The pandemic has significantly altered how people use and interact with the online platform. With the compulsion to stay indoors, customers are now spending more time on the web performing research on brands, products and considering reviews more seriously before making a purchase decision.

To sum it up, people are interacting more with the brands online, and the expectations are being set quite high.

There’re ample reasons to believe that this trend in customer behaviour will last not only till the time the COVID infection rates are curbed but beyond, and it is going to dictate the upcoming digital marketing trends for 2021.

Now this change can be a boon or bane for your business, depending on how quickly your digital marketing strategy can adapt. Comprehensive planning for 2021 by an excellent digital marketing company can help your business to ride the tide while ensuring maximum ROI.

2021 digital marketing trends – It’s time to act

• UX Driven Marketing

User Experience (UX) is going to be more important than ever in digital marketing. We have already seen the uprise of UI/UX focused web development and the same will happen (you can see it already happening) for digital marketing as well.

How your content makes the user feel and contributes to the overall user experience is going to be the last word in digital marketing.

So, whatever is your online promotion strategy, it’s time you put the user first. Optimize all your content from a user perspective and focus on increasing user engagement.
How to do that?

Here’re some tips,

• Create well-structured content that is easy to read/scan, entertaining or informative
• Include images, infographics, and videos along with every written content
• Make your content interactive with quizzes, calculators, finders
• Make your product posts on social media shoppable

You don’t want your users to skip content because it looks cluttered or uses language that is not easy to comprehend. At the same time, if the content doesn’t provide any value or entertainment, the customer will not get back to check out the next content.

According to the latest research, the use of infographics and videos in content increases user engagement considerably.

Interactive quizzes, calculators, and finders work as excellent engagement for the customers and add value to the content. For example, you are browsing through a website of a beauty brand for a body moisturizer; if there is a ‘Skin Type Finder’ on the website, you will try that first and then check out the products suggested for the skin type you have. At one hand, it will considerably increase the time spent on the site and also give value for your time.

Professional digital marketing services can offer you more insights into how to make your content UX optimized.

• Google Listings and Local SEO

Submitting your business in the local directories – we have been doing it like forever, right? But are you updating the information regularly? If not, it’s a mistake you cannot afford any more.
Due to the pandemic, every business has gone through changes in its working hours or way of operation and even the change from the normal is now changing quite often.
Keeping your business information up to date on the google listings from time to time is the key to effective local SEO, which is essential for every small business and is going to be the focal point of digital promotion in 2021.

Need some tips for optimizing Google listings and local SEO? Check out,

• In Google My Business Listings, mention a geographically defined service area
• Provide all the information in as detail as possible
• Update your business information as soon as you decide to change it

Including a geographically defined service area ensures that your business is included in the relevant ‘near me‘ searches. Verifying your business with Google makes it easy for you to change and manage your business information shown by all Google services, including Google maps and Search.

The local search demand is going to be a lot deeper than you might think, and tapping into this demand could provide a tremendous business advantage. If you are launching your ecommerce site, talk to your ecommerce development service provider for Google verification.

• Zero click searches

What is a ‘zero click’ search? If you are a digital marketer, you are already happy or horrified with it. Let us describe it briefly.

When you place a question in the Google Query Box, along with the links to online content that matches with your query, Google comes up with a direct answer snippet at the top of the search result page. These ‘boxed answers’ are called position zero in the result. It helps people to get the answer they are looking for without leaving the page.

Now why you might be happy or horrified with it?

If Google picks your content for showcasing in the position Zero, the user will get the information he needs without visiting your site, resulting in direct traffic loss. Interestingly, the same Google feature can be used to capture eyes and gain more visitors to your site.

In 2021, the ‘No click’ searches are going to define a lot of online success for brands. So, it is vital to learn to use this feature efficiently for your business. If you are not sure about how to do that, talk to a reputed digital marketing agency to get it done professionally.

• Automated bidding in Google ads

With the increasing restrictions about data privacy, planning Google ad campaigns has become increasingly difficult for digital specialists. Continuously analysing the data, tweaking, and adjusting the keywords and bids have been an exhausting task from the very beginning. With availability of fewer data over time, it’s time to change the whole process.

Automated Google ad bidding is going to be the ‘New Normal’ in online promotion. The automated bidding uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to analyse an extensive amount of user data and use it to place automatic real-time bids.

However, the critical task of ensuring the right automated bid strategy for a brand will still lie on the shoulder of digital marketers.

• Personalized Email Marketing

Email marketing has experienced considerable growth during the pandemic. It is predicted, in 2021, the trend will continue with more emphasis on 1 on 1 personalized communication between the brand and the customers.

Personalized emails have an average ROI of 122% with proper targeting. The rise of automated email strategies based on customer behaviour will be a big trend in 2021. For B2C companies using automated email strategies the conversion rate is as high as 50%.

So, if your brand has not been spending on personalized email advertising till now, it’s time that you implement a rigorous email marketing strategy in your online advertising plan for 2021.

• Voice Search

Will voice search finally become the ‘in thing’ in 2021? There are speculations and expectations on the line, but one thing is clear, that voice query is quietly gaining steady popularity over time, and we see no hurdle to stumble that growth soon.

The Google algorithms do not dictate the voice query results, often yielding different results than the same query when typed by the user, but voice search is a crucial element in current search results.

With the rise of the voice-activated digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, it is only wise for the brands to optimize their content for voice-based query. The phrase used while typing a question in the search box and asking a voice assistant differs considerably; naturally, the keywords will vary and should be considered separately in content.

• Visual search

Visual search is another aspect that the brands need to consider for an inclusive digital advertising strategy for 2021. But wait, we are still not expecting it to be a huge trend right next year. However, according to the top digital marketing agency in Australia, the shift is evident, and it is ‘the time’ for brands to include this aspect in their content unless they are already on it.

We have seen the increase in popularity of image-based searches over the years and with increasing access to smartphones along with the launch of services like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens, the number of visual queries is on the rise.

The image recognition market is predicted to reach $56.5 billion by 2025.

Brands can easily leverage the power of visual searches by ensuring all or some of the following,

• Content has high-quality images with proper keyword-rich descriptions.
• Images should have descriptive file names and include appropriate ‘Alt Tags’.
• Image-based inventory search option on the website.
• Advertising on image-based platforms like Pinterest (if your TG is on similar platform).

These small alterations and additions in your content strategy can efficiently optimize your content for visual search.

• Online reviews and ratings

Suppose you have just shifted to a new locality. You are at home, hungry and want to order your favourite caramel choco chip muffin. What will you do? You will search on Google for shops selling it. But you find many restaurants in result, a few close to your home and others a bit further. You are ready even to shell out some extra bucks on delivery charge for the most delicious muffin, but how to decide which one is the best without testing it first?

To decide which one is the best, you will check out the reviews of previous customers who have tried it already at different shops and given their reviews and ratings on Google. So, you will find out the restaurant that has the highest rating and best reviews on Google and place your order.

Yes, that is precisely how purchase decisions are made now, and this trend is going to shape digital marketing not only in 2021 but beyond.

As a brand, you need to make sure that your business has proper reviews and ratings on Google. Encouraging your loyal customers to say a few words for your brand on Google can be a great addition to your overall reputation and sales.

Now you know what the digital marketing trends are for 2021. It is time that you start implementing them in your strategy and keep an eye for any updates from time to time. To know more about the upcoming digital marketing trends, get in touch with Coweso, the best digital marketing company in Sydney.