New Year, New Trends

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2020 accelerated the implementation of all things digital when organizations slow-walked adopting digital platforms into their marketing strategies. Social media platforms skyrocketed with users exploring new platforms to share creative content, and many organizations opted to work remotely for the foreseeable future. 

As we move forward into 2021, we have to move forward with the new changes and not revert to old ways. Additionally, the pandemic did bring about some radical changes in the digital marketing landscape. As we build communications strategies for 2021, these are a few essential trends to growing your business on digital. 

1. Facebook has made online shopping easier for consumers as they can go from discovery to purchasing the product without leaving the platform. As e-commerce continues to grow in 2021, retail brands will have to adapt to these new tools available on social media platforms to expand their e-commerce offerings.
2. Companies need to declutter their social media presence. With new platforms emerging constantly, it is tempting for brands and organizations to want to spread their influence across the board. However, brands and organizations need to declutter and identify platforms where their target audience is most active to ensure their message reaches them and not just published into the void.
3. 2020 was the year of reform. People did not shy away from calling out brands, organizations, and influencer that were tone-deaf to the majority of the world’s population’s challenges. In 2021, brands, organizations and influencers need to put empathy and authenticity to the forefront of their digital marketing strategy. Consumers will expect more transparency and purpose-driven missions from brands and organizations.
4. Customer desire enjoyable experiences and they want proof and authentic reviews before they purchase a product or service. According to an article by Social Media Today, user-generated content ticks all the boxes to enhance the customer’s experience as it builds and strengthens communities. Consumers prefer experiences that are relatable and positive. And finally, UGC helps brands generate more content from their community.
5. Additionally, consumers have become environment-conscious increasingly. Over the past few years, consumers are actively exploring sustainable and conscious brands about the environment. In the retail landscape, consumers are opting for slow fashion as they try to do their bit to reduce waste caused by fast fashion. 
6. Easy-to-consume content like podcasts continues to gain popularity. Podcast listenership has seen steady growth and is not showing signs of plateauing anytime soon. There are currently 850,000 active podcasts and over 30 million podcast episodes available across multiple channels worldwide. As the demand continues to grow, brands and organizations can powerfully leverage podcasts for thought leaders within the brand/organizations to build trust and loyalty among them audiences. 
7. Finally, better integration between digital content and analytics is very crucial in making smarter decisions in 2021. Analytics has played a crucial role in determining and understanding the success and failures of campaigns over the past few years. Understanding the efficiency of your advertising spend against its outcomes on digital and the performance of your content strategy will allow you to spot your weaker tactics and reinvest in campaigns that hit the mark.

As a digital marketer, what are you looking forward to implementing into your strategy in 2021? Get in touch with us to learn more about our digital marketing services and book your free consultation via [email protected]