Seven Marketing Trends to Watch in 2021

Are you working out your marketing strategy for 2021? Captivating your target audience with premium content is the ultimate way to be successful, but could prove challenging. Pay attention to the seven important trends in this blog and make next year your best year ever!

1. Always-on Marketing

2021 will be the year of Always-on Marketing. Rather than short term campaigns, be a constant presence to your target audience through valued content. Out of sight is out of mind, so prevent temporary shut downs of your campaigns. This requires a new way of thinking. You need steadfast discipline and lots of creativity to keep producing unique content. What is your biggest challenge this year?

2. Video

Video will be more important than ever in 2021. After all, online meetings are now accepted as the new normal. Video is often a decisive factor for business deciders – in the B2B market as well. Webinars are on the rise because of their interactive characteristics. Still, people mostly look at videos passively or from the corner of their eye, doing other stuff in the meantime. Try to look at video from a different perspective: be critical of your scripts and remove as much as possible. The remaining message will be perfect for an informative and powerful video. Deliver a personal and unique touch with an expert who provides depth, supported by animation. This way, you present your organization as a thought leader.

3. Premium content

Back to basics. In a time where everybody’s busy and people have a short attention span, it’s extremely important to offer creative in-depth content. That is especially essential with an always-on strategy, where you require your audience’s attention, all of the time. Don’t expect results instantly, but approach it as a long-term strategy. Premium content establishes a connection with your audience and builds trust. That content might just as well be a podcast.

4. Get more value out of data

More organizations expect a data-driven working approach. Everyone owns data, but the biggest challenge is to get predictions from it that profit the entire organization. Did you know that Burgers Zoo from Arnhem in The Netherlands has a dashboard aiding the marketing staff with their messaging? When bad weather is looming, the inside locations of the zoo are emphasized on the website. This dashboard also provides insight into the expected visitor numbers (which contributes to an efficient planning of personnel) and machines requiring maintenance.

5. Account-based marketing

Account-based marketing becomes more important in B2B. Pin-point specific targets (the deciders), instead of a too broad audience. It’s a well-known fact that deciders are more likely to join a party that approached them with relevant content in the past. Sales is often able to tell you who to aim for, or you can pull this information from a data platform. LinkedIn helps you filter out your target audience more precisely. You can invite the audience there to read content on your landing page.

6. Marketing automation

This may be yesterday’s news to some, but a comeback is beckoning. Marketing automation investments will double in 2021. That mainly stems from other trends such as personalization, account-based marketing and retention marketing (to retain existing clients). A giant advantage of marketing automation is the ability to stay in touch with leads without spending too much time. You will remain visible easily. Aid the decision makers who downloaded your content, with e-mails tailored to specific needs of your target audience.

7. Personal attention

Last but not least: in a time where more activities move to the online space, there is a growing need for personal contact. Ask how someone’s doing every once in a while. After all, life is not just about taking, but also giving. A message or small present will be valued and goes a long way.

Like to know more or need help applying these trends in your organization? Feel free to reach out!