Heading into a busy fall season I wanted to highlight some of the most recent industry updates you NEED to know... I've curated a list of 10 digital marketing trends relating to branding and design-based work so you can stay one step ahead of the game.
In no particular order, these are some topics we practice, advise, and have learned as a marketing & design agency recently:
1. Personalization In Marketing:
A topic we've spoken about before, people buy from people. In 2021 customers need more - any chance you can add personalization into products or aspects of your business, do it.
2. Video Marketing:
The market and industry are changing - one of the more recent updates is Instagram's announcement that they are no longer considered a photo-sharing app, but rather a video platform. Taking this recent update, video marketing should be making its way to the top of your To-Do list. Creating something as simple as a GIF, with no sound or intricate editing, will up your analytics and engagement.
3. Influencer Marketing & Collaborations:
What better way to improve and expedite your reach and interaction on social media besides influencer marketing and collaborations? Whether it be a mutually beneficial strategy to promote one business for another or a giveaway involving your products, exposure and reach is doubled if not tripled on social platforms. Not only are your followers seeing, but viewers of reposts, the other partnering company, their followers, and more. Apart of each of our marketing subscriptions are a minimum of 5 collaboration promotions with relative companies/persons.
4. Micro-Moments:
Micro-moments, an action intent-rich moments where the customer or client needs to go, do, or buy. Just like we have mentioned in the past, you have 4 seconds to capture a viewer's attention when they click on your site. It's important to time and intentionally strategize your marketing for those micro-moments.
5. Social Media Stories:
Now that just about every social media platform has a stories feature, being active on these is a must. Viewers are engaging and interacting with you in a more personalized and transparent way. It can be challenging to keep up with newly added features especially when they differ across platforms, but becoming consistent with stories is an important practice in 2021 and doesn't look to be going anywhere anytime soon!
6. Social Commerce & Shoppable Posts:
The question all businesses have is, how do I maximize opportunities for sales? Combining e-commerce and social media is the perfect duo. Both growing exponentially e-commerce and social media are appealing to the customers' instant action desire - quickly and effectively.
7. Interactive Content:
Similar to staying engaged with stories, interactive content is one of the fastest-growing digital marketing trends. Consumers develop a connection with a brand when they feel they've helped make decisions or acted in personalizations. This or That stories, polls, quizzes, etc. The more instances you can add interactive content, the better.
8. Predictive Analytics:
Fancy way of saying: predicting the future. Becoming more sophisticated, analytics tell us where we are excelling, lacking, and why all within our marketing and social media practices. It's giving us answers to past mistakes so we can identify patterns and predict consumer behaviors to our best ability. Utilize this data specific to you to your advantage, and implement these predictions into your marketing, branding, and design.
9. User-Generated Content:
Sometimes user-generated content and reviews can be the most successful type of content. Exemplifying through others' words or actions the highlights of your products and services form a sense of trust with consumers. It's a great way to engage back with your followers and build loyal customers/advocates of your brand.
10. Better Analytics:
Social media, e-commerce, web design, email marketing, and more all include metrics and analytics. It can be an investment not only financially and timely, but it's an imperative investment if you want to see growth in 2021. Use the knowledge at your fingertips to your advantage.
These are the most recent, and must-know industry updates relating to marketing, branding, and all things design. We answered the questions of 'what' and 'how' to best utilize these trends to your advantage, keeping you in the know as we progress in 2021.
Becoming a client of CSS Designs we will share, and teach you our industry knowledge similar to this blog and beyond. Building the foundations for our client's success is what our white-glove service does. Schedule a free consultation here!
Xx,
Chase
