1) Artificial Intelligence
If you haven’t already realized it, the dominance of artificial intelligence (AI) is here. It’s sure to be at the heart of global business and industry in the future – and it’s already taking over many simple jobs.
Artificial intelligence is the biggest commercial opportunity for companies, industries, and nations over the next few decades” and “will increase global GDP by up to 14% between now and 2030,” which means that “AI latecomers will find themselves at a serious competitive disadvantage within the next several years.”
2) Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising means using AI to automate ad buying so you can target more specific audiences. Real-time bidding, for example, is a type of programmatic ad buying. This automation is much more efficient and fast, which means higher conversions and lower customer acquisition costs.
It’s changing the face of digital advertising so swiftly that, according to eMarketer, 86.2% of digital display ads in the U.S. will be programmatic by 2020.
3) Chatbots
Chatbots will continue to be an important part of digital marketing in 2021. This AI-based technology uses instant messaging to chat in real time, day or night, with your customers or site visitors.
Surveys show that:
Chatbots will power 85% of customer service by 2020
Top benefits of chatbots are 24-hour service (64%), instant responses to inquiries (55%), and answers to simple questions (55%)
4) Conversational Marketing
With all that talk about chatbots, the reality of modern marketing becomes clear: it’s more conversational. People want it that way, and so brands are reacting. When consumers have a question, 82% want an “immediate” response.
As per David Cancel, founder and CEO of Drift:
“Today’s buyers expect to find what they’re looking for now, not later. As we prepare for the future, it will be more important than ever for businesses to be available across a broad spectrum of channels, and to make sure you’re communicating the way people prefer to communicate.”
5) Personalization
If you want to stand out in 2021, you need to personalize your marketing – and that means personalized content, products, emails and more.
Consider these personalization stats:
63% of consumers are highly annoyed with generic advertising blasts
80% say they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences
90% claim they find personalization appealing
6) Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of, if not the, most important marketing trend today and likely for the next 5-10 years. These numbers show the importance of incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy in 2021:
70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video
72% of businesses say that video has improved their conversion rate
52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions
65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video
7) Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that focuses on using key leaders to amplify your brand message to a larger market. Influencers can be well-known celebrities, but more often they are Instagram or YouTube personalities with a huge niche following who can help spread the word about your business or product through their social channels.
Because influencer marketing is generally more authentic than corporate advertising:
63% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products much more than what brands say about themselves
58% of people have bought a new product in the past six months because of an influencer’s recommendation
8) Social Messaging Apps
If you think social messaging apps are just for sending emojis to your friends, take a look at these numbers:
1.3 billion monthly users are active on Facebook Messenger
10 billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Facebook Messenger every month
WhatsApp has 1.6 billion active users and 55 billion messages are sent via every day
The top three social messaging apps – WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat – have more combined users than Facebook or YouTube
9) Visual Search
Visual search can take the user experience to a totally new level: People can upload an image to conduct a search and get more specific results.
As per Social Media Today:
62% of Millennials are more interested in visual search capabilities than any other new technology
Images are returned for 19% of search queries on Google
There are over 600 million visual searches on Pinterest each month
Marketers can get the edge on competitors by jumping on the visual search trend in 2021 to draw customers and serve them the perfect product.
10) Micro-Moments
A micro-moment is “An intent-rich moment when a person turns to a device to act on a need – to know, go, do or buy.”
To get the most out of micro-moments in 2021, you should:
Identify your consumers’ “I want to buy” moments
Be there in these moments of need
Deliver relevant content
Make it easy for them to make a purchase
Measure every moment that matters
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