Top Business, Digital Marketing, and SEO Trends for 2021

As we get ready to say goodbye and good riddance to 2020, we need to assess what kind of a year 2021 will be and where we need to focus to stay ahead. Milestone Research working with the Milestone thought leaders has compiled the following predictions and trends to help the community plan for 2021.

We have broken the predictions into 4 groups:

1. Election, Business, Virus, and Economy
2. Digital Trends
3. Employment Trends
4. Lifestyle trends

and cited examples and data sources if you want to go deeper into any topics.

Election, Virus, and the Economy — Rebound

1. The Pfizer and now Moderna vaccines bring hope and a light at the end of the tunnel. Essential workers could startgetting the  first of two doses in December and the population more widely in April. The vaccination requires 2 doses 3 weeks apart and then 3 more weeks for the immunity protection to develop.
   
2. More people will get married in 2020 simply because they will be able to have weddings again. Milestone Research found that January and February show big increases in wedding RFPs and expect 2021 to be the highest monthly totals on record.
   
3. In-person conferences will return to the marketing and sales operations of most companies. Companies that embrace in-person meetings once it is safe will have an advantage over those that do not.
4. The Biden presidential win increases the likelihood of another round of government stimulus, would support businesses and consumers. If the Republicans hold the Senate after the January Georgia run offs, legislative changes will be modest. Liberal calls for regulating digital powerhouses will likely be thwarted in a contested Congress.
5. Delayed and deferred spending and investment will translate into rapid growth by mid-2021, and people will likely start booking summer trips a few months after the vaccine is announced, but they will want the flexibility to cancel. Cutbacks in the airline industry routes will lead to a scarcity of plane seats, and people will want to reserve flights before the pandemic is fully resolved. Hotels should collaborate to with airlines and travel agents to make sure their customers can get flights.
   

Digital Trends — Customer Experience

1. Digital transformation acceleration and progress in 2020 will give companies an advantage in 2021: great user experience, ecommerce, ease of use, merchandizing, and smooth delivery will be features that consumers will have gotten used to and will want to keep using. 61% of marketing departments have pivoted resources toward improving customer-facing digital interfaces and 56% are changing their business models to focus on digital opportunities, according to the The Creative Group, a Robert Half Company.
2. Mobile share of traffic will start growing again as the pandemic and the stay-at-home efforts wrap up. Mobile share was in the mid-50%s pre-pandemic and dropped to low 50%s when  people stayed home and had their laptops up and available all day and did not go outside much. Mobile share will exceed 60% in most B2C industries by Fall 2021. Mobile share in most B2B industries will be about half as much as B2C levels.
3. Marketers will realize that CMSes will help differentiate customer experience. Companies looking for more of an edge will abandon free CMS software in favor of well-built and maintained paid software. Upgrade your CMS to enhance speed and content stability.
4. AMP will be a useful technique for speed and core vitals improvement that will be used by fewer than 90% of websites, according to Milestone Research benchmark studies.

1. Demand for digital marketers and SEOs is down slightly during the pandemic but still outstrips supply of candidates by a large 3.2 to 1  in October 2020, according to a review of job listing sites done by Robert Half on CareerBuilder. Companies should invest in labor during the downturn ahead of their competing hiring companies to secure talent before demand and wages increase.
   

Lifestyle Trends — Being Nicer and We Still Love New Technology

1. Most companies will offer more work from home days even when not required by the pandemic. Migration of remote workers to lower-cost, lower-tax states will accelerate. California is seeing net migration with a loss of citizens and some gains in non-citizen immigrants. Remote work may allow people who are staying with the same company to decrease housing and tax costs and increasing disposable income to increase their quality of life.
   
2. Agility and innovation will be rewarded. While this was always true, it will be more true in a digital transformation-accelerated post-pandemic world. Seeing trends and getting there first with the right product or solution will further separate company performance.

To sum up, plan to get better at listening to and understanding consumers, responding quickly to their needs, hiring people with the right character and capabilities, and accelerating digital transformation to support customers along their digital journeys with FAQs, AMP, and schemas.

So, after reviewing these trends, figure out which ones are most relevant and how to apply them to your business. Build out plans and budget to work on them starting from the first week in January and track your progress.