Rimo Bose is currently heading the PR & Communications department of TCL India. She has 6 + years of experience in the field of corporate communications. She joined TCL in the year 2020, and continues to be the lead for all PR and media related activities. As the spokesperson of the company, Rimo believes that TCL brings an array of technologies that the Indian audience will highly appreciate. Her aim is to bring the brand communications closer to the audience via strategic PR techniques; she also believes that TCL as a product brand gives an open door to branding professional to create wonders.
The digital marketing landscape has witnessed frequent changes globally. From the launching of new technologies to a vast growth in social media and influencer marketing, the channel has seen strong growth in its own right.
The importance of digital marketing in the future can’t be ignored. Here are a few ways to prepare for the key Digital Marketing trends in 2021.
- Data and Analytics
No matter what advancements digital marketing experiences, the importance of data will remain as is in the years to come. The massive data collected by firms not only help them make profitable decisions but also help in deriving powerful insights to have a competitive edge. Predictive analytics will also grow in 2021, with global predictive analytics spend estimated to reach US$35.45 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 21.9 percent from 2020 to 2027.
In a nutshell, data and predictive analytics tools will be used by savvy marketers to predict future customer behavior and to target customers for more proficient marketing expends. They will be using metrics like churn rate, conversion rate and lifetime value to do so. The key to growth will be prioritizing first-party data, as Google ends its support of third-party cookies. Moreover, collection of data in a transparent, moral and legal way will be essential to avoid the violation of data privacy.
- Video Marketing
Video has become an essential part of many brand’s marketing strategies. This is because video has become the most popular type of content in recent times. As the popularity of video continues, it will remain a priority for marketers in 2021.
According to research, video marketing will account for 82 percent of the world’s internet traffic. The focus should be purely on the audience’s wants along with video speed and quality. Machine learning can help identify cross-screen journeys to deliver videos at the most accurate time on the right device. In addition, third-party tracking can help in enhancing viewability in real-time.
- Omnichannel Experiences
In a 2020 report, PWC noticed a jump from 20 to 80 percent in the number of companies investing in the omnichannel experience. In addition, Adobe found that companies that used robust omnichannel strategies experienced 10 percent year-on-year growth, a 10 percent increase in standard order values and a 25 percent boost in conversions.
An accurate omnichannel approach acknowledges that people engage in numerous ways across different platforms. And that’s why a brand’s channels need to work together instead of working against each other. To achieve this, brands need to unify their data from different channels to create 360-degree customer views, gather better real-time insights and then use machine learning to tap into their owned and third-party data to learn user shopping patterns, preferences, and behaviors across device segment them according to value.
- Social Media and Search Advertising
Research by Gartner found that 74 percent of CMOs plan to invest more in digital advertising, and 66 percent plan to pay for paid search in 2021. Current benchmark stats by Wordstream reveal that the current conversion rate on the search network is 4.4 percent, and it is increasing day by day.
Social advertising continues to be effective with the relevancy of social channels, with social ad impressions up by 20 percent year over year. However, brands need to use Al-driven segmentation and keyword targeting to get the paid search and social media platforms to continue right. This will help brands target online users and optimize their ads accurately.
Brands need to influence AI to uncover their users’ hidden interests and identify the most ad-responsive ones for predictive segmentation for social media advertising. AI can also assemble keywords into clusters to recognize similarities, minimize overlap and optimize reach.
- Customer Journey Mapping
2021 will be the year to focus on understanding the customer journey. An accurate understanding of the customer journey can improve conversion rates and help maximize every marketing dollar spent for the brand. It makes room brand for more constructive impressions and experiences.
Content mapping to A/B testing, persona development and surveys can accurately understand the customer journey. But doing it physically can be a very tricky and time-consuming task. Marketing automation tools powered by AI and machine learning can help to map out the journey and suggest optimum customer journeys based on data.
- Personalization
Personalization refers to delivering brand messaging and content tailored to the individual customer. It has been playing a vital role in the marketing industry since older times. Advancements in data and AI technologies have made personalization much easier.
Along with personalization, data analytics, AI, and machine learning also enable hyper-personalization at scale. These tools extract a diverse range of insights from data; and modify and shape a brand’s content, campaign timings, channels, and creative works.
- Mobile Marketing
The future of digital marketing continues to be mobile phones. 5.2 billion unique mobile users worldwide, and more than 52 percent of all internet traffic has emerged from the small screen. Because of the pandemic, one explicit trend in mobile marketing that stood out in 2020 was the rise of e-commerce, including social commerce.
Also, a rise in mobile app and app commerce has been noticed, another trend boosted by the pandemic. This one is set to continue for the coming years. Therefore, brands need to work on their solid app acquisition, engagement, and retention strategy to stay ahead in the game.
AI tools can identify app users who possess high value by tracking their behavior and interests. These insights can give out well-timed push notifications and remarketing campaigns that target keywords to enhance acquisition and conversion. It can also improve segments and focus on existing users with personalized content to boost engagement.
With the advent of targeted digital investment, smart utilization of data and marketing technologies, and focusing mainly on the customer’s needs, brands are bound to taste victory, now and tomorrow.