Brands will invest more in content marketing, and they will also have higher expectations for it.
The paid marketing ecosystem will be hit by privacy regulations this year, which may prompt brands to be (relatively) cost-effective.
"Companies will invest more in quality content marketing campaigns and hiring great content marketers," Monica Maria, content marketing manager at SuperOps.ai, told MarketerHire.
Content helps small businesses and large companies build their own, lasting audiences; it also provides fodder for social posts, emails, and retention efforts.
However, increased content investment comes at a cost.
"There will be a greater focus on the ROI of content marketing," she predicts.
Personalization will flourish across channels.
Nik Sharma, CEO of DTC consulting giant Sharma Brands, recently told MarketerHire: “I think personalization is probably going to happen in 2021.”
Even as marketers have less data stored, they should still be able to personalize outreach based on:
Zero-party data collected through interactive content marketing (like quizzes)
First-party behavioral data collected through desktop
First-party behavioral data from Android phones
First-party behavioral data from iPhone mobile users who opted in to tracking
This can translate into email automations personalized based on browsing behavior, like this one from Sephora:
Source: Sephora Mail
Or personalizing landing pages based on location data, like this one from DTC disaster preparedness company Judy:
Source: Judy
Though Gartner has raised some concerns about the ROI of hyper-granular personalization. In the best-case scenario, personalized experiences (like TikTok’s For You Page!) can reduce the cost of acquiring new customers.
They can also improve customer experience and inspire customer loyalty.
We don’t think personalization will lose momentum anytime soon. In fact, we think that by 2021, new technologies will emerge to make personalization even easier.
SEO will become increasingly technical.
SEO has never been just about search queries and keywords — and in 2021, technical SEO will become more important than ever, say industry insiders.
Justin Emig, director of e-commerce at York Wallcoverings, has seen an increasing impact of technical SEO on SERP rankings.
Justin Emig, director of e-commerce at York Wallcoverings, has seen an increasing impact of technical SEO on SERP rankings.
“This is due to the growth of JavaScript-based sites like React.js, Angular.js, and Vue.js,” he told MarketerHire. “GoogleBot didn’t do a great job parsing JavaScript in the past… and many of the off-the-shelf JavaScript site builders… don’t handle technical SEO elements very well.”
In other words, you can’t slap together a Gatsby site and expect to get organic search traffic. You have to invest in technical SEO expertise to incorporate JavaScript and search visibility.
Two technical specs stand out in particular, according to Freddie Chatt, a freelance e-commerce SEO expert. “Site speed and user experience are clearly the main factors Google looks to influence search results,” he told MarketerHire.
Event marketers will continue to innovate.
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic made remote work the norm—and even as vaccinations begin in the U.S., we still expect professional events to still take place on video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Welcome, or Hopin in 2021.
(This is especially true as more companies commit to permanent remote work.)
events worth attending? Event experts must continue to iterate and brazil phone number list innovate, especially now that Zoom fatigue is rife.
Ashley Smith of Ashley Smith Events thinks there’s one event trend in particular that’s gaining traction in 2021: Zoom gift boxes like Foxtail Catering, which come with cocktails, snacks, and gifts. These at-home kits arrive by mail, delivering conference supplies to each attendee’s home.
Source: Foxtail Catering Facebook Account
Priya Parker, author of The Art of the Party: How We Meet and Why It Matters, shared further thoughts on hosting fun and meaningful digital events on Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast.
“Party planners and experience designers are exploring ways to not be constrained by screens,” Parker told Brown. “Screens, but there’s a whole universe behind each of us” — our homes.
As our new event culture evolves, Parker thinks more digital events will let attendees interact with their physical environment.