Blog Post

2021 Digital Marketing Trends

Peter Jones • 9 April 2021

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Peter Jones

2021 Digital Marketing Trends

We all know, 2020 was a rollercoaster of a year with plenty of ups and downs. The world’s first-ever mass working from home became a reality. Because of this, it had a massive effect on how people interact with the internet, permanently transformed the way we work and how we interact with others. Our purchasing habits changed significantly and because of the increased traffic online the internet suddenly became a crowded environment flooded with content-rich information in every sector and niche. So, what 2021 digital marketing trends do we need to consider to maintain engagement with our audience? 


14 Digital Marketing Trends 2021


From the digital marketing data seen in 2020, we feel there are eleven key trends to look out for in 2021. Let's take them one by one. (anchor text to content)


  1. Voice Activated Search
  2. Audio Marketing
  3. Increased digital advertising spend
  4. Google Chrome stop 3rd party cookies
  5. Core Web Vitals
  6. Near Me search
  7. User-generated content
  8. Branded Content
  9. Nostalgia Marketing
  10. Live Streaming
  11. Google Ads AI
  12. Brand Activism
  13. Social Media eCommerce
  14. Semantic SEO


2020 was a year like no other


People are spending more time browsing online than ever before on things like paying for goods and entertainment. Monthly subscriptions have soared in the past year with a record number of people signing up for recurring payments plans.

That’s not all – our attitudes have changed as well. Recent research by Slack on 4,000 knowledge workers found that only 12% wanted to return to full-time office work. The same study revealed that 72% prefer a hybrid model where they work from the office and home side by side. This, of course, has many benefits such as savings on travel time, CO2 emissions and money.


Digital marketing affected by home working?


Businesses relying on people travelling and office workers have been affected by an unprecedented margin. Such businesses had to find new ways to sell to people just so that they keep afloat. Another major change to the market has been people’s eating-out habits. Just eat sales have soared indicating that a new form of ‘eating out’ has become food delivery to your home.

That’s not all – people now exercise at home. Yoga, treadmill, Xbox, Nintendo, online fitness classes are just a few physical activities we have taken indoors. These behavioural changes will change the shape of digital marketing and the way we do business online. When considering at a global scale, that is a huge impact on businesses and individuals worldwide.


Growing digital marketing trends


1.Voice-activated search


There were also many emerging digital marketing trends during 2020, namely Voice Search, 3.25 billion people used voice-activated search and assistants worldwide. That's close to half the world's population and this number is only going to increase in 2021.


increasing voice search users | 2021 digital marketing trends

Voice search is ingrained in everyday life now and this new $2 billion pound industry is predicted to grow to $40 billion by the end of 2022 and is mostly driven by mobile voice searches and products like google assist and Alexa.

 

The graph below shows where most people use voice search.

Voice search where is it used | 2021 digital marketing trends

So If you have a physical store where you do business from or you are serving a local community i.e. an electrician or plumber for example, and your website isn't set up for Voice Search we recommend this becomes a priority for 2021.

What do I need to do to get my website ready for voice search? 


  1. Optimise your content for rich snippet answers i.e. knowledge graph, knowledge panel, knowledge box (and yes they are all different) featured snippets and rich answer.
  2. Restructure your content, add frequently asked questions sections to your sales pages and have a word count between 29 and 41 words on average.
  3. Use conventional questions and answers “Alexa… who are the local car garages near me”
  4. Target long-tail keyword phrases.
  5. Improve the loading time of your website - super fast websites win in voice search.
  6. Optimise your site for core web vitals (see below for more about this)
  7. Optimise your Google My Business listing and make sure your name, address, phone number and opening hours are correct and that your business is listed in the right category.
  8. Aim your content to a reading age of 8-10 years old.


2. High growth in Audio Marketing


We’ve seen enormous growth in Audio marketing during 2020 and into 2021, Clubhouse and podcasts allow the brands to have a closer more authentic connection with their audience.


When did the Clubhouse App launch?


Clubhouse launched on IOS in April 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and is still only on IOS. The app received a massive uptake and a serious amount of investment ($12 million in series A investment). To gain access to the app is by invitation only, but don’t worry if you haven’t been invited, you will be soon. 


The clubhouse is a real-time, voice-only discussion app, where individuals can host and join different conversations. Upon opening the app, you are met with a list of “rooms” that you can join, or you can create your own room. Each room has a different topic, often hosted by an expert or pioneer in the field. This new environment allows you to connect directly with your audience in real-time and ask questions to the host where you never would have been able to before. The community is growing very fast...check it out!


Are podcasts still popular?


In February 2021, there were 1.75 billion podcasts with over 43 million episodes available, up from 18.5 million in 2018. During the pandemic, there was a surge in the number of podcast launches with the millions of people (including big-name celebrities) quarantined.

Let's put this into context. 90 million people in America (32% of Americans) listen to podcasts at least once a month, and this is a growing market driven by the change in consumer habits in 2020.


Podcast trends | 2021 digital marketing trends

3. Increased digital advertising spend


If you are not in the top 10 SERP (Search Engine Results Page) position page one on Google, you don't exist online! 35% of all traffic goes to organic position one.


With all major economies going into complete lockdown, ad spend was hit in early 2020. But it soon recovered as people began to spend more time online and businesses saw a flurry of new opportunities with people working from home.


One of the biggest digital market trends has been that advertising on e-commerce platforms saw a 40% increase in 2020. The same study predicts that this could jump again by a further 30% in 2021 and it will account for about 13% of US digital ad spend. This clearly shows a trend towards spending by businesses of all sizes.


Other forecasts suggest that the overall digital spend could increase by a staggering 10%. Note that this is not solely on advertisements, but the total amount of digital marketing activity in addition to ads.


Therefore, if you are a digital marketing manager, the main factor to look out for is your organic promotional campaigns. 


As there will be more spending on ads, marketing budgets come under pressure, businesses will pay more attention to rank higher in SEO to generate free organic traffic. Digital marketing managers will need to be able to SHOW the results and return on investment in a technical, educated way.


4. Google Chrome stop 3rd party cookies


The second development impacting 2021 is the end of the wearisome cookie game. Google Chrome will stop supporting 3rd party cookies in May 2022, and as it is usually the case, others will very likely follow this! Therefore, digital marketing managers will have to spend a lot of time planning how they target potential customers online other than using cookies. To find out the finer details on this big change, read a full-length article on the end of third-party cookies here: Marketing Land.


Naturally, there will be a lot of uncertainty for many stakeholders in the digital marketing industry because of this change. At the moment there are more questions than answers and as an SEO Agency based in Leicester, Kangaroo UK will keep a close eye out how things pan out.


The pressing questions for the time being are:

  • Is it the end of cookies tracking altogether?
  • Will other browsers still support 3rd party cookies?
  • What about end-user consent and GDPR? 
  • Are there any other tools apart from cookies to track?


One thing is for sure - a lot could happen in 2021 and there will be winners and losers! We will report on this in more detail later in the year.


5. Core web vitals


Core Web Vitals, introduced in April 2020, are a set of metrics related to speed, responsiveness and visual stability. Google has defined these as: 


core web vitals | 2021 digital marketing trends
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): measures loading performance. To provide a good user experience, LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of when the page first starts loading.
  • First Input Delay (FID): measures interactivity. To provide a good user experience, pages should have an FID of less than 100 milliseconds.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): measures visual stability. To provide a good user experience, pages should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1.

When do Core Web Vitals become a ranking factor in Google?


Core Web Vitals will become an official ranking factor in May 2021.


Why has Google introduced Core Web Vitals?


As more searches are done every day on mobile devices, user experience is key to Google’s success. As we’ve all experienced patchy network coverage, dodgy wifi signal and slow connection which has a negative impact on user experiences, thus the demand for faster website load times are required to compensate for this challenge.


TIP: The fastest way to speed up a website load speed is to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network). A CDN and is a highly-distributed platform of servers that helps minimise delays in loading web page content (i.e. images) by reducing the physical distance between the server and the user. This helps users around the world view the same high-quality content without slowing down the loading time.

To learn more about the changes to core web vitals read it from the giant itself on Google’s blog.


6. Near Me, the search continues to grow


If you have a physical location for example a shop, office, restaurant or your business serves the local community and you haven’t optimised for the ‘near me’ map search then you’re missing out!


Near me, search is one of the fastest-growing opportunities on the internet. Google's machine learning ability to find trusted brands is driven by managed business listings and customer reviews. 


Google trends | near me search | 2021 digital marketing growth

To learn more about Near Me search click here Local SEO Agency.


7. Growth of user-generated content


What is user-generated content? 


User-generated content is becoming a marketers must in 2021. User-generated content is where your audience and consumers create and promote your brand online. These are often unfiltered, authentic and entertaining pieces of content produced in the form of videos and images, typically short funny clips positively promoting the brand's products in the real world environment giving real-life user feedback.


What campaign can you run in 2021 to gain and promote user-generated content?


8. Branded content is on the increase


People don’t like being sold to but want to be entertained. People no longer want to see the overpaid celebrity promoting a brand, they want real people telling a story of how the brand has made a difference to their lives. 


A great example of this is TV advertising. Take Lego, for example, they’re in a highly competitive market. In their latest advert  Lego Batman Movie they take you on an adventure and only right at the end introduce a young boy and you quickly realise the film was the little boy's imagination, making it real life.


Lego boy in space suit | 2021 digital marketing trends

Here are 7 more examples of branded content to stimulate your ideas.


9. Growth of Nostalgia Marketing


Nostalgia marketing is the advertising equivalent of comfort food, it makes you feel warm and cosy inside. Instead of looking for the next big great thing, brands are looking back in history showing consumers how the brand has evolved over time and how the brands have become part of our natural environment. 


Why do brands run marketing campaigns based on nostalgia marketing? A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that nostalgic feelings made audiences more willing to spend money on consumer goods and services because they can relate to it and it takes them back to a positive time in their history.


Visit this blog by Hubspot to see more examples of nostalgia marketing.


10. The continued growth of Live-streaming


We now live in a world where live video streaming is the norm. During lockdown brands and influencers turned to live streaming to maintain the connection with their audience. 


To put this into context, in 2020 the number of live streaming increased by 99%.


Brands quickly realised live streaming enabled a closer connection with their audience which in turn increased their audience size and introduced new opportunities to sell online. 


Pre-recorded videos are quickly becoming outdated information and the audience is quickly losing trust in the brands as they believe the information shared is no longer relevant.


Here is a list of social media platforms that offer Live Streaming options.



11. Google ads AI bots are getting smarter


What artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. Google Ads namely ‘Smart Ads’ and ‘Dynamic’ ads have significantly changed over the past 18 months and PPC Agencies (Pay Per Click) have embraced this new world of advertising.


A PPC agency acts more like a doctor. A doctor asks many questions to understand the purpose of the advertising campaign and then pilots the AI algorithm to make sure the ads are performing as they should and also teaches the algorithm what success looks like. This in turn delivers higher ROAS (Return On Ad Spend).

Google ads bot | 2021 digital marketing trends

The development of AI has delivered some amazing results because of its ability to crunch big data quickly with better accuracy than a human. However, you wouldn't jump on a plane without a pilot, and nor should you run ads campaigns without a PPC Agencies support. 


12. Brand Activism on the increase


What is Brand Activism? Brand Activism is the term used when a brand looks to have an effect on a social, economic, environmental or political issue. It isn't a new concept, however, with the rise of conscious consumerism, companies are noticing that speaking out enables them to demonstrate their company values and political viewpoints, thus increasing the size of their audience and driving sales.

You need to be cautious when executing brand activism because if it’s done incorrectly and without authenticity your message will be received as spam, causing a negative effect on your brand's reputation.


Here are some great examples of brand activism.


13. Social Media eCommerce is growing


As social media grows so does social eCommerce. Selling through social platforms creates a frictionless shopping experience for users and it’s booming for popular low-cost products.

social media ecommerce trend | 2021 digital marketing trends

Social media platforms like Instagram have visual storefronts and it's reported that 60% of new products are found on the Instagram platform.



Social media platforms also enable the user to talk directly to the brand in a language they prefer. This also gives the brand an opportunity to entertain at the same time to enhance the customer's experience with the brand. 

Entertaining chatbot | 2021 digital marketing trends

14. Semantic SEO Continues to increase as organic ranking gets harder


Every year it gets even harder to rank for the holy-grail of page one, position one with organic search. Even this now is more like position 8 in reality because of the ads and map listings pushing organic search down the page. So with all this going on how is a business in a competitive marketable leapfrog the competition?


The answer is Semantic SEO. Semantic SEO gives you the opportunity to rank in different areas of the landing page, for example:



  • Featured Snippet - often called position zero
  • Knowledge graph - appears on the right-hand side of the search results
  • Knowledge panel - also appears on the right-hand side of search results
  • People Also Ask - positioned just below the ads or local map listing
  • People Also Searched For… positioned just above related searches at the bottom of the page
  • Related Searches… found at the bottom of the search results


Summary


There is no single silver bullet, it’s a combination of lots of little bits of activity that will make a difference. Creating in-depth quality content clusters linked across multiple digital channels together will build strength in your SEO. 


Apply the rule of seven. Promote your content in 7-different channels and formats linking them back to your content.


How we communicate with people on the internet is changing faster than ever before. The pandemic has accelerated user adoption, whilst at the same time creating opportunities for brands to reach more people whilst being transparent with their core values enabling users to connect at a deeper level with the brand.


We hope you’ve been inspired by the above content and if you would like to talk to us about what you can do to embrace these emerging trends then please get in touch with the team at Kangaroo UK and we would be happy to have a chat.


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