Digital marketing is a domain where your growth depends on your ability to transform trends into executable and cutting edge market strategies. The trends you may want to adopt don’t necessarily have to be unique per se; they just have to be optimal for your social strategy. Like the rest, you might also have some worthwhile trends in your pocket. 

Even if that’s the case, there is a genuine reason why you might be interested in developing your insight into the latest trends in the digital marketing domain. After all, 2021 is now upon us. Things are going to change, and your digital marketing strategies also need to change alongside this. 

In today's blog, we will be looking at some trends you may want to adopt in 2021. Learning about these trends will improve your digital marketing strategy and equip you with all the necessary insight to step into 2021 with the utmost confidence. 

So without further ado, let’s start the list! 

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Artificial Intelligence 

Let's start the list with artificial Intelligence. Future belongs to Artificial Intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Artificial Intelligence has been around for quite a while. It has consistently shown to be a great help in almost every industry such as health, finance, business, manufacture, and of course, digital marketing. 

Artificial Intelligence has been a powerful mainstream tool in the form of chatbots. Almost all websites have now begun using chatbots to handle tasks. Chatbots are here to stay. And the use of chatbots will grow more as time moves on. 

The reason why chatbots are so popular is that they help automate the repetitive tasks that are too pesky for a human agent to perform. An example of this will be in the context of customer service; chatbots easily handle the tasks that need immediate resolution. 

Poor customer service is one of the many reasons why users migrate to other sites. It’s not wise to burden your team with customer service in today’s digitalized and automated world. As of 2020, chatbots have been handling 85% of customer service. Chatbots can do a much better service at handling customer issues and save your precious time, which your team can spend on other manual tasks. 

According to Harvard Business Review, AI technology is going to get more pervasive. It’s the right time for you to integrate AI and chatbot technology with your products or services. Chatbot technology allows you to extend your products or services to a more significant number of people. Since every user that visits your site is receiving immediate responses, the traffic rates go up. ‍

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Omnichannel Marketing 

Digital marketing is a domain that has continuously been evolving. That’s why you must acquaint yourself with the latest developments and terminologies in the field of digital marketing. Omnichannel marketing is another term you need to know if you don’t already. Omnichannel marketing is a multi-channel content strategy that aims to cater to customers’ needs and initiate better relationships across multiple channels and touchpoints. This cross-channel approach includes online experiences, point-of-sale, digital channels, and traditional channels. 

To put briefly, Omnichannel marketing aims to improve customer relations and provide an authentic customer experience across all platforms. It also helps you bring personalization to your sales approach. Furthermore, 69% of customers prefer a personalized experience over traditional marketing approaches. 

If you haven’t done so already, then it’s time for you to integrate your sales approach across multiple platforms and touchpoints. Omnichannel marketing generally results in higher customer retention. According to statistics, companies with an Omnichannel strategy retain on average 89% of their customers. 

It's vividly clear that Omnichannel marketing is a necessary trend to invest in if you haven't done already by now. Whether a customer interacts with your website via a cellphone, desktop device, or regular store, each platform works together to create an integrated and personalized shopping experience. 

Voice Search 

Voice search is another crucial aspect of digital marketing that is becoming increasingly popular. The rising popularity of voice searches is compelling companies to integrate voice searches with their digital marketing strategy. 

Around 50% of searches can be attributed to voice search engines. Along with that, we have already heard about popular voice assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant. People have been using these assistants for quite a while now, and their use is expected to increase more in the future. 

Voice searches are an excellent help for people who use them. It helps to provide information to customers. As Artificial Intelligence becomes more efficient, the efficiency of these voice searches also increases significantly. 

Many brands have begun integrating voice searches with their business, such as PayPal, Nestlé, and Domino's. These brands have introduced a voice search strategy because it helps them build brand loyalty and provide value-based customer service. This is the right time for you to include voice searches in your social strategy to create brand awareness among your customers. Most people use these services to ask questions. You can set up audio content that answers the frequently asked questions by your customers. Just ensure that the tone of your voice assistant is conversational. Search for the frequent keywords your voice assistant can encounter in a speech. Take inspiration from voice assistants that already exist. Along with that, fish for phrases that people speak when they use voice searches. Do your research, and everything will be just fine. 

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Interactive Content 

Another digital marketing element that goes hand-in-hand with voice searches and chatbot technology is the interactive content on your site. In 2021, your site needs to be dynamic and user-friendly to interact with your customers and promote a well-optimized and seamless user experience. 

These types of interactive elements on your site offer significant user engagement. They not only captivate user's attention but also helps you gather valuable input from your customers through surveys, polls, quizzes, and reviews. 

Interactive content is a great way to gather data from your customers. This data dictates how you will handle your brand's ability to optimize marketing campaigns and strategies. Interactive content is a refreshing way to maintain value exchange between you and your customers. Customers will be more willing to share with you their experience with your brand when you make an effort to inquire them about their experience. You can then use their valuable input to improve your social strategy. 

Higher engagement with your customers results in a significantly higher number of leads as well. Along with these benefits, Interactive content also promotes brand loyalty. Here are some examples of Interactive content: 

• Interactive Emails 
• Quizzes 
• Surveys 
• Polls 
• Interactive Calculators 
• 360-degree videos 
• Interactive Infographics 
• Interactive Emails 

Digital Customer Experience

One of the most important things to ensure that you are paying attention to is the digital customer experience. Most of your customers will interact with your company via a digital system. That's why the bulk of your efforts are going to spend on optimizing your digital outlook. If your digital customer experience is not good enough, your customers will migrate to a different site even if you excel in all the other stuff mentioned in the article. 

As a company, your goal should not merely be to gather traffic on your site but ensuring that the traffic visits your site once again. To achieve this, you need to make sure that the visitors visiting your site are greeted by a well-optimized and user-friendly interface and digital environment. Many companies have devoted whole teams just for this task. Providing a top-notch digital customer experience to your users is a reasonably broad domain that encompasses a wide variety of aspects. Digital customer experience includes all the online interactions that people have with your brand. This includes sales and purchases, personalization, communication, and other stuff. 

Around 67% of customers are willing to pay more for an excellent customer experience. Customers care deeply about how convenient the processes are for them. If they are welcomed with convenient interaction methods, they are likely to contact your brand again. This way, you develop a positive brand image in the minds of your customers. Every interaction that a customer has with your brand reflects the underlying feeling behind your brand. This includes everything from email interactions to contact forms. It all depends on you. What message do you want to communicate with your brand? Reflect on that and seek to implement client interactions that tell the story behind your brand.  

Most companies never ask for feedback from their customers to improve the digital experience. This gives you a competitive edge over all the other brands in the market. Users are likely to migrate to brands that provide a better customer experience to their users. That's why you need to make sure that you direct your efforts to provide a better digital experience to your users in 2021. 

Here are the steps you need to take if you want to improve your digital customer experience: 

• Know your audience. What type of interactions will be appropriate for your particular demographic? 
• Know your brand. What type of message you want to communicate with your brand interactions. 
• Identify what type of actions will serve the goal of improving the digital experience for your desired audience. 
• Make sure to optimize and personalize each aspect of your digital marketing strategy. 
  

One of the best ways to achieve an optimal digital customer experience is to gather data from your customers. This can either be done by Artificial Intelligence. In that case, everything will be much easier. Artificial Intelligence can solve a great many problems related to digital customer experience. However, if you don't have artificial intelligence technology in-store to take care of customer experience, then you will have to take care of everything manually. 

Devote a portion of your team's efforts in providing a better digital customer experience to your users. This can include a convenient sales interaction, ease of access, simplicity, flexibility, personalization, user-friendly interface, reachability, and service convenience. Higher digital customer service can benefit your brand in many ways, such as reducing costs, improving customer value, and a higher customer retention rate. 

Social Media Marketing 

Social media has become a great tool to reach a higher number of users. Social media has great potential to increase your traffic rates. As more and more brands realize this, they seek to develop a social media presence to tap into the traffic they can receive through popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Not only that, but social media is also a great way to promote brand awareness and visibility. 

Placing interactive content on your Facebook page in the form of videos is a great way to engage potential customers. When you create a social media presence, it becomes easier for your loyal customers to share your site's content with their friends and family. Almost every top brand has a social media presence because they know well how to tap into the numerous benefits social media marketing provides. 

Social media presence helps you develop an authoritative environment around your business. When you a social media presence in the form of a Facebook page that provides daily updates to your customers about your business, they trust you more. Furthermore, you can write paragraphs on your Facebook page that communicate your brands' expertise, experience, and core values to your users. 

This makes up for higher brand awareness and authenticity. Having social media means you are engaging with your customers more interactively. Social media allows your brand to express itself in a way that communicates the persona and core values behind your brand to the whole world. 

Facebook has recently launched a feature called Facebook Pay; it makes it easier for people on the platform to pay for products they like. If you don't have a social media business profile already, then what are you waiting for! Go ahead and avail the numerous benefits of social media marketing. 

In Conclusion

Today's article mentioned a few trends you may want to look at in 2021 to promote social growth and develop an optimal social strategy. Some of them are easy to implement, such as interactive content, while others might be a bit hard such as ensuring an excellent digital customer experience. 

As long as your efforts are consistent enough with the right approach, you can deliver a great digital marketing strategy. Good luck!