2020 has been a year unlike any other from every point of view, including digital marketing. From a greater emphasis on digital to the rise of short-format video, the changes that started this year will come into full effect over the next months. So this is a good moment to take a look at five digital marketing trends to watch in 2021.
1. A Greater Emphasis on Digital
According to a survey by management consulting firm McKinsey, companies have achieved in just one year the equivalent results of seven years of digital adoption efforts.
Marketing will be no exception to this overarching trend. With users spending most of their free time online and companies engaged in a race to make up for lost time in the digital arena, digital marketing is poised to become even more important to businesses of all sizes and types in 2021.
2. Voice Search
As of 2020, there are 4.2 billion digital voice assistants in the world, and that number is projected to double by 2024. It’s unlikely that 2021 will be a clean-cut watershed moment when most searches are made using voice. However, optimizing your content for this type of search is a smart move.
These are some steps you can take to optimize your website for voice search:
- Claim your Google My Business listing.
- Use conversational words.
- Write blogs answering common questions from your customers.
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly (because people use their phones to make voice searches).
3. Local SEO
Search Engine Optimization (or SEO, for short) is becoming increasingly competitive. Having your content appear among the first search engine results is trickier than ever, so your efforts have to be even more targeted and deliberate.
Local SEO is one of the best responses to this new situation. Simply put, local SEO means optimizing your content using longer, more specific words that usually include your location.
The logic behind this strategy is that ranking for broad terms such as “chocolate chip cookies” is much more difficult than ranking for longer but more specific terms such as “chocolate chips in Riverside.”
4. Core Web Vitals
In 2021, Google will add new metrics to the set of parameters it uses to rank pages. The tech giant currently rates websites based on aspects like mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines.
Starting from May 2021, Google will also use what it calls Core Web Vitals, user-centered metrics that reward websites that provide a great user experience:
- Largest contentful picture: the time it takes for the main content of a page to load.
- First input delay: The time from when a user first interacts with a page to the time when the browser responds to that interaction.
- Cumulative layout shift: The amount that the page layout shifts during the loading phase.
If you want to get a sense of the state of your website from the standpoint of Core Web Vitals, you can get a report from Google here.
5. Short-Format Video
Yes, the short-format streaming platform Quibi closed its doors last month, but that doesn’t mean that the same will happen to short-format video as a whole.
Take TikTok, for example. The short-form video-sharing app has become extremely popular during the pandemic, capturing the attention of Generation Z and serving as an incubator for content that goes viral all over the internet.
TikTok for Business was launched earlier this year, and it will be an option all companies will have to keep in mind next year.
Ready to make the most of digital marketing? Our team of experts at Uniko Biz Solutions is here to help you find the best strategies to get your message out and reach your audience.
Let’s work together! Contact us today (888-698-6456, info@unikommp.com). Whether you need to craft a single e-blast or a full-blown digital marketing campaign, we have the expertise you need to take your business to the next level.
