Marketers are always trying to try new things to effectively communicate with their audiences, build new audiences and develop their brands. While the tried and true methods of refining funnels, digital marketing channels, broadcast, and email will still form the backbone of most brands’ marketing plan, but 2021 will also see new strategies deployed and tested.
A major unknown for marketers in 2021 will be the long term effects and status of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, 2020 saw the near halt to any event-based marketing, trade shows, expos, and major industries in part “turned off” such as travel, hospitality, and even many restaurants among others.
If the world starts to slowly open up as a result of effective vaccine distribution, industries that have been struggling may be able to come back in at least small ways. Marketing for these industries will have kickback off as well, likely with heavily revised content taking travel and coronavirus precautions into account.
Facilitating Small and Medium businesses Creating Online Stores
Many businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses created online stores or offered some form of online shopping for the first time in 2020 since brick and mortar locations were in effect shut down due to pandemic safety concerns.
These businesses were faced with the harsh reality that they had to immediately figure out a way to let consumers buy online, or via carry out, curbside, or 3rd party app asap if they wanted to continue generating revenue. As a result marketing teams had to build content and messaging that took these new e-commerce offerings into account and explained the new buying process to consumers.
For industries such as restaurants and even automotive dealerships, brand messaging had to include precautions that the firm was taking to keep customers safe when they brought their car in for service or bought carry-out food.
2021 will see this trend continue, as many consumers will continue to prefer buying online.
Social Media Stories
Most brands, including many local firms, have become pretty savvy with social media, as it represents a great way to build an audience, share offers, and company news and in general just connect with your customers and perhaps gain new customers.
Many social media platforms now have some time of social media stories, such as on Instagram or Facebook. Explore using these features with live videos, limited-time offers, or just updates on your location. You’d be surprised how many of your followers will watch it. It’s another great way to stay connected with your audience.
Trade Shows, Expos and Virtual Events
The trade show and expo industry is a near 10 Billion dollar a year industry that was basically shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic. While many trade shows have been delayed until late 2021 or even 2022, others also explored virtual options to keep operating if in a much more limited way. For B2B firms, trade shows are often a really significant portion of their marketing plan, as many expos are a source of business deals and lead amongst hundreds of niches.
When tradeshows come back in full, maybe towards the end of 2021, or 2022, expect brands to go all out, hoping to make up for lost time.
Video Marketing in 2021
Video marketing is a major deal for brands and marketers. Over time, more and more data has shown that consumers will pay attention and click on video based content over static images by a factor of 2-3x, which is huge. SEO algorithms also heavily favor video content over static content. In short, video has become very important for an effective marketing strategy simply due to its multiplicative effect on CTR and over ROI for any campaign. This has lead brands and even small and local businesses to implementing video marketing in a variety of ways.
Search engines want to provide the more relevant pages possible to their users, and their data has shown that consumers drastically prefer video content, which then leads search engines to rank pages with video much higher than static pages. This means that incorporating video content onto your product pages or blogs is a shortcut to SEO ranking.
Using video content in email marketing campaigns, digital paid ads, and of course on social media is a very effective method to keep viewers looking at your brand over competitors.
2021 will see more small and medium businesses than ever being nearly forced to use video or face losing customers to competitors that have video content.
While videos cost more than static blogs or ads, wouldn’t you rather watch a video than read a traditional ad? Your customers probably agree…
Content Marketing 2021
SEO, web page content, and blogs remain top-tier marketing priorities for brands seeking to boost their search ranking and get more inbound leads. Over the years, SEO strategy changes, but one common theme has been the investing the time to create good quality content is well worth it, as it will have a major impact on your SEO ranking in the long term.
Content creators will continue to play an important role for brands, as paid search costs keep rising, ad blockers are more common than ever, and more consumers are spending more time searching and comparing products.
It’s better to start now than later to develop a content marketing strategy!
Virtual Reality in Marketing
Virtual, Augmented and 360 videos are becoming more and more commonplace in marketing. With an unrivaled level of audience engagement, this type of content is by far the most engaging available to marketers. Particularly with the drop in in-store purchases, in person events, and shows, virtual reality is even more popular as an alternative.
As more and more people have access to VR headsets within their homes, brands will continue to push what is possible in this medium. Look for nearly all major brands over the next couple of years to have some sort of VR content or experience available. In 2021, many of the virtual events will also be available as true VR content.
Interesting uses of VR marketing include several home décor and furniture firms that are using augmented reality to let you picture their products in your existing home before making a purchase. Other companies like clothing, automotive, and makeup brands are using similar ideas to let you visualize their products in your driveway, or even on you, from your phone.
Volan Media is a top Knoxville B2B video production company, having worked with dozens of small and large brands to help them craft B2B content marketing strategies and build content that is engaging and generates results. Let’s talk about how we can energize your brand and sales growth with fresh video content. Get in Touch
