Are you in sync with the global marketing trends that your business needs to be on the high and high in 2021?
With technology accelerating faster than the expansion of the Universe, Marketing perennially keeps on changing every time. And, this year is no different.
As Marketers, we have to adapt to newer technologies, processes and tools that will improve your productivity and efficiency, thus providing your business with considerable competitive advantage.
Ultimately, adopting the new-fangled trends will have a direct impact on your top line and bottom line.
Whether your firm’s firm rise or demise is solely hinged on the incontrovertible fact that you embrace the latest trends at the earliest that helps you to be ahead of the curve in this cut throat competition
Of course.
You don’t and must not chase behind all the marketing trends which doesn’t suit your precise business requirements
That goes without saying.
Therefore, take your time and carefully select that particular trend(s) that will add more value to your customers which increases your customer base and reduces your customer churn.
Without further ado,
Let’s dive into the Top 10 Marketing Trends for 2021.
- Brand Authenticity
- Hyper-Automation
- eCommerce on a Roll
- AI & ML for more value
- UGC is the New Normal
- Extended Reality
- Neuro Marketing
- Videos, Videos and More Videos
- Socially Responsible Brand
- Data Security & Privacy
1. Brand Authenticity
Will you do business with a dishonest person who uses duplicitous and Machiavellian ruses to cheat you in broad daylight?
The answer is a short and big NO.
The same is applicable even to a brand.
Brands are living entities with unique personalities and identities. The moment you feel that Brands take you for granted and stomped all over you like an angry bull, the trust factor quickly evaporates than all the water in an ocean!
Isn’t Trust the binding glue that holds relationships together?
You may have an incredible product, amazing Marketing team, and Sales Rock stars but when the cornerstone of trust is lost, everything else is meaningless.
Brands need to constantly remember themselves that we are living in the Information Era where savvy customers know anything and everything at the tap of a button. Gone are the days where Brands obfuscate and be nebulous in their communications.
Today’s customers want their Brands to be more open and transparent in their dealings – the real McCoy, sincere and truthful in how they approach and engage with their customers.
According to History Factory, an astonishing 90% Millennials are on the same frequency that Brand Authenticity is a must.
Stackla Report establishes Brand Authenticity as an indispensable parameter as an incredible 86% consumers have voiced that they would like to deal with Brand who share similar values and beliefs
Hence, the bottom-line is don’t try to be artificially or fraudulently create Brand Authenticity to your consumers.
Treat them as discerning and real human beings with genuine feelings, thoughts and emotions as they can smell a charlatan and confidence trickster from a mile.
2. Hyper Automation
Everything in this world has got to have a logical next step, Right?
The same is happening in the field of Automation.
Everyone knows what Marketing Automation is and how they help businesses benefit by providing quality leads, improving efficiency, actionable future-centric decision making by data driven analysis, and most importantly enhance the customer experience at every touch point by personalizing the buyer journeys.
Hyper Automation takes one step further by incorporating a smorgasbord of technologies as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Digital Twins of an Organization (DTO), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and chatbots that will significantly boost the revenue of organizations by decreasing their operating expenditure (OpEx) and at the same time, it gives us more elbow room to Change-the-business than Run-the-business.
Eventually, Hyper Automation drives better ROI for your business.
According to Gartner Technology Trends 2021,
“Hyper automation is the idea that anything that can be automated in an organization should be automated. Hyper automation is driven by organizations having legacy business processes that are not streamlined, creating immensely expensive and extensive issues for organizations.
Emergen Research categorically states that Hyper Automation is a whopping great USD 22.84 Billion by 2027
A simple use case in Marketing will be to identify anonymous visitors as only 2% website visitors fill out their forms which makes it drastically difficult for Marketing Professionals to track down potential leads and convert them into loyal customers.
This is where Hyper Automation flies in to save the day for you by identifying anonymous visitors thus resulting in better utilization of your Marketing Budgets.
3. eCommerce On A Roll
Life is unpredictable and sated with uncertainties. Howmuchever, you and I try to ensure that we have complete control over our destinies, life throws a curve ball at us with immaculate speed and accuracy.
One such curve ball that no one ever saw coming and that has had significant economic ramifications across the globe is Corona Virus.
From Masks to Social Distancing to Lockdown Restrictions to Quarantines and what nots’ have happened in the last one year that has tremendously impacted every facet of human life including our behaviour and attitude towards shopping thus shifting our allegiance to digital transactions for the fear of our safety due to the dreaded Covid and physical shops being closed due to lockdowns and in worst case, several being out of business.
In 2020, e-commerce saw an astronomical shift in shopping behaviour by consumers. Euromonitor International predicts that sales from e-commerce will leapfrog by 25% in 2021 and that 17% of goods will be bought online with a 9% CAGR over the 2020-2025 period.
With the vaccine being rolled out worldwide, Statista pegs the global digital ad spending at $389 Billion in 2021.
Spending on digital media with search and social media by Brands is also witnessing a quantum jump up by 8% and 14% respectively.
Zenith forecasts that digital advertising will account for 58% of global ad spend by 2023.
The data points at an apodictic surety that eCommerce will be the resplendent dominant and preferred mode of shopping for consumers.
At least for the foreseeable future until normalcy and sanity prevails once again.
4. AI & ML for More Value
Without Data, can you make an informed decision?
But when you have a titanic explosion of data at your disposal, it’s a herculean ask for any person to sift through the voluminous tomes of data, Right?
Enter AI & ML.
I’m not going to discuss what is AI and ML as you are already in the know about these industry buzz words that’s been creating a stir for quite a while.
We shall see how AI & ML can add more value in Marketing
You can do magic with data which even Harry Potter will find it difficult to accomplish. Agreed?
That’s precisely what AI & ML does in the field of Marketing.
Analysing customer profiles for a hyper-personalized experience, RPA, providing product recommendations, voice-search, adaptive personalization, chatbots and using AR/VR/MR for immersive experience are few use cases where AI & ML are playing a vital part in substantially increasing the engagement and providing more value to the customers
Statista unequivocally forecasts that the global AI market is bound to reach $126 Billion by 2025 and that 16% ML adoption rate by Sales & Marketing is in the offing.
Also, 87% Companies plan to use AI in their Sales Forecasting & Email Marketing
Statista have also come up with an estimate that there will be 8.4 Billion Units Digital Voice Assistants (DVA) by 2024 which provides a plethora of opportunities for Marketing personnel to tap into this market
According to FirstSiteGuide, 43% customers shop online through voice enabled devices and this makes it all the more crucial to optimize content for Voice SEO.
Linchpinseo offers valuable insights how Chatbots are creating ripples in the Customer Service because as many as 47% organizations are ready to implement Chatbots for business communications with customers who prefer quick responses for their hassles
Likewise, Netflix has saved more than $1 Billion in revenue through personalized recommendations for users by ML algorithms and have reduced their customer churn through cancelled subscriptions.
AI is not an ominous nightmare as featured in many of our Sci-Fi movies. Rather, AI complements human beings and is a boon to astute marketers when used properly.
5. UGC is the New Normal
User-Generated Content is not an alien concept. It has been around since 1857 when feelers were put forth to the general public to create the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary.
But its prominence has grown leaps and bounds in the recent times particularly during the Covid times as we craved for the lost connection and engagement that we used to have pre Covid period.
Many Brands like KFC, Deliveroo, edX, Made.com, Buffalo Wild Wings etc had smartly tapped into the potency of UGC to ensure that they humanize their content to be relatable, relevant, uplifting and provide the much-needed hope for the people to wade through the dark hours of Covid.
So, is it only during the Covid that people and brands woke up one fine day to have the fantastic idea that UGC is the new normal?
Wrong.
Stackla Survey reveals plenty of insights between the disconnect between the Marketers’ content and the perception of consumers – the deep gorge that’s created between Branded Contents and User-Generated Contents.
The numbers are irrefutable to be not looked the other way by the Brands as consumers have become very wary of ads, mistrust and distrust them due to their blatant use of marketing spiels and the availability of sophisticated and suave photo shop softwares in the market.
According to Inc, an astounding 96% customers do not trust ads which Brands heavily invest in their time, money and effort to overcome this tenebrous atmosphere of distrust existing amongst the customers.
This is where UGC assists and forms the bedrock of a Marketer’s strategy to make their Brands copper-bottomed and authentic so that customers have a genuine and long-lasting relationship with them.
As per Coschedule, 49% say sharing allows them to inform others of products they care about and potentially change opinions or encourage action while 84% share because it is a way to support causes or issues, they care about.
End of the day, it boils down to one simple fact – Make your customers feel that they are valued rather than merely seeing them as a money-grabbing entity.
UGC is here to stay for a long time and the Brands must burn their midnight oil to come up with creative ideas to ensure that they are unimpeachable and above suspicion in the eyes of their true-blue customers.
6. Extended Reality
Extended Reality (ER) is an all-inclusive term for enveloping and riveting technologies as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR) and any other reality that might crop up in the future.
ER provides the perfect marriage between the real world and virtual world that takes immense advantage of our burning desire to experience new things through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IOT).
Mordor Intelligence values the ER industry to reach $463.7 Billion in 2026 with a strong CAGR exceeding 62.67% during the 2021-2026 period.
ER has a myriad application in several verticals like BFSI, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Military, Consumer Goods & Retail, Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment, IT, Gaming, Travel et al.
With 5G on the horizon and the unfettered explosion of smartphones, data, VR headsets and AR Glasses, it is sure-fire that the demand for immersive technologies must be highly embraced by organizations so that they drive more customer engagements and conversion rates mainly AR.
ARtillry projects worldwide AR revenues to hit $27.4 Billion in 2023 from $1.96 Billion in 2018.
Thanks to the pandemic, customers are taking enormous safety and hygiene in trying out apparels, beauty products etc in physical retail outlets. Brands have ensured that the ship doesn’t sail and secured a strong foothold by adopting AR in their premises to help their customers in their buying decisions.
According to Date from Vertebrae, AR engagement is close to 20% with conversion rates up ticking by 90% for consumers engaging with AR than those that don’t.
Online furniture and lifestyle retailer CB2 found that product pages featuring 3D and AR experiences drove 21% higher revenue per visit and a 13% lift in average order size
Virtual Fitting Rooms (VFR) and Smart Mirrors are playing a significant part in fashion and retail outfits as customers are still averse and hesitant to avoid body contact.
As per the data collated by First Sight, almost 54% are disinclined and uncomfortable to use the fitting rooms even after the reopening of shops.
In fact, Fortune Business Insights nails down the market size of VFRs to be $10 Billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 20.1% in this timeframe.
The unintended consequence of this pandemic is that it has open the doors for businesses to take good stock of their situation, no pun intended, and incorporate technologies as XR to be a prime driving force in their strategy to be heads and shoulders above their competition.
7. Neuro Marketing
No.
This is not the new theme of another confounding and mind-boggling Christopher Nolan’s new movie.
But who knows?
He may use this concept also!
The essential thing is that Neuro Marketing is gaining significant traction in the last few years as the need for more empirical data to accurately gauge consumer behaviour is on the upswing for organizations to take better decisions and park their investments in Marketing based on sound data.
Neuro Marketing delivers just that.
So, what is Neuro Marketing?
In simple terms, Neuro Marketing is a scientific discipline and a practical extension of Neuro Science that analyses our brain processes to gain invaluable nuggets of data by the use of technologies as Eye-Tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and magneto encephalography (MEG).
In short, whatever responses that are missed out by respondents during traditional Marketing Research (MR) and Focus Groups, they are precisely captured by exactly measuring the cognitive and affective responses to marketing campaigns, advertising messages, images, colours and other visual and audio stimuli.
The consumer’s hidden feelings, attitudes, perceptions and their drives in their purchase decision making are demystified and discovered in this process.
This enable Marketers to capitalize on the rigorous data to improve their Branding and Customer Satisfaction by exceeding the expectations of the customers through the divulged data that was privy only to the consumers earlier.
What can you do with such a data?
Well.
It’s a diamond mine of inch-perfect information that can be used in all aspects of Marketing – Product Development, Segmentation, Positioning, Pricing, Packaging, Advertising to create personalized and effective marketing strategies by meticulously predicting the behaviour of the customers.
According to the Infinium Global Research the worldwide market of Neuromarketing solutions is projected to be over $2,000 million by 2024 with a CAGR of 9.1% in the forecast period from 2018 to 2024.
Real World Takeaways shows how Neuro Marketing is being implemented in reality and the ways it has tremendously benefitted the organizations.
Neuro Marketing is a must-have Marketing Trend of 2021 in your business. If you have the suitable wherewithal for it.
8. Videos, Videos and More Videos
A Marketing strategy without video content is like a pizza without cheese! Unfathomable even to imagine.
We have all heard the ho-hum adage “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”
However, it is not the case for this person who has re-written this aphorism in his own style as “All play and only play make Ryan Kaji a multi-millionaire”
Yes.
The very same Ryan Kaji.
YouTube’s highest earner in 2020.
By only unboxing and reviewing toys in his channel, he has amassed $29.5 Million. Let that sink in than the fastest quicksand!
The power of visual story-telling is not new to brands connecting with their target audience by making the videos more enticing and memorable and at the same time, engaging and entertaining them in the process.
12 times more share for videos than images and text combined together – Small Business Trends.
I’m not going to provide gyan on how video marketing is pivotal to your strategy, how to make awesome videos, platforms like Tiktok, Facebook Live, Insta Reels, Stories and IGTV are going to be the cynosure of consumers’ eyes etc.
That’s totally out of scope.
For this blog.
But what we will see is how pandemic has transmogrified Video Content into a ginormous money-spinner post the Covid era.
According to Zenith, the outlay for online video is hammered down at $61 Billion in 2021 from $45 Billion in 2020.
What this pandemic has done is that it has brought brands and their customers close together like Wanda & Vision!
According to Hubspot, 68% of consumers say that this tempestuous pandemic has impacted the amount of online video content with a mind-blowing majority of 96% saying their viewing has significantly increased
Likewise, Users spend a staggering 88% more time browsing on websites that have videos besides the average Joe and Jane gobbling up 100 minutes every day by watching videos online in 2021.
Don’t you think these are God-sent (If you are not an Atheist!) numbers wrapped up in excellent package for Marketers?
Wait.
There’s more.
Cisco projects that a staggering 82% of video content will be created in 2022.
That can be crystal-clearly seen from the indisputable fact that Netflix had an astonishing 16 million new subscribers globally during the pandemic.
According to Startupnation,
- 78% watch videos every week.
- 55% watch videos every day.
- 72% of customers prefer learning about a product or service by watching videos.
An incredible 82% prefer live video from brands to social posts and 80% of audience would love to watch live video from a brand than read a blog as per Livestream
Does this mean that blogs are obliterated by videos?
So, Blogging is not murdered by Video. At least for now.
Blogs and Videos are an essential part of strategy that complements each other in the short-term and long-run.
Summing it up, Marketers are finding unique ways to make their videos fun, funny and educating the users at the same time as a remarkable 99% of video marketers will be creating more videos in 2021 with 96% of them planning to upswing their ad budget (Hubspot).
9. Socially Responsible Brand
Savvy customers expect more from the brands today.
They want the companies to take a hard stand on social issues that resonate with their feelings, beliefs, and principles.
In fact, during the Covid pandemic, 53% have responded that ‘Purpose-driven’ companies have done better. Porter Novelli 2020
This is where Cause Marketing comes into the picture.
Brand can no longer look the other way around when it comes to social responsibility.
It has become an apodictic fact that Cause marketing must be a part and parcel of an organization’s overall marketing strategy.
According to Forrester Research, more than 50% – 52% to be precise – of U.S. consumers take into consideration their own values into their buying decisions when seeking out brands that proactively promote beliefs and values aligned with theirs.
Likewise, Nielsen survey put forth a remarkable finding that 66% of consumers were inclined to shell out a higher price for products/services from brands that championed social commitment and sustainability.
The numbers are so intriguing that companies ought to make CSR their priority else face the wrath of their loyal customers to have their trust and favourability eroded in the twinkling of an eye.
The crucial question why consumers seek out brands displaying a higher purpose is that Millennials and Gen-Z want their actions to have a net positive impact at a local and global scale.
As per digital media solutions, brands displaying sincerity and genuineness in their social messaging and campaigns will strongly connect with the Gen-Z who want to have a meaningful purpose in their lives.
10-csr-trends-to-watch-in-2021 according to Forbes gives us a clear-cut insight as where brands need to park their resources to enhance their brand image and brand reputation in the minds of the consumer.
Take for example.
In the recently concluded CES, Samsung introduced a solar-powered TV remote control designed with 77% recycled plastic.
Also, the tech behemoth, Google, had committed to $1 Billion to Covid related support to developing countries and SMBs.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Everyone makes mistakes and we know that it’s an undeniable fact of life.
But, a staggering 88% of Americans are more than ready to provide another chance to a company for making a mistake if it genuinely tries to turn a new leaf and 73% have categorically stated they are less likely for them to disavow a company if they are Purpose driven. Porter Novelli’s 2021 Business of Cancel Culture Study
In a nutshell, a Unilever Consumer Study predicts that a whopping great $1.2 Trillion diamond mine exists for brand who make their sustainability goals explicit and that consumer trust 4.1X times more and throng to brands who have a formidable purpose as per Zeno’s 2020 Strength of Purpose
10. Data Security and Privacy
You want to show the right message to the right person at the right time on the right platform for the right location?
Of course, right?
It will grow our business like anything if we can achieve this level of personalization.
According to invespcro, the ROI is 5 to 8 times for businesses on their marketing outlays when they are using data-centric personalization.
This is further bolstered by the hardened fact by inc that 61% of Americans are more than inclined to share their data with brands for receiving personalized marketing communications.
What does this mean?
In layman terms, it requires data, more data and astronomical amount of data to deliver this level of bespoke promotional messages.
This is why it brings us to the paramount question of data security and privacy.
With the pandemic forcing many organizations to ask their employees to work remotely without any proper checks and balances for data security and many businesses made a digital presence to cater to their audience needs, 2020 is deemed as the worst year for a record number of data breaches to as many as 36 Billion confidential records disclosed to the world.
As per a CyberEdge Study sponsored by MicroFocus, more than 40% of the respondents stated that there was a drastic uptick in risks from unmanaged devices belonging to remote users.
Additionally, a Cisco Consumer Privacy Survey 2019 reported that a thumping 84% of the respondents care about their privacy, their own data, other people’s data in the society, and want more control in how their data is being used by companies besides 48% citing that they have already switched companies due to their data policies and data sharing practices.
These numbers point us to one indispensable fact that customers value and have significant concern over their data and the usage.
In fact, 84% of users shelve their buying decision if the online portal is not secured.
This makes data security and privacy as one of the top marketing trends in 2021 because it has direct correlation with brand’s relationship and trust besides companies can gain significant upper hand over the competitors who do not have their websites secured.
But, as Marketers, we have a lot of regulations to follow like GDPR, CCPA etc so that we earn the confidence and credibility from our steadfast and loyal customers.
Every. Single. Time.
It requires a lot of effort from our side like investing in the right technologies, reskilling our employees to comply with the new regulations et al.
Not only for our customers but for our own business as well.
However, the effort is worth is every penny as customers will sure-shot see us in a favourable light and thus, it boosts our brand reputation in their minds which will aid in top-of-the-mind awareness and brand recall for your organization.
Summing it up,
There’s definitely no one-size fit all approach when it comes for you to select the correct trend for your business.
Brutally analyse your business model.
Choose with enough care and meticulousness the appropriate the trend(s) that will serve your customers effectively rather than merely jumping into the bandwagon and shooting the works that doesn’t produce any positive result.
In the end, it boils down to this,
The bottom line is the bottom line.
Guest article written by: Vignesh V is an avid Blogger and a Marketer. He has done his MBA (Marketing) and has worked extensively in IT & Retail. Loves to explore new cuisines and places. Cares about how technology can be affordably implemented for environment sustainability.
This article is very helpful to learn about Digital Marketing concepts.