5 marketing trends you can’t miss for 2021

Marketing is constantly evolving, and you need to keep up with the trends to maintain your momentum. In 2021, some popular marketing tactics will continue to grow in importance and be a necessary part of your mix, while others should start to be included before you fall behind your competition.
Keep reading to find out how to leverage these tactics to grow your business, or scroll to the end of the article to watch a video with the highlights.

5 B2B marketing trends for 2021

1. Video

Video has long been a major part of many marketing strategies, and video is expected to make up 82% of IP traffic in 2021. It is so prevalent because customer engagement and message retention skyrocket when compared to static content.
Customers spend five times more time with video content and retain 95% of the information presented in video format, compared to 10% retention when reading text. Videos are responsible for 1200% more shares on social media than text or images combined.

2. Semantics in SEO

Google’s consideration of semantics, or meaning, of a search query when processing results is only getting smarter. Google analyzes user data to understand how a consumer’s location, search intent and current context might affect their desired results. For example, a user googling a dealership’s name will be served results about business hours and location rather than an old article about the dealership expanding to a second location.
Ninety-three percent of users start their internet experience with a search engine query, and half of all searches contain four or more words, making long-tail keywords even more necessary. Voice searches are also becoming more common.
This means that short keywords, while still important, ultimately mean less in ranking search results, and instead specific, long-tail keywords and informational content that is written with the searcher’s intention in mind — whether they are researching a purchase, trying to answer a question, getting ready for a transaction or looking for a specific webpage — will do more for your SEO strategy.

3. Marketing automation

Automating certain marketing processes, like posting on social media or emailing newsletters, can increase your marketing’s efficiency while reducing human error. Marketing automation is already a $7.25 billion global industry, and it is continuing to grow.
Ninety-five percent of marketers who use it say it has been either somewhat or very successful at achieving their primary objectives, whether it is improving effectiveness, lead generation or alignment between the sales and marketing departments.

4. User experience

Search engine optimization is more than keywords: In 2021, Google will continue to emphasize user experience (also known as UX) when ranking search results. Those page experience elements include page load time, whether the site is mobile-friendly, the site’s security settings (https), interactivity and more. 
Even if a user makes it to your website without going through a search engine, your UX design can make or break your prospect’s chances of converting. Sixty-eight percent of users leave a website due to a poor UX design, and mobile users are five times more likely to leave a website if it is not mobile-friendly.

5. Chatbots

As more and more customer data is being created, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly necessary to put it to the best use. Eighty-two percent of customers want an immediate response to their marketing and sales questions and 90% want an immediate response to their customer service question. Using AI to power chatbots can help your business be more available to customers. 
Forty percent of customers also don’t care whether they are speaking to a real person or not online as long as their questions get answered. This tactic is growing in popularity, as chatbots are estimated to be a $1.3 billion global market by 2024.

Conclusion

Not all marketing trends for 2021 are new ideas. Many are mainstays in digital marketing and booming global industries. However, complacency has no place in a marketing strategy, so it’s important to always be on the lookout for new tactics that can put you ahead of the competition.
 
[Psst. If you like this article, watch our video below or on YouTube.]

[Article updated on March 25, 2021 to include video.]
 
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