Top 4 Marketing Trends Of 2021

Software developer, HubSpot recently released their ‘Not Another State of Marketing Report’ for 2021. This document combines survey responses of over 1,500 marketers from around the world, providing data, strategies and best practice recommendations for the future.

Within the report were four key digital marketing trends worth considering when making decisions about how to allocate the next quarter’s marketing budget.

Social media takes out top marketing channel

Social media consumption is at peak levels, so it’s no surprise that this is where 8 out of 10 marketers are spending their dollars – making it the number one marketing channel for 2021. Teams are seeing the best return on investment from Facebook and Instagram respectively, using social listening, hashtags, and live video as primary tactics.

2. Greater focus on SEO

Sixty-nine percent of marketers are investing in a solid SEO strategy for the year ahead (up from 64% in 2020). Marketers say their top tactics are strategic keywords, localization, and mobile optimisation, and they are relying on keyword rankings as the dominant measurement for SEO strategy success. Confidence in an SEO approach is strong with 75 percent agreeing their efforts are ‘extremely effective’ or ‘very effective’ in achieving marketing goals.

3. Content is king   

One area increasing in focus is content marketing: 82% of companies have an active content strategy (up from 70% in 2020), and 28% have plans to newly invest in content marketing (up 17% from 2020).

Video reigns supreme for marketing media created this year, and for good reason – people watched 12.2 billion minutes of video in 2020.  This comes as no surprise given the extra free time generated as a result of global lockdowns and the corresponding rise of social platforms like TikTok.

4. Chatbots and conversational marketing are on the rise

Respondents said customer satisfaction was a top priority for 2021, so it makes sense that they are investing in conversational marketing tools like chatbots to drive customer engagement and improve the overall experience. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed are using chatbots in 2021 (a 2% increase on last year), and Livechat and HubSpot are the top two platforms of choice.