2021 Social Media Marketing Trends You Need To Know

Last Updated on August 18, 2022 by Valerie Jennings

Staying relevant means doing your research and staying on top of the latest trends. Here are some of the top trends for 2021 every marketer should know, including social media influencer marketing, SEO, and digital advertising.

Influencer marketing trends for B2C and B2B

Influencer marketing flourished during the past year and is predicted to continue to rise throughout 2021. According to Ad Week, 40% of people reported that they purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on social media. Through original, thought-provoking content, influencers help shine a spotlight on your products by getting in front of their entire audience at a minimal cost to your company.

• Relatability Is Key
  Don’t look for an influencer with tunnel vision toward one specific type of influencer. Many make the mistake of looking for celebrities, while studies and stats show nano and micro-influencers are much more effective. Why? Because they’re more relatable and tend to have much stronger connections with their audiences. While they might not have as many followers, their engagement rates tend to be much higher, as they are much more relatable.

• Long-Term Relationships
  As influencer marketing is getting more popular, trends are showing to expect contracts and long-term relationships in 2021. According to Afluencer, businesses are hiring influencers on an ongoing basis to increase their reach and brand loyalty. It’s important to keep an eye out for scams and perform risk assessments on potential influencers – as we do in our Influencer Marketing Program.

• Ongoing Influencer Programs
  Most businesses using influencer marketing programs use periodic campaigns, but recent studies have shown that always-on campaigns are up to 12 times more effective. According to Top Rank Marketing, only 19% of businesses use always-on campaigns. Be one of them to make your influencer program more effective in 2021!

Paid Search/Digital Advertising Trends

• Customer-centric
  According to the 2020 B2B Buyer Behavior Study, we’ll see more ads from B2B companies highlighting features, functionality, and product training in 2021. To attract and engage B2B buyers, and create a successful SEM campaign, the most important focus should be promoting relevant content that speaks to the industry.

• Site Links and Callouts
  If you have lead generation campaigns and wish to drive traffic to a landing page, Search Engine Watch proposes the use of site links and callouts to highlight the additional services or training you have available for your customers.

• Increase In Youtube Ad Investment
  B2B marketers got more into online video ads during the pandemic. According to eMarketer, 64% of B2B buyers have increased their online video use and 51% have increased their use of search. YouTube’s investment in ad spend and video content is especially predicted to increase in 2021, along with the new beta launch.

 

SEO trends

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an incredibly powerful tool for lead generation. If you’re not using SEO as part of your marketing strategy, you’re missing an opportunity to obtain more quality organic leads by attracting more traffic to your website. Read on as we detail how a well-defined SEO strategy can help businesses increase overall website traffic and drive organic leads.

• SERP Optimization
  According to Jason Barnard, the Brand SERP Guy, SERPs, and knowledge panels (Search Engine Results Pages) will become the norm in 2021.

• UX
  Google Search is focusing more and more on user experience (UX) and will have a greater impact on SEO rankings in 2021 along with Google’s new Core Web Vitals. According to Google Webmaster Central Blog, the Core Web Vitals “are a set of real-world, user-centered metrics that quantify key aspects of the user experience,” which, along with the updated search algorithm, the content will load faster and be easier to find.

• Semantic Search
  Semantics is the study of words and how they relate to each other. In SEO, semantic searches allow search engines to determine the context and intent of a search, to provide the most relevant content to the person giving the search. To build out the content for semantic searches, make sure to focus your content on people that answer your target audience’s questions. For this reason, semantic searches need content focused on topics, not keywords, according to McAlpin.

AI social media and advertising trends

Artificial Intelligence is an enormous commercial opportunity for businesses and is expected to increase global GDP by 14% within 2030, according to Techgrabyte. Not adapting AI within the next few years will put a business at a serious competitive disadvantage.

• Programmatic Ads
  Programmatic advertising allows you to target more specific audiences by automating ad buying with AI. By using hundreds of targeting keywords, programmatic ads tools are able to personalize advertisements and even target them to specific target audiences based on things like behaviors and lifestyles.

• Chatbots
  Chatbots powers 85% of customer service, according to G2, because of their 24/7 availability and instant responses. The numbers are predicted to rise even more in 2021 as more businesses pick up the technology.

• Conversational Content
  People want real connections, which means personalized content, emails, etc. According to Instapage, 80% of people say they are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences, and Easyjet data shows a 25% higher CTR (click-through rate) than non-personalized content.

 

Email Marketing Trends

According to Hubspot, email marketing has increased by 27% compared to before the pandemic. For this reason, it’s important to work on those email strategies and stay on top of trends to stay ahead of the competition!

• Hyper-Personalization
  While the end goal of email marketing is to generate leads and revenue, there are steps to follow in order to get there. According to NetHunt CRM, marketers say the best way to successful email marketing campaigns is through complete personalization. A study by Instapage showed personalized messaging has an ROI of 122%, and emails with personalized subject lines have an open rate of 50% higher than those who aren’t.

• Drip Campaigns
  Trend predictions show drip campaigns (automated campaigns) will be more common than manual campaigns in 2021. Drip campaigns use sequences of trigger-based emails, which ensures a more responsive and steady communication between your business and its customers. According to Epsilon, the click rate of automated emails are 119% higher than automated emails, so get your drip on!

• Email Redesign
  Email designs have gotten a lot more creative in the past year. According to NetHunt CRM, 2021 email design trends will involve minimalistic looks, dark mode, and bright and bold colors. It’s all about catching your subscriber’s attention with well-structured and simple emails, while still implementing color blocks that stand out.

Website Design/Dev trends

• A Retro Touch
  The key for 2021 seems to be a modern look with retro fonts. According to WebFlow, you want to stay away from vintage typography and rather focus on throwback ones, to give a cool and modern twist to older fonts. If you’re not into that look, Elementor predicts elegant serif fonts to be in trend this year as well.

• Muted Colors
  The color palettes for 2021 are muted, like lighter colors of browns, greens, and reds, along with authentic-looking, hand-drawn illustrations. According to WebFlow, people want simplicity and authenticity, as it is very appealing to the eye and creates a genuine touch for a brand.

• Creative Product Photos
  With the sheer number of creatives online today, it can be difficult to stand out. According to Elementor, 3D simulations have been very successful in providing a better visual on products, and almost eliminates the challenge of people wanting to see products in person.

 

Wrapping up

As you can tell, the 2021 trends are endless! But a new year brings new opportunities, and we’re ready to take on 2021 with everything we got with these trends!