9 Marketing Trends to look out for in 2021-22

The last 2 years were a turning point for many from their careers, education to lifestyle but most importantly, it was also a turning point for the Advertising and Marketing industry. How brands thought, communicated, their messaging, everything has been reevaluated and upgraded to keep up with the changing trends.
Businesses were forced to consider digital means to keep their operations, making brands to focus on social media, and e-commerce to boost their business. Reports suggest global e-commerce jumped to $26.7 trillion in the last year according to UN trade and development experts. Because of this development, digital marketing is now more than ever an essential tool for brands and businesses to survive.
As the world slowly regains its momentum, digital advertisers and marketing professionals must start strategizing for the anticipated changes in the industry and the needs of an evolving consumer population. Here are 10 digital marketing practices that will remain relevant for the rest of 2021 and 2022.

9. Digital Campfires

The global lockdowns raised the video game industry to new heights. People spent most of their time at home on their gadgets, which boosted user engagement with video games. This spurred the creation of online hubs—called digital campfires—were huge communities of gamers and esports fans gather to play or interact with each other. Digital campfires are now becoming a place for brands to run ads, reach their target audience and raise brand awareness. Recently, Fortnite developer Epic Games partnered with artists during the pandemic to perform concerts inside the game. Epic also premiered movie trailers within Fortnite.

8. Engaging Generation Z

Gen Z accounts for roughly 40% of global consumers. Actively capturing and engaging Gen Zers can be extremely beneficial for a business.
Catering to this consumer category involves:

Taking advantage of social media
Creating video content
Earning user-generated content and customer loyalty through transparency and authenticity
Working with influencers

7. Influencer Marketing

The influencer marketing market is expected to grow from $9.7 billion in 2020 to $15 billion by the end of 2021.
Many companies have started to see the importance of influential marketing and have started to partner with influencers and bloggers to spread the word about their products and services.
Moreover, marketers and brands have started to see the importance of micro-influencers and have started increasing collaborations with such influencers rather than celebrity influencers.
Micro-influencers may not have a lot of followers, but the ones they have are loyal and actively engage with the page and the posts. Usually, these smaller influencers have a specific niche, allowing brands to reach audiences interested in their products directly looking at a more targeted and strategic audience for a brand.

6. Rise of AI-Integrated Marketing

Artificial intelligence’s ability to collect and analyze data from a wide range of channels makes AI an invaluable tool for any brand or digital marketer.
AI uses data to evaluate customer behavior and search patterns that help businesses understand their audience’s preferences and choices. AI can also be used for influencer identification (AI watches and assesses countless influencer videos) and performance-based marketing. Predictive AI enables you to pay for conversations and sales influencers produce.

5. Search Optimization & Semantics

The world of search engine optimization (SEO) will continue to be shaped by the way people search for things on the internet. While it sounds like a simple thing, it is rooted in something complicated: semantics.
Semantics is the study of words, their relationships, and what those mean in specific contexts. To make sense of this, when Google’s algorithm takes your search query, even incomplete, grammatically incorrect, or seemingly random search and matches it with results very close to your intent, that’s semantics at work. Semantic searches will remain an important part of SEO and User Experience (UX).

4. User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is what customers create on their accordance after trying a product or service.It comes in various formats, such as:

Written reviews and articles
Videos featuring reviews, first impressions, and more
Engaging content, such as Reels, Stories, Snaps, and TikTok videos
Written or posted evaluations on platforms like Trip Advisor and Yelp.

UGC is considered one of the most authentic forms of customer reviews and virtual word-of-mouth marketing. It’s an effective way to make you and your brands more relatable and accessible to your audience.

3. Audio-Visual Content

When people were forced to stay home, audio-visual content like video ads, live streams, short-format videos like TikTok and Reels increased. Brands have been finding new and innovative ways to take advantage of the increase in audio-visual content through creating content specific for only social media platforms, collaboration videos, and through Ephemeral content. Ephemeral content is visual content that is accessible only for 24 hours, creating an urgency to view it and respond to it. Instagram stories and snaps are a classic example of this. Taking advantage of this marketing method enables immediate customer engagement, which will help your brand reach audiences faster and build consumer trust. Live streams have also become one of the most engaging forms of entertainment online. This is a good way for marketers to showcase their brands through ads and influencer partnerships. Short format videos for Reels and TikTok will also continue to gain traction.

2. Personalized Experiences

To stay relevant and thrive in today’s competitive marketplace, one needs to stay focused on providing personalized content and experiences for their customers to gain their interest and loyalty and to have their continued interest.
Personalization can be done in the following ways:

Giving first-time website visitors an offers as an incentive to shop
Providing recommendations based on previous purchases or interactions
Providing ease of access on the website

1. Content Is Still The King

Content is still king for the foreseeable future. Search engines like Google will continue to prioritize well-written content and useful links when ranking sites and providing search results. This shows that quality content (written and visual) is still an important pillar for all businesses.

We can also expect the rise of content selling. It’s creating content directly with the intent of sales. Here, creatives, copies, and videos will be created with sales as a primary goal and align it with the marketing plan and customer experience. Whether it is for marketing or sales, the content being delivered must be relevant and engaging.

We can’t go through a global pandemic and not expect things to change. But marketers and brands have proven time and time again how they can handle drastic changes and by adapting and continuing to stay relevant. Now more than ever, marketers need to find ways to cater to the growing demands of the consumers. If you are looking for ways for your brand to be more active with digital marketing, it’s important to have the right tools and technology to support your campaigns. Contact us today for all your marketing needs.

Uthra Chandrashekar

Uthra Chandrashekar is a media specialist at the DAV Media also being a psychology buff! Her research and writing explore Marketing, Digital Cultures, Advertising, the Media industry, and Literature, although she fills her soul with thought-provoking ideas about, Woman Empowerment, Social Equality, Counter Culture Living, Art, Music & Cinema.

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