The Marketing Level-up

Top marketing trends to look out for in 2021

With unfettered access to billions of people across the world, the focus of internet marketing will be a brand’s ability to evolve their influence to a limitless audience base.

Since the pandemic, older ways of doing business are being phased back out, and the overall marketing landscape is shifting with tectonic proportions.

What matters most? Feeling connected.

Zoom announces record profits.

Facebook and other social media sees massive upticks in daily usage.

Understanding the trends being forecasted today is the difference between a year of thriving or another year of simply surviving.

As we head towards the second decade of the 21^st century, internet marketing continues to be as important as ever.

The rise of cause marketing

People want to feel connected to the brands they support. They’re now looking for businesses to hold the same values as they do, and support the changes they want to see.

For many years, it was a guaranteed death sentence for a company to speak out about certain polarizing topics or events.

In 2021, it’s nearly a requirement to do so.

The ever-increasing purchasing power of younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z’ers are prompting companies to evolve their marketing strategies to become more focused on the triple bottom line and less on simply shareholder profit.

You will see an uptick in cause marketing trends as more issues with the “status quo” are revealed and adopted. Consumers, who themselves, are becoming smarter, more aware, and more connected, will begin to expect more from the brands they choose to support.

The reemergence of online marketing

The past several years have been dominated by digital marketing strategies that included email campaigns, targeted social media ads, PPC advertising, and brand ambassadorships. With this increase, offline marketing became a way of the past.

This trend will continue in 2021.

Consumers want 24/7 access and want a brand to flirt with them like a salesperson would do. They don’t want to pick up the phone and talk to you. They would like to chat about it in a messenger or chatbot.  digital marketing as they once have. The increasing savviness of target audiences are leading marketers back to the drawing board, as they attempt to subvert the changing marketing landscape, and make a splash in 2021.

Companies like Hubspot have begun employing new school, direct marketing techniques such as social media following and engaging with prospects and clients for their marketing strategies.

The focus of relevancy and personal touch have invokes trust in their consumers, allowing for them to foster relationships more intimately, while differentiating themselves from competition. This has provided them with some substantial results early-on.

Voice-activated searches – a new marketing frontier

2021 saw an massive billion dollar demand for AI Virtual Assistants such as the Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa. These devices are a part of an emerging industry called the “Internet of Things” or IoT, which includes all devices that are wirelessly connected to the internet through a cloud based system.

By 2025, it’s estimated that all devices will be connected via the cloud. A good percentage of these devices will have voice-activation capabilities, which is demonstrated by massive year-over-year growth.

Companies have to adjust their content to be more voice-search friendly by focusing on natural speech patterns, long-tail keywords, and an even bigger investment into mobile friendly platforms.

With the new frontier of search coming by way of voice, the design of a company’s digital marketing content, including the focus of their SEO, will have to evolve.

Staying ahead of the curve

One of the best ways to thrive in business and in life, is to stay ahead of the trends that evolve over time, which puts businesses and marketers in a special circumstance that only comes around once every 5-10 years.

As we look towards 2022, companies will differentiate themselves by leveraging their values, authenticity, and agility. And with the emerging frontiers of marketing leveling the playing field for smaller companies, the landscape will once again shift with tectonic proportion.