New Trends in Digital Marketing in 2021
LEONARDO A RTIGAS | Consulting Mentoring. If there is something that is clear to all of us who work in the world of digital marketing, it is that this discipline is extremely dynamic, changing and is in a process of constant updating.
In a matter of months, many of the concepts that we incorporate can become obsolete or incomplete in the face of the frenetic pace of progress in this area.
The ability to anticipate, arrive early, and adopt these changes early allows us to excel, stay competitive, and always position ourselves ahead of our competition.
For this, it is absolutely critical to know in advance the new trends that are going to hit the market in the coming months.
I’m going to tell you in detail about the new digital marketing trends in 2021 , so that you can consider them when defining your strategies and make the most of the benefits of getting to the big news in the digital universe first.
15 New Trends in Digital Marketing in 2021
1. The Google Analytics Revolution 4
The first of the new digital marketing trends in 2021 that we are going to analyze is the revolution that Google Analytics 4 will generate, a tool that will surpass traditional Google Analytics through a change of approach: analyze user behavior independently. what digital property you are using to consume content.
Google Analytics 4 is a more effective and reliable way of knowing what is happening in each digital ecosystem and its differences with its predecessor are notable:
- Events begin to be the new unit of measurement , replacing sessions and page views. This allows us to more efficiently measure interactions that do not occur through the website.
- The ability to measure user engagement and interactions is notably improved. The tool incorporates metrics such as scrolls, file downloads, and clicks.
- Machine learning is integrated into the tool to optimize user analysis. Thanks to this we can know, for example, the probability that they convert or leave the platform.
- The new tool incorporates various ways of measuring data without the need to use cookies. Google has already started a process to promote user privacy by abandoning third-party cookies by 2022.
Google Analytics 4 is able to follow the journey of a user through the different digital platforms of a company, which allows to attribute conversions efficiently. - Google Analytics 4 allows us to make extremely intuitive and much simpler reports.
- With this tool we can better understand the life cycle of users in our business. We can understand which channels generate more customers and what interactions they carry out.
Without a doubt, starting to understand Google Analytics 4 now is extremely important to take advantage of its potential in 2021.
2. From Storytelling to Storydoing
As we already told you in our article on how to sell more by telling stories, stories move us, inspire us and of course help us connect with a brand.
This is why they are such a widely used resource for marketing.
However, in this virtual age, we can no longer reduce ourselves to simply telling something. We must involve users and make them live the story that we want to convey to them.
Storydoing is achieving this mission and that is why it is one of the new trends in digital marketing in 2021.
Storydoing aims to be an improved version of storytelling, putting the user as the main character of the story.
This allows us to involve the audience by stimulating brand recall, generating mentions of the brand in the media for free and causing a greater impact on the networks by viralizing content.
A great example of Storydoing is Red Bull’s historic leap from the stratosphere, whose inspiring message of overcoming achieved the attention of 170 media and the publication of 1,355 tweets every 10 seconds, achieving total public involvement.
There are also more earthly examples of Storydoing such as North Face and Spotify who collaborated to unveil the new collection of waterproof clothing from the coat brand.
A non-traditional idea was developed that consisted of a song that could only be heard during rainy days, making users pay attention to enjoy it.
Getting people involved in the stories that brands tell is a trend that will grow significantly during 2021.
3. Facebook Ads limits the volume of active ads
Facebook will begin to limit the volume of ads that ad accounts can keep active for the next year. Does this mean that Mark Zuckerberg wants us to sell less? No, quite the opposite.
There have been great advances related to machine learning on the platform, so this measure is focused on improving the performance of the ads and optimizing the budget.
To the extent that Facebook Ads has the ability to show the same ad more times, the platform is able to collect accurate information and determine who are the best people to show the advertising to.
When an advertiser has too many ads running in tandem, they show less, which ends up causing poor “learning” and spending extra budget on ads without performance optimization.
This is why the social network has made the decision to limit the number of ads depending on the allocated budget.
The new limits will begin to be implemented in February 2021 and each advertiser will be able to find out when they will begin to be reflected on their own page through the Facebook Ads ad manager.
4. Shoppable TV grows
The new coronavirus pandemic has made a huge number of people adopt the habit of buying from home, through the internet.
This is why Shoppable TV is positioned as one of the new digital marketing trends in 2021.
Shoppable TV is basically a new way to acquire products, in a dynamic and innovative way, through advertisements and television shows.
All we need is to have a mobile device on hand as a “second screen” to generate the transaction.
During 2020 we have already seen numerous examples of the growth of Shoppable TV, such as the Bank ICBC campaigns that invited the audience to open an account by scanning a QR code or the branded contents of Travel Rock on open television that worked in Synchronize with smartphones to purchase graduate travel packages.
With the incorporation of a native QR reader in each smartphone, the Shoppable TV purchase process has been simplified and standardized: People only have to open their phone’s camera when they receive an alert on the TV screen and scan the code to access exclusive products in the official stores of different brands and television channels.
In 2021 a growth in the number of shares of this nature is expected.
5. The Explosion of Advertising on Tik Tok
A huge user traffic that exceeds Snapchat and Twitter by several lengths, its low saturation of advertising content and an enormous capacity to capture centennials like no other social network make Tik Tok the ideal place to publish ads.
An enormous growth in advertising activity on Tik Tok is projected for 2021, boosted by a reduction in the costs of access to the service and the launch of new self-service formats that will be added to the already well-known in-feed ads, brand takeover. can be viewed when opening the app), the challenges hashtags and sponsored filters.
Within a few months, small and medium-sized companies will be able to access making expenditures not very sacrificed (It is important to clarify that today the minimum daily budget suggested by Tik Tok is 25 U $ D)
While SMEs are patiently waiting to access this advertising service, they will need to continue creating organic content to make their way on Tik Tok.
6. More Virtual Events and Elearning
2020 was undoubtedly the year par excellence for virtual events and elearning.
What began as a way to replace being present to preserve health, has now gained weight, has shown its great benefits and has positioned itself as a modality that is here to stay.
In 2021, a further expansion of virtual events, lives and webinars is expected, most of them focused on training people to obtain and develop potential clients. Also, thanks to the experiences gained over the past year, innovations are expected in this area.
Virtual events will no longer seek to be a copy of their face-to-face version, but rather a new, differentiated experience enhanced by the interactivity of the medium where they take place.
On the other hand, by 2021 a further expansion of Elearning is expected, offered by various recognized educational institutions and prominent professionals who will open their own live courses and recorded classes that can be accessed by a single subscription.
This last phenomenon hit with great force in 2020 and will undoubtedly be enhanced, forming part of the new digital marketing trends in 2021.
7. Expansion of Stories
Since Snapchat invented the concept of stories or “ephemeral publications” in 2013, this format has not stopped growing in a meteoric way.
Social media users have fallen in love with the spontaneity that stories offer and the freedom they provide when posting about what happens on a day-to-day basis, without these posts having to remain in a feed forever.
This trend, which over the years was adopted by Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube, has landed on Twitter and Linkedin at the end of 2020, which speaks clearly of how dominant this content has become.
Everything seems to indicate that stories have become a key strategy for user retention on platforms and that their expansion will be one of the new digital marketing trends in 2021.
The definitive arrival of the stories to all the most relevant social networks indicates that in 2021 we will have to pay even more attention to generating content in this format.
People are demanding more ephemeral and spontaneous publications, so it is crucial to add a strong stories strategy on all platforms where a brand has a presence.
It is no longer enough to consider the stories. Today this format weighs as much or perhaps more than a post feed.
8. Popularization of Shoppable Posts
As we mentioned earlier in this article, many of the new digital marketing trends in 2021 have been driven by lockdown during 2020.
Electronic commerce has experienced enormous growth in the quarantine months and not only in e-commerce portals but also in social networks.
A trend that was born in 2019, became popular in 2020 and is expected to explode definitively in 2021 are the Shoppable Post: publications with links that allow the purchase of a product that the user discovers without leaving their favorite social network.
Countless brands, from the smallest to the largest, will find in 2021 in the Shoppable Post a highly strategic tool to generate a greater volume of sales on Facebook and Instagram.
9. Increased use of Chatbots
While consumers tend to opt for personalized attention, the mass deployment of chatbots will likely be one of the new digital marketing trends in 2021.
This trend is due to the fact that this technology is currently cheaper and more “smart” than ever.
More and more brands and startups are starting to use chatbots to give quick answers to simple and frequent questions from users, to give recommendations, useful information and basic services to people.
Another key aspect that will enhance the use of this technology is the remarkable growth of e-commerce .
People are no longer limited to buying products during normal business hours, which is why chatbots appear as a great alternative to get into action at night, at dawn and on weekends.
A smart chatbot is a great way to generate a passive sale or shore it up as much as possible to be closed by an executive during business hours.
It is important to mention that in this decade we are going to experience notable advances in the field of artificial intelligence, led by the most relevant technological players in the market, which will cause the limitations of chatbots to be definitively erased at the time to provide a true personalized service .
10. Digitization of traditional businesses
One of the greatest lessons that the 2020 quarantine left us is the imperative need to be able to transfer the operation of traditional businesses to the digital world.
A business that does not exist in virtuality loses potential sales and one that is not prepared for another possible regrowth may lose everything.
This is why the digitization of traditional businesses is one of the new trends in digital marketing in 2021.
During 2021 we will witness the arrival of a large volume of traditional business to the digital world.
These businesses will boost their websites with SEO techniques and by deriving traffic from social networks, Facebook Ads, Google Ads and email marketing campaigns.
The brain of this new way of understanding the business will be Google Analytics, which will provide the information necessary to optimize processes and bring better results.
If your idea is to shield your business with the help of the digital world, we recommend this blog with the best tips for emerging digital businesses.
11. Advancement of Programmatic Advertising
One of the digital marketing trends in 2020 that will continue to be a trend in 2021 thanks to its notable advances is Programmatic Advertising.
When we talk about Programmatic Advertising we refer to the process by which the advertiser buys audiences and not simply a space in which to publish an ad.
The brand that advertises is capable of selecting the audience that it wishes to impact with its message, setting multiple details such as their interests and an infinity of sociodemographic variables.
Likewise, this type of programmatic advertising performs an exhaustive analysis of the advertising formats that best work with the general objective of the campaign, based on how users navigate the platform.
In this way the efficiency is notably higher.
In recent months, more artificial intelligence has been introduced to platforms such as Facebook and Google Ads , which is allowing ads to “understand and learn” which is the best audience for that communication in a much more accurate way.
Likewise, this programmatic advertising is making its way through new channels such as wearables, streaming platforms, podcasts and online radio.
In 2021, brands will see a higher return on investment, better results in their digital campaigns and a significant optimization of their budgets thanks to programmatic advertising.
12. Purchases by WhatsApp Business
One of the novelties in the world of digital marketing at the end of 2020 was the incorporation of the “shopping cart” in WhatsApp Business.
An extremely practical tool for businesses such as restaurants or clothing stores to display their products in a comprehensive and detailed way on this platform.
During 2021 it is expected that a large number of companies will adopt this new functionality that will allow their customers to freely browse the catalog, select their favorite products and order them from all with a single message.
This innovation tends to facilitate the management of orders, to follow up on them and to make a greater number of sales.
13. Popularization of YouTube Video Builder
Number 13 on this list of the 15 new digital marketing trends in 2021 is YouTube Video Builder.
A tool designed to help more and more businesses in their digital transformation. Although we already had time to get to know it during 2020, it is very likely that 2021 will be the year of its definitive explosion.
YouTube Video Builder is a free feature developed for those businesses that want to reach their customers through YouTube campaigns but do not have the necessary resources to produce audiovisual content.
This tool is capable of converting the photographs available to the advertiser into dynamic videos, of great visual quality and of high impact.
One of the reasons we believe YouTube Video Builder will have great public adoption is its practicality and its ability to guide the advertiser in the best practices to generate effective advertising.
14. The decline of third-party cookies
One of the most significant news for the near future and one of the new digital marketing trends in 2021 is the decline of third-party cookies.
As we know, measurement is a key aspect for marketing strategies to be effective and cookies are a critical factor that allows us to collect information from users for this purpose, however, the justified privacy requirements of people make it necessary to search more ethical ways to measure results.
During 2021, new measurement models based on privacy will be implemented, such as conversion models, which will allow measuring the success of campaigns.
This year will lay the necessary foundations to permanently eliminate third-party cookies in 2022.
Practices such as stable analytics and labeling systems, obtaining consent from users, storing data safely and investing in own data are the main ways to measure performance in the world without third-party cookies.
15. Snack Content
Over the years, the attention that users can maintain on the same content becomes more and more limited.
This is why Snack Content has become a trend repeatedly. Today it is absolutely necessary to be able to generate formats that can impact in a few seconds.
This explains the success of Tik Tok, Instagram Reels and the stories that, as we saw previously, are already part of absolutely all social networks.
The content that will be generated in 2021 will be mostly Snack Content in nature. We are talking about short, highly creative and visually engaging pieces.
In this way, brands will be in a position to effectively impact millennials and centennials who widely inhabit digital platforms.
We recommend that you emphasize this type of content when you are building a digital content strategy for the next months of 2021
conclusion
With these 15 new digital marketing trends in 2021 you already have an invaluable “crystal ball” with which you can anticipate, organize and update your marketing strategies in this year that is already underway.
We recommend that you keep these news in mind over the next few months, to understand how they evolve and be able to ride the wave while it is still forming.
If you want to be always updated on the new trends that are emerging, I recommend you visit our website and request to register on our blog.
