Which digital marketing trends should you be focusing on in 2021? To help you decide, we’ll cover some popular digital marketing trends that have been gaining traction lately. Use these to stay current and to get a head-start over your competition.
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Google Analytics
By now you are probably very aware of the value that Google Analytics provides, and use it to track all the important metrics that relate to your business. It’s a great tool that provides so much value! But marketing is beginning to change and there are new mediums like voice search to consider. However, this does make online transactions slightly more complicated. It’s no longer a case of someone just visiting your site as a result of a paid ad and purchasing from you. Nowadays there are new options to consider like upsells, cross-sells, repeat purchases, retargeting and order bumps. There are also new ways to generate income, for example through partnerships, affiliate marketing and webinars.
Google Analytics doesn’t report on these types of metrics yet so businesses have begun turning to other analytics tools as a complementary solution. Business intelligence tools like Google Data Studio work together with Google Analytics to put all of your business and marketing data in one place. Google Data Studio can even analyse your Facebook ads in detail.
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Voice Search
Introduced by Google in 2011, voice search was initially more of a novelty than a feature that users relied upon at the time. But voice search needs to have more notice taken in it thanks to major recent improvements in speech recognition technology. Voice search is finally becoming another feasible avenue for businesses to gather leads, make sales and get their brands out there. More and more people are using voice search because they are buying home devices like Google Home and Alexa. This results in businesses choosing to focus on optimising their content for voice search. This includes longer and more conversational keywords in their SEO strategies that are more in line with voice searches.
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Chatbots
The surge in on-demand messaging has shifted consumers’ preferences for communication. More businesses have responded by merging chatbots into their business processes. Chatbots are becoming an increasingly important tool to provide customer service and satisfaction. The best thing about them is that they are available 24/7 to address customers’ needs. They are programmed to simulate ‘human-like’ behaviour and provide an accurate and unique customer experience. With this trend gaining more and more traction each year, it’s clear that chatbots are changing the way businesses connect with customers.
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Google’s Featured Snippet
For a long time SEO has always focused on reaching the number one spot in the search results. But this goal has changed. The focus has shifted in 2021 to reach “position zero” which is known as Google’s Featured snippet. The featured snippet is different from “normal” search results; it’s separated by a small box located at the top of the first page of Google. It displays extra, relevant information in an attempt to answer the user’s question without them needing to click on it.
This approach may sound counter-intuitive because of the fact that you may miss out on someone clicking on your link. In actual fact that’s not really the case because the recognition you get as a thought-leader outweighs a single click/visit. An added reinforcement is that featured snippets are sometimes read aloud with Google Assistant voice searches.
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Image SEO for visual searches
Searching for images and videos by typing in keywords is nothing new, but now people can use image search using images already found on the internet to explore nearby places, see what’s popular on menus or take original photos and search for those exact or similar items online. Businesses who have the most to gain from the visual search trend are e-commerce brands. Businesses are focusing more and more on image and video SEO campaigns to capitalise on the increased amount of visual searches that occur. Campaigns like this are designed to work best with tools like Google Lens.
