There wasn’t much time for digital marketers to recover from 2020. A quick break over Christmas and we’re back, marketing to a post-COVID world, where online consumer spending is through the roof and digital transformation is no longer optional.
So what are the big trends shaping the digital landscape in 2021? Well, for one thing, digital marketing itself is looking incredibly resilient. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, even though two-thirds of brands saw a drop in revenue during the pandemic, more than a quarter of marketers are spending 90% or more of their budget on digital. Marketing is like a relationship, in that respect: you get out what you put in.
Here are six big trends to look out for in 2021.
1. Analytics reign supreme
The writing is on the wall. The old guard of marketing, who value gut-driven instinct, are a dying breed. The future belongs to customer data and robust analytics. Over 64% of executives agree that data-driven marketing provides a competitive edge, and digital marketers will need to learn new, data-specific skills if they’re going to make an impact in 2021: business analytics and data visualisation being the big two. Getting your CRM humming should be the first priority, followed by automation and a content strategy built around deep customer insight. If brands haven’t fleshed out their analytics teams already, now’s the time to do so. Those insights will help refine ROI and optimise your advertising spend across channels. In 2021, there’s no such thing as too much customer data.
2. The rise of machine learning
On the other hand, numbers are only useful if you can harness them in real time. This is partly why some experts are already calling 2021 the Year of AI marketing. “The adoption of AI and machine learning in marketing will help narrow the scope of marketers’ data and help them focus on things that consumers are actually engaging with,” says Litmus CMO, Melissa Sargeant. Marketers need algorithms to sift through swathes of customer data and pick out patterns that can be leveraged for profit. But how will this work in practice? Despite huge recent AI growth (Gartner estimates 270% in the last four years), only about 17% of companies are currently deploying AI “at scale”. Over half of business leaders say employee skills are the biggest barrier to adoption: marketers simply don’t know enough about AI, yet, to make informed decisions. Upskilling marketing teams into machine learning and AI algorithms should be a massive priority going into 2021.
3. Social shopping is here to stay
If you’re still using social channels purely as tools of brand discovery, you’re doing it wrong. Instagram Shopping has been around for a few years, and the stats are definitely encouraging: according to Hootsuite, 130 million users tap on shopping posts every month, and 81% of people say they now use the platform to research products. TikTok has also rolled out new shopping features, including a global partnership with Shopify. The rise of ‘Social Commerce’ is well and truly here. Some industry forecasters are already predicting a 34% surge in social transactions in 2021—the U.S. market alone is expected to cap $36 billion. This year, brands will need to turn their social channels into efficient revenue streams, if they haven’t already. Consumers now expect not only brand presence and engagement, but a frictionless in-app experience—from product through to purchase.
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