It’s true, getting your brand to stand out in today’s over crowded online sphere is difficult. That said, following digital marketing trends can be an effective way of overcoming this, as they can help your brand identify new opportunities to improve your reach via digital channels and increase the engagement of your audiences.
As there’s never been a better time to improve your company’s online presence, we’ve put together a list of the top digital trends you may want to consider implementing into your strategy.
Virtual events and experiences
Many businesses have found that by going virtual, they have opened up their company to an entirely new audience. Virtual events and experiences are more accessible than in-person events and also cost less, allowing for higher attendance and more participation.
Throughout 2020 we saw a large number of virtual events and experience from zoom quizzes to corporate exhibitions. In 2021 and beyond, virtual events will continue to be a popular way to engage with a broad set of customers as companies see the many benefits it delivers in terms of strengthening their online presence.
Influencer content
Similar to virtual events, live streams have also become a popular form of digital marketing. These often feature online personalities and influencers as such celebrities can instantly gain audience trust, and tap into the ‘in-the-moment’ connection that consumers crave.
With a 2015 study revealing that 67% of marketing and communications professionals engage with influencers for content promotion and this undoubtedly continuing to increase more recently, influencer marketing appears to be a digital trend that is here to stay.
Your brand can work with influencers to create engaging content for your social media profiles or collaborate with them to host contests and giveaways. Alternatively, you can invite them to take complete control of your social media profiles for a given period of time. Implementing any of these techniques into your digital marketing strategy is a good way to help to increase your brand’s online audience exposure.
Purpose-driven campaigns
We’re no strangers to seeing brands launching campaigns embedded with a positive message, but there has definitely been an emphasis placed on purpose driven marketing more recently.
An example of this is Hilton’s #HotelsForHeroes, where the hotel chain gave away free rooms in the US to medical workers, or when Cadbury changed their iconic Dairy Milk chocolate bar in a bid to raise awareness of loneliness among older people.
With brands attempting to establish strong connections with their online audiences, it is important that people trust and believe in the company’s ethos to achieve this level of relationship. To build a strong bond with your customers, creating a campaign with a purpose is likely to gain their approval, as well as doing something good and creating a positive impact.
More user-generated content
Consumers crave enjoyable experiences with brands that are easy and memorable. They also want proof before they buy so that they feel reassured and as though they are making the right decision when it comes to purchasing your product.
Using user-generated content (UGC) to promote yourself is a highly effective way of increasing sales, attracting a larger following and encouraging customer loyalty.
This kind of digital marketing is created by your customers themselves which can promote audience trust and strengthen your business’ sense of community.
Lush is just one example of a company that uses UGC to its advantage. The skin care cosmetics brand has made UGC a huge part of its content plan, as it inspires followers to share their pics which encourages others to follow suit – creating a viral marketing effect.
UGC is also useful if you are struggling for social post ideas, as it can help you generate a lot more content. For this reason, it is likely to continue to be a common trend in digital marketing going forward so it’s a good idea to incorporate into your own strategy.
Focus on featured snippets in Google SERPs
Appearing as high up as possible on relevant Google searches has long been a challenge for brands. Different SERP results allow content to either be found easily online or the complete opposite.
This has only been heightened with the introduction of the “featured snippet” which is a line of text that Google uses to attempt to answer the user’s question, without the user clicking on anything.
However, this presents a problem for digital marketers as, if users can get answers without clicking on anything, how do you put the brand message in front of them? To combat this problem, brands need to rank for the “featured snippet,” providing just enough information to peak interest and get the user to click for more context.
Focusing on featured snippets is therefore something that all digital marketers will be spending more time on as part of their SEO strategy (if they are not already doing so) in order to increase their online presence.
More personalisation
More and more marketers are customising their customer communications and experiences based on their preferences, interests and behaviour.
When an experience is personalised, the user instantly feels a connection with the message as there’s an element of feeling understood which can mean they are more likely to purchase from you. After all, the closer marketing is to the individual, the more it can influence them.
There are a number of ways of using the various aspects of digital marketing to deliver a personalised message. Some common examples that you could include in your digital marketing strategy include social media adverts, email marketing or promoting rewards, incentives and loyalty schemes on your social channels. Why not try implementing one of these into your content and see how it goes?
