The online marketing trade is very much unstable and complicated. However, it can be quite exciting for someone willing to stay up with the market trends. Every year there are new techniques, software, hardware, user preferences, companies, and many more changes that need to be adopted to gain success in online marketing.
Marketers who get adapted to the newer trend quicker stay ahead in the competition, thereby cementing their business positions as industry leaders. If you lag in adopting the changing trends, then your business will lose out on crucial openings and fall behind in the race.
What Is Online Marketing?
This question is asked quite often. What is online marketing? If you want the technical definition, try Wikipedia. Here is the truth:
What has been will be again, there is nothing new under the sun of Solomon.
A Story For The Ages
In 1858 a 14-year-old man left home. Traveling to St. Joseph, Michigan, he became a salesman, clerk, and store manager. After two years, he went to Chicago and got a job with a dry goods store.
He learned about fair dealing from the store owner, but one day the job ended. Traveling through the South, he met many struggling rural consumers. The names and faces were different, but their stories were all the same. Local retailers were exploiting consumers with high prices.
He started planning! His plan? Purchase goods at low costs, eliminate the middle man and offer them directly to the consumer. How would he accomplish all this? Invite people to place orders by mail and deliver them to the nearest railroad station. His plan is the model used for product marketing and building customer loyalty.
Back to Chicago
The young man went back to Chicago and began working with a wholesaler and retailer. He tried to raise capital for his plan by telling people he knew. None were interested. He saved his money, purchased some products, and printed a price list. His mailing list was an association of farmers.
That was in 1871. He lost everything in the Great Chicago Fire. This was a bump in the road, but he stuck to his plan, suffered a few more setbacks, and purchased more merchandise. He printed the worlds first general merchandise catalog in 1872.
Arron Montgomery Ward died in 1913 at the age of 69. This quote from the Grolier Club say it all;
No idea ever mushroomed so far from small a beginning or had so profound an influence on the economics of a continent, as a concept, original to America, of direct selling by mail, for cash.
Aaron Montgomery Ward conceived the idea. The Mail order catalog has been perhaps the greatest single influence in increasing the standards of American middle-class living. He introduced the Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back in his 1875 catalog.
His idea lives on. His concepts have been built upon by others like Lester Wunderman. He coined the phrase direct marketing in 1967. His thoughts gave us the toll-free number and American Express Customer Rewards, among others. Although this story ends here, ours continues.
7 The Most Effective Online Marketing Trends
Aside from the trends mentioned above, you have to keep in mind the specifics of your own industry that aren’t going to apply to the vast majority of other businesses. These Cardinal healthcare marketing trends may not be as widespread in other industries, for instance, but healthcare companies need to pay closer attention to them, as they guarantee their competitors are following them, too.
The year 2021 seems to be a grand one for every online marketer, and following the below seven trends can make a difference.
1. The Domination of Video Ads
Video advertising is already trending, and it is in no way a new concept. Video options are offered by advertising platforms such as Bing or Facebook, and dedicated video hosting sites like YouTube are hosting billions of videos.
The continuation of launching an in-SERP video advertising by Google suggests accepting corporate video by audiences across the globe. With the continuation of this trend, you may expect different forms of video ads to pop up in unique places on websites.
2. App Explosion Through App Indexing
App indexing has been offered by Google for some time now. However, the possibilities of ranking are becoming more involved with each passing day. In 2021 the realization of the importance of app in business for online visibility is increasing, and business owners develop dedicated apps.
Although websites optimized for mobile work wonders engaging the mobile audience, the app will soon replace them. It can offer an aspect that a website can be more instinctive, handy, and easily accessible.
You may still see both of them running simultaneously for a few more years, and 2021 is no doubt the crucial year in adopting the app from the perspectives of business owners.
3. Desktop is Dominated by Mobile
Google announced that finally, in 10 countries, mobile traffic had overtaken desktop traffic. Therefore, you do not need a website optimized for desktop if you already have a mobile-optimized one. Thus, it is acceptable to have a mobile-only website, but not the reverse. So, it is clear that Google is banking on fading away desktop traffic, and mobile traffic is where you should invest.
4. Optimization Through Digital Assistants
The most popular current strategies to get visitors to your site are the PPC or pay-per-click advertisement and SEO or search engine optimization. However, the website optimization process will be dominated by the new optimization strategy through digital assistants.
Digital assistants such as Alexa or Siri use traditional search engines to get information only. The new optimization process makes sure that these assistants access the information regarding your business efficiently, rather than the previous method of trying to drive the audience to your site specifically.
5. Emergence of Virtual Reality
In the coming few years, there are possibilities to launch several types of virtual reality devices, many of which will be accessible for general purposes and a few purely dedicated for definite applications such as video games.
The introduction of virtual reality devices will open up an entirely new online marketing medium coupled with viral video channels, social media, and direct messaging platforms.
Oculus Rift is set to release its VR device that is perhaps the most excited one. Other VR devices will soon follow, and they will receive tremendous funding. So, it is better to be prepared to bet on it.
6. New Ground for The Internet of Things
Maybe you noticed that nowadays, more attention people get towards the “smart†wearable devices. Back in 2015, you already experienced the launch of the Apple Watch. That can be regarded as the first generation of smartwatches. However, similar wearable gadgets are coming up in 2021 that may change the local marketing scenario and minimize the gap between real and online marketing.
7. Advertising Cost
Over the last few years, online marketing competition has increased in many folds, and this trend will continue to be seen in 2021. This increase in demand will reflect on advertisement cost as an increase in demand usually calls for a price increase.
Thus, the emergence of new competitors in online marketing will make the online advertising cost shoot up even higher. Even though online advertising costs are comparatively cheap, this price rise may drive several smaller competitors out of the race.
Conclusion
The seven trends listed above cannot be the only factors present in 2021, but they certainly are the key aspects controlling online marketing. One cannot guarantee the precise way of manifestation of these trends and highly depend on consumer adoption.
However, it is worth to invest and manipulate your business based on these predicted strategies and technologies. The quicker you adapt to these techniques, the more time you will get to make the adjustments and reap every possible benefit from online marketing campaigns.