Digital marketing is a fast-paced, growing industry. According to statistics, digital marketing expenditure will make up 46% of the total global ad spend in 2021. (WebStrategies Inc, 2020) Earlier, brands did not have an online presence and relied on offline methods of communication like newspapers and television. Nowadays, almost all brands have an established digital presence.
The digital advertising industry across India had a market size of around 199 billion Indian rupees in the financial year 2020 and is expected to grow to about 539 billion in the year 2024. (Source: Statista) Out of the total digital ad expenditure in 2020, the e-commerce sector had a 24% share, and the consumer durables sector had a 17% share. (Source: Statista) Advertising spend is forecasted to grow at 10.8% in 2021 to reach USD $9 billion. (Source: dentsu’s Ad Spend Report, June 2021)
In this article, we’ve listed the top trends in the digital marketing industry.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the simulation of machine-like intelligence by humans. Speech recognition and natural language processing are applications of artificial intelligence. The Indian artificial intelligence market was valued at $6.4 billion as of July-August 2020. (Source: Analytics India Magazine)
Some applications of artificial intelligence include personalized emails based on user behaviors. E.g, automated messages sent by brands on special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. Companies may also send automated emails f a customer browsed a website for a product and did not purchase it.
Video marketing
Eye-catching videos are a great option for marketers launching brand campaigns as a part of a communication strategy. According to statistics, if a website includes a video, it’s 50 times more likely to bring traffic than just plain text. (Source: Seotribunal)
Some benefits that marketers obtain by using videos include growth in revenue, more backlinks, and higher web conversion rates. According to research, marketers who use video grow 49% faster in revenue year-over-year than organizations that don’t. (Source: Research by Aberdeen Group) Embedding a video into a page or post nearly triples the average number of linking domains. (Source: Moz) Video users have 27% higher click-through rates and 34% higher web conversion rates. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
Some forms of videos that are gaining popularity recently include Instagram reels, IGTV (Instagram TV), and GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format).
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is used by brands to launch brand campaigns with the help of influencers. These influencers could be personalities on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. According to statistics, 75% of influencer marketing agencies intend to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2021.
Influencer marketing can be a part of the firm’s overall social media marketing strategy. (Source: Influencer Marketing Hub) Influencers can strengthen the brand’s reputation and improve audience engagement or conversions.
Geofencing
Have you ever walked into a retail store and received a notification on your mobile phone immediately? If you have, then it was an example of geofencing.
Geofencing refers to location-based marketing that is used to reach out to a brand’s target audience. According to statistics, mobile ads that leverage geofencing has a double click-through rate than other advertisements. (Source: Marketing Dive)
Geofencing works on the principle that a notification is triggered if people use their mobile phones in a specific area. Push notifications are one example of geofencing.
For geofencing to be leveraged, these three things need to take place:
A geographical radius/location needs to be defined.
A virtual barrier needs to be set around the location
The event needs to be defined (which will be triggered when an electronic device enters or exits a place)
Engaging content
You must’ve seen brands uploading stories and asking questions to their followers on Instagram. This is an example of interactive content that brands can use as a part of a marketing communication strategy.
Interactive content is when brands use quizzes, surveys, contests, polls, and other engaging types of content in their social media marketing strategy. The purpose of the content is to evoke a response from the brand’s audience. In addition, interactive content can help increase engagement on social media posts, encouraging the social media algorithm to promote such posts.
Chatbots
When you open a website, you may see a chat box opening up with an opening line like, ‘’How can I help you today?” You may be asked to select an answer from predefined responses or enter your query in the box.
Chatbots can help customers know more about the brand from any location. In addition, some chat boxes may open 24*7, providing support to prospective customers.
Each year, we see new trends that are disrupting the digital marketing landscape. We hope that the information in this blog post was useful for you.