advertising, and if it truly achieves the performance objectives that companies set out in their strategic marketing plans.

3. Hyper personalization and hyper segmentation

The needs of consumers are increasingly differentiated, and each consumer wants to find a product or service that suits their needs almost like a glove.

That is where problems arise, especially related to profitability, since making each consumer have a hyper-personalized product becomes in some cases a chimera.

Therefore, as in other areas of life, it is necessary to balance the demands of the consumer with the goals of the goals and assess to what extent this hyper-segmentation of certain items can be achieved, while in others it will be impossible to achieve it.

4. More advanced analytics

In the field of analytics, there are more and more players looking to stand out in this segmented market, from Adobe, Sales force, SAP, Tableau, and of course, Google.

Google has presented in October 2020, Analytics 4, the logical evolution in its analytical tool, and used by millions of companies and individuals.

This Analytics update focuses on the life cycle of products/services, entering the consumer purchase funnel fully, with a detailed analysis of acquisition, interaction, monetization and retention.

5. Marketing automation

In marketing strategies, email marketing is still essential to achieve good results, especially working with a good database, to achieve quality conversions.

But the power of marketing automation is even greater since if we use emailing intelligently we can achieve that our paid search campaigns achieve even more leads, at lower costs, thanks to the enormous possibilities it offers us. If we activate the right levers, we can impact the potential buyer at any stage of the funnel, trying to convince them to buy with the right product or offer for each profile.

6. Face-to-face events

It has been one of the great losers in the marketing sector, and in many others, as a consequence of the coronavirus, since hundreds of face-to-face events have had to be postponed or directly canceled, thereby experiencing a boom in digital events, making the webinars have multiplied exponentially.

It is true that in some cases, there has even been a certain saturation of digital events, not all of the same quality, which has caused the customer to have to choose the one that most interested them for their business, although later they had the Possibility of watching it delayed since most of them have been recorded and shared afterwards.

7. Definitive explosion of e-commerce

E-commerce has become a service essential this year due to the closure of thousands of businesses during confinement.

Millions of consumers have begun to buy online, both in large marketplaces, such as the well-known Amazon, but also in thousands of other e-commerce stores, which have seen their sales and profits multiply in 2020.

Therefore, 2021 is planned as an exciting year for hundreds of e-commerce, which can continue to investigate new formulas, to try to satisfy the needs of consumers eager for new experiences and articles that manage to surprise them.

8. Brand ambassadors

Having ambassadors always a safe bet for communication and marketing are favored.

Without further ado, we can turn to influencers, who become the Rosetta Stone for hundreds of businesses, despite the certain crisis they have had in 2020.

Therefore, having an advertising mix becomes an obligation for any company, and having brand advocacy, which in many cases can be the workers themselves, is a strategy that can be really profitable.

If our workers have a community involved in social networks, and they have credibility, proposing a brand ambassador strategy will surely be a success.

9. Environmental or ecological marketing

In last year’s post, I had already commented on corporate social responsibility as a must for companies, but due to the global pandemic situation, the so-called green marketing becomes an unquestionable obligation that organizations will be required to do.

Precisely the rise of electronic commerce, which we have seen in point 7, collides diametrically with environmental marketing, since the carbon footprint increases with e-commerce, so the need to continue consuming in local or proximity stores, and Betting on zero kilometer products will continue to be unquestionable for many consumers.

Supporting neighborhood businesses becomes, therefore, not only something that is fashionable, but also a way to support the local economy, at a difficult time for many SMEs, which must reinvent themselves to continue to have the support of their customers.

10. Personal data and privacy

Internet users are increasingly tired of their personal information being used unethically, and that there are multinationals that take advantage of this situation to brutally enrich themselves.

The hope of the implementation of the GDPR has remained as a manual of good intentions, but in reality, thousands of companies continue with their bad practices, especially in telemarketing.

But these bad practices extend to many other areas: in social networks, communications by SMS, What Sapp, or email without permission, annoying and intrusive pop-ups, placing banners to cause the user to click involuntarily …

If there is not a critical spirit on the part of Internet users, who demand improvements in the way of treating people’s private data, together with more restrictive legislation, it is difficult to achieve progress in this regard.

I hope this compilation of trends for 2021 will be useful for you to face the new year with renewed energy, but if you need help in your digital marketing strategies, you can contact me.