In the last couple of years, marketing has become a powerful tool that has helped businesses grow and stay relevant. That’s because customers, whether you’re running a B2B or B2C, are always looking for brands that they can trust to address their specific needs, making their lives easier—or even delightful.
That said, here are the top marketing trends to keep up with in the year 2021.
Sustainability
Similar to the digital marketing trend ‘inclusivity,’ consumers in 2021 are becoming more passionate about environmentalism or their general surroundings. These individuals want to ensure the brands their paying for are just as concerned for planet earth as they are. That’s why top-performing and green products like gu10 spotlight bulbs offered by LED Direct experience great success is because besides providing top-quality products and services, they follow sustainable approaches to their operations—including marketing.
The key here is to communicate your brand’s sustainability and commitment to the cause by making environmentalism part of your identity, meaning you need to add it to your marketing campaign. You can do this by displaying a banner prominently on your website or discussing it often on your social media profiles.
Featured Snippets and No-Click Searches
For many years, the goal of SEO practices has been to get your website’s listing in the number one position of the search results. Now, at the beginning of the new decade, most businesses aim to claim the spot of ‘position zero.’ This position refers to Google’s very own featured snippet, highlighting certain content or your website at the top of the search results page, increasing your chances of earning clicks and site visits. However, keep in mind that featured snippets works differently than most search entries.
For instance, featured snippets are separated by a small and prominent box located at the top, displaying extra and relevant information, attempting to answer a user’s question as swiftly as possible. Plus, this gives users the answers they need without clicking on the website, earning the other term ‘no-click search,’ for this popular approach. Although it may seem counterintuitive to prevent a user from clicking on your link, the recognition your brand gets as a leading thought-leader outweighs a single visit.
Image and Video SEO
Everyone knows that typing in keywords can help you search for images and videos. However, not many know that you can also submit an existing picture for a search or take original photos and more context about the item photographed. This marketing trend is gradually growing at the beginning of 2021 as more users find out about these visual search techniques, changing the overall landscape and regulations of SEO in general.
Interactive Content
Interactive content is a marketing trend around for a while but only recently received plenty of attention and even considered one of the best practices. That’s because interactive content doesn’t only promote more engagement, it also enhances the user’s enjoyment. These may include content like quizzes, surveys or polls, contests, giveaways or competitions, and asking open-ended questions—and all these can do wonders for our business.
Interactive content generally increases the length of time users engage with you, helping your standing in algorithm-based searches. Plus, it improves the overall user experience, making it a crucial aspect to consider in a marketing campaign. Additionally, it’s a part of the broader trend towards personalisation, allowing users to answer for themselves or have their opinions heard, giving them a more ‘personal’ connection to the business.
Local SEO
Search engines like Google often update their local SEO algorithm. So, if you’re running a local business and have a website or posted your information online, you should continually update your brand’s appearance in the local search results, too. That’s because local SEO provides more significance than broad SEO when you run a local business. That’s because people are always searching with the intent to buy the products or pay for the services they’re looking for—making it easier to convert them.
For starters, you need to have Google verify your business, and you can do this by creating an account for ‘Google My Business’ and claiming a listing or creating a new one. Doing this helps you rank higher in the Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) while allowing you to add information about your business to online users. Additionally, you’ll need to implement local keywords prominently into your SEO strategy, including your city or town’s name alongside other famous landmarks, and mention them once or twice.
Because more businesses are popping off and the competition grows, marketing has become a crucial aspect of any business’s strategy. Keep up with the latest trends such as those mentioned to help you create an efficient marketing campaign for the start of the new decade.
