What are the defining marketing trends moving forward? What sort of marketing strategies can your company improve upon or even implement? Are these four trends the future of digital marketing? 

1.  Video marketing

Video marketing has continued to rise in the ranks of popularity on social media platforms for years. Within the last few years, this form of content has become one of the most important parts of digital marketing. 

Research shows that in 2016, only 61 percent of businesses were using video marketing as a tool within their marketing strategies, but fast forward to 2021, 86 percent are now using video marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. This can be attributed to its rise in popularity, and for most companies, their reports show a higher return on investment (ROI) when using video marketing with their campaigns. 

COVID-19 increased the popularity of video marketing and the number of videos that consumers watch online. This can be due to the quarantine life, the rise of TikTok, and now Instagram prioritizing videos over photos on their platform. 

After all of the pandemic's changes, we are looking forward and video marketing will be competitive as everyone enters this space. Still, video marketing can grab the attention of your audience with some strategic planning. 

2.  Chatbots

Chatbots enable a brand to constantly answer their customers while business hours are closed or open. This AI keeps higher engagement levels and can drive more sales. 

Chatbots continue to be an important part of the future of digital marketing strategies, not only because of convenience, but research shows that customers prefer speaking with chatbots over human interaction. There are several reasons why this is common, but one of the biggest reasons is because it takes seconds to speak with a chatbot. 

On the other hand, it can take hours to even reach a human to speak with only to be hung up on. Emails are a popular form of communication, but with emails, it is easy to ignore someone and keep deleting their messages. Live chat mimics the popular Slack communication with the convenience to speak with someone, even multiple people, to get the answers you are searching for. 

As the digital age continues to speed up and consumers are less interested in calling companies, implementing a chatbot on social media and websites would be an imperative marketing strategy. 

3. “Zero position” search results

For years, even decades, search engine optimization (SEO) ranking has always been about the top 10 spots, preferably the top three spots, and while that is still true, there is a new position that companies are aiming for, zero position.

The zero position works differently than other results because it is separated from the other search results and immediately answers the question without needing to click on the link or video to learn more about said information. 

While it seems counterintuitive to focus on ranking where consumers might not click on the link, this doesn’t mean that they will not click to learn more. Not only because of this but also because these answers can be used for Google Assistance. 

4. Inclusivity

Inclusive marketing is the future of digital marketing. This means that this inclusivity within marketing strategies will be utilized on all platforms, from social media marketing to podcasts.

Inclusive marketing is the campaign that embraces diversity by including people and stories from different backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and other unique backgrounds to create a campaign that helps to break the stigma and market their products to all. 

A company that kills it with inclusive marketing strategies is BuffBunny. Owned by CEO, Heidi Sommers, BuffBunny is a small business athletic clothing line that creates athletic apparel for women of all shapes and sizes. 

Their marketing strategies and campaign release have been around body positivity, strong women, entrepreneurial attire that you can wear to and after the gym, breathable and squat-proof clothing and so many other important factors. 

A quick look at the Buffbunny Collection Instagram shows the diversity within their feed immediately. 

What are other ways for companies that are not clothing brands? 

When it comes to inclusive marketing for companies who are not directly selling e-commerce type products, there are other ways to show inclusivity through your marketing efforts. 

A great way is to keep up-to-date with social topics and conversations and how they relate to your audience. Celebrate and acknowledge Black History Month, Juneteenth, Hispanic Heritage Month, Pride Month, and other holidays that are part of a celebration of their own. 

It is important to make sure that all images used are of those from different cultures, ages, genders, and other differentiating factors that make all of us who we are. 

While these are four of the top marketing trends moving forward, it is important to evaluate which trend would be the most beneficial for your marketing and company! 

For help with marketing strategies, contact our experts today.