To say that 2020 was a year of unpredictability would be an understatement. While it may be true that certain trends which were predicted before the pandemic did end up coming, some trends did not manifest. This is because industries across the globe were forced into adaptations, which ended up reshaping the elements of the marketing sector as a whole.
As a result of the pandemic, people spent more time on social platforms, eCommerce sales drastically increased and video apps became an essential part of many school and business operations. So, as we march into 2021, the question that lies to be answered is, what marketing trends should professionals be focused on to improve their customer satisfaction metrics?
1) More Purpose-Driven Missions From Brands
The 2021 Hootsuite Social Trends report highlighted the fact that the most successful brands will be the ones that understand where they fit into their customers’ lives in regards to social media. They’ll also try to establish ways in which they can fit into the conversation that their consumers are having on social media. However, customers will not be able to connect with brands that they view as being dishonest. This highlights the need for transparency. As such, experts estimate that more and more brands will be involved in more goodwill and purpose driven missions, in an effort to improve customer trust and transparency.
2) Heavy Emphasis On Enhancing Customer Experience
User Generated Content (UGC) has always been an effective tool that brands utilized to establish and maintain relationships with their customers as well as to provide social proof. This will continue to be a popular trend in 2021 with many businesses relying on the customer data found in their call center CRM to personalize services.
Since consumers have grown increasingly aware of the abundance of shady products/services that are on the market, in today’s world, consumers no longer take a company’s word for it. They need proof and they need to be reassured that a particular product/service is able to deliver on what it promises. UGC helps companies to provide connective content which:
- Helps to develop and strengthen communities
- Enables brands to connect with consumers in places where they usually hang out.
3) Sustainability
Chances are that you’ve seen an article about Amazon’s sustainability Mission. The company proclaims that it intends to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Statistics demonstrate that Amazon may be on point when it comes to capitalizing on a new marketing trend. A recent survey of consumers highlighted the fact that 80% of consumers believe that companies need to do more to minimize the negative impact they have on the environment. As such, consumers have been gravitating towards purpose driven businesses that are concerned about the environment. Businesses can capitalize on this trend by focusing on renewable energy sources and sustainability.
4) Visual And Voice Search
As voice-activated tools and conversational IVR became more and more accurate, more consumers are using voice and visual search than ever before. Experts believe that as a result of experiencing limited opportunities to socialize as a result of government lockdowns, it has pushed people to use voice search. Additionally, certain tools such as Google Lens, give consumers the ability to search for whatever they look at. Therefore, marketers will need to place a heavy emphasis on sitemaps and image alt-text for photos. Some experts theorize that it will become a crucial element of SEO as well.
5) Easily Digestible Content
During 2020, people started leaning towards easily digestible content such as on-the-go newsletters and podcasts. In fact, studies suggest that as much as 54% of Americans, listen to podcasts. Another thing that’s worth noting is that advertisers increased their spending on podcasts in 2020. This is also viewed as a sign that easily digestible content will continue to be a trend in 2021. Easy-to-digest content such as newsletters and podcasts, can help brands to connect with customers on a deeper level. They also enable the opportunity for brands to use a more intimate way to stay in contact with consumers.
6) Multichannel Influencer Marketing
Statistics show that influencer marketing isn’t slowing down anytime soon and professionals won’t have to spend a large amount of capital, to leverage the audience of a given influencer. Data from 2020 suggests that nano and micro influencers (Less than 30k followers) have the highest engagement rates in the influencer industry. Another trend within the influencer world, is that companies are moving away from focusing on an influencer’s social media channels. Instead, they’re focusing on using influencers in their own customized multi channel marketing campaign. Meaning, as opposed to focusing on an influencer’s audience, they’re using influencer generated content in their marketing strategies such as email marketing.
This is just a short list of some of the most beneficial marketing trends that will manifest themselves in 2021. Since we’re only a few months in, you still have the opportunity to act on the information before your competitors do. Therefore, practice your due diligence when it comes to staying ahead of the crowd.
About babelforce
babelforce is a global cloud communications platform focused on No-Code integration and automation. It allows non-technical people to build even the most complex integrated processes for customer-facing teams, particularly in the call center.