2021 Digital Marketing Trends: 25 Practical Recommendations to Implement - Millie Tan
I recently read an article published on Smart Insights, 2021 digital marketing trends: 25 practical recommendations to implement, by Dave Chaffey. As a marketing strategist who explores creative and “out-of-the-box” solutions to the problems at hand, this article resonated with me.
The article highlights the importance of digital marketing innovations and makes practical recommendations to improve leads and sales for businesses of varying sizes.
“The best marketers are constantly scanning for new digital marketing trends, technology, and platforms, to rapidly identify new opportunities that agile businesses and marketers can tap into… if they’re looking in the right place and know the right questions to ask…”
The article “assessed the digital marketing trends landscape to help give recommendations on the digital marketing trends marketers should focus on in the future.”
All the recommendations in the article are vital steps in keeping up to speed with changing trends in the digital marketing sphere, though I found a few particular recommendations to be more important than the rest.
Recommendation 9 highlights the continual need to look at the infrastructure of systems, not just bells, and whistles, especially in large businesses.
“Inside Design identifies the trend of an increased focus on design systems which it explains as a “collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications”.
The efficiency benefits for businesses to reduce costs and increase conversion through common web design elements, and for users who have less need to learn different interfaces, are clear.”
Recommendations 10, 12, and 15 discuss the availability and usage of a variety of marketing tools, but you need to keep in mind your target audience at all times to maximize your conversion to sales.
For instance, “research shows that the majority of content is currently prompted by projects/campaigns despite the importance of always-on interactions to create and generate leads through top-of-funnel content and then nurture through the bottom and middle-of-funnel content.”
Recommendations 13, 19, 22, and 23 examine conversational marketing and talk about enhancing engagement with the consumer base by improving customer communication to increase loyalty and advocacy. Talking to consumers as regular people goes a long way in building and maintaining a healthy and long-lasting relationship with them.
For example, emailing and website content is a great platform to converse with a consumer. “Previously, many email marketing systems were limited to reporting on individual newsletter and campaign email broadcasts. These are still the ‘bread and butter of email marketing for many marketers. However, a more sophisticated approach is to consider lifecycle engagement reporting and targeting based on this.”
The article provides a comprehensive path to improving digital marketing activities and keeping up to date with research and innovations in the industry. If you are a curious marketer looking for new digital marketing trends and opportunities that your business or network can make the most of, read the full article here.
