35 Key Trends in Digital Marketing You Shouldn’t Ignore Over the past decade, there have been dramatic shifts in the online world. Given the fast pace of development in this sector, disruption is to be anticipated. Marketers must not only adapt to the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, but also look ahead to future developments.

Anyone not paying attention to the marketing trends of 2021 and beyond will find themselves out of business in no time. We hope the following large collection of digital marketing data and information will help you do just that.

In order to predict future statistics and trends, we engaged with industry leaders and top-tier websites.

Editorial Picks for Next Year in Digital Advertising

• Investment in digital marketing in the United States is expected to grow by 83% between 2019 and 2024.
• Site auditors’ technical suggestions are useless about three to four times out of ten.
• Using more popular search terms could get you in legal hot water.
• The overall satisfaction rating for chatbots is 87.58%.
• By the end of 2021, programmatic advertising will make up 72% of the digital ad market.
• Among consumers in the United States, 62% are open to providing their email address in exchange for targeted promotions.
• From a sample of 100 top marketers, more than half (55%) are already making use of AI in their strategies.
• One of AI’s most crucial uses, according to 56 percent of marketers, is in predictive analysis.
• Fifty-three percent of marketers report being unable to reach their full potential due to an inability to effectively use data.
• Content marketing has the potential to generate three times as much interest as traditional paid advertising.

Internet Promotion

1.The budget allocated to digital marketing in the US is expected to grow by 83% between 2019 and 2024.

(Source: Statista)

35 Key Trends In Digital Marketing You Shouldn’t Ignore Do not dismiss digital marketing as a passing fad. As consumers shift their attention to online platforms, digital marketing strategies are expected to become more vital than ever before.

2.Second, according to research, 20% of marketers consider content marketing the top advertising strategy.

(Source: Statista)

Among all marketing strategies, content marketing is widely regarded as the most crucial. According to the most recent data on SEO, this method of advertising is three times more effective than traditional methods at bringing in customers. As 21st century customers grow increasingly cynical of traditional advertising, this is expected to be a major trend in digital marketing in the coming year.

3.By 2024, the United States will be responsible for 46% of all digital advertising expenditures worldwide.

(Source: Statista)

It appears that Americans have taken to digital advertising with great enthusiasm. Social media, smartphone advertising, email blasts, and other channels will all receive funding. Predictions for digital marketing reveal that spending on social media advertising alone will hit $110,628 this year, with $44,607 of that coming from the United States.

The Rise of Mobile Advertising

4.By 2023, advertisers in the United States will have spent $146 billion on mobile platforms.

(Source: Statista)

As with the rest of the world, the United States has made significant strides in adopting mobile digital advertising. The year 2020 saw the United States spend $96.07 billion on mobile advertising. After three years, $146 billion should be a breeze to reach. You should keep an eye out for these sorts of web marketing tendencies.

5.In the United States, number five predicts less interest in mobile advertising.

(Source: Statista)

There has been a decline in the number of ads viewed on mobile devices. About 39% of the total advertising budget in the United States is devoted to it at the present time. Within the following four years, it is predicted to fall by 11%. Why? It is getting harder to successfully implement a mobile marketing strategy. This is causing a decline in its once-high popularity.

When it comes to the future of digital marketing, what role do smartphones play? This data suggests that mobile advertising won’t go out of style anytime soon. While its use may decrease little, it will still be widely employed.

6.Six, mobile marketing is no longer seen as the most effective strategy, with only 9% of marketers holding this view.

(Source: Statista)

When it comes to advertising, mobile devices provide their own unique set of difficulties. Users can easily disable or ignore SMS thanks to the intuitive interface.

Keyword Variation Tests for Search Engine Optimization

Applying split testing methods to your SEO marketing approach is becoming increasingly vital. You may be surprised by the findings, given the predictions of the leading trends in digital marketing for 2021.

7.Site auditors’ technical suggestions are useless about three to four times out of ten.

(Source: MOZ)

Get in touch with the site’s maintenance crew and let them know about the suggested adjustments. And definitely do some split testing to make sure they really make a difference. Don’t waste your time, or the time of your team, by not doing so.

8.Using more popular search terms could get you in legal hot water.

(Source: MOZ)

Everyone has seen the tips about how they should utilise everyday language on their sites. Using those search terms seems like a good strategy to maximise exposure. But recent developments in advertising suggest that you should assess response rates first. Due to the intense competition for popular search terms, optimising for them can reduce organic traffic by as much as 20%.

9.What functions correctly on one page might not on another.

(Source: MOZ)

The MOZ crew paid close attention to the category pages that contained SEO-related copy. One site saw a 6 percent increase in its ranking after eliminating this phrase, suggesting that this strategy may soon become standard practise in advertising. Although on a few it had no effect at all. On others, statistics showed that traffic dropped once the text was removed. Speculation is not appropriate in this case. The outcomes should be tried out initially.

10.Sixty-five to seventy percent of marketers think SEO is more productive than PPC.

(Source: Impact)

That increasing one’s site’s organic traffic is the best way to achieve long-term success online has been known for some time. Therefore, it comes as little surprise that this is one of the leading digital marketing trends for 2021 and beyond.

The Use of Synthetic Intelligence

11.There are currently 55 AI-related initiatives being funded by Intel Capital.

(Source: Statista)

This makes them the corporation with the most money spent on artificial intelligence. There are significant investments from other companies as well. As of 2020, about $8.2 billion was invested in AI startups.

What plans does Intel Capital have to put this information to use in the field of advertising? Time will tell, but we anticipate that they will, marking another another development in digital advertising.

12.It is anticipated that the market for artificial intelligence software will increase by a factor of six between 2020 and 2025.

(Source: Statista)

Valued at $22.59 billion, the artificial intelligence software market was expected to explode in 2020. The value is expected to reach $126 billion by 2025. Marketers must keep an eye on AI development. Natural language processing, marketing automation, and big data analysis are just some of the things that can be accomplished with its help. There’s a chance it might alter the current state of online advertising sooner rather than later.

13.The vast majority of marketers (86%) think hyper-personalization methods based on AI are getting better.

(Source: Ascend2)

The ability of AI to personalise communications to each individual customer is rapidly improving. It appears that automation is becoming more and more prevalent in the world of digital marketing.

14.From a sample of 100 top marketers, more than half (55%) are already making use of AI in their strategies.

(Source: MagePlaza / Encharge)

AI has the potential to help marketers in a similar way as task management software. It’s useful for segmenting customers into personas, keeping projects on track, tailoring marketing messages to each individual, and analysing massive amounts of data. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in advertising is the hottest new trend in the field of digital marketing.

Specialists in marketing automation are another area to keep an eye on, despite the ambiguity of their role inside firms.

15.One of AI’s most crucial uses, according to 56 percent of marketers, is in predictive analysis.

(Source: Ascend2)

Artificial intelligence has the ability to process massive volumes of data and produce reliable predictive models. The size of a market, the potential response to an advertising campaign, and other such variables can all be determined with the help of predictive models.

Chatbots

16. According to recent studies in the field of marketing, 87.58% of customers are satisfied after interacting with chatbots.

(Source: 99 Firms)

Many consumers may have been hesitant to try out chatbots at first. Early iterations of chatbots were clumsy and had very specific uses. Chatbots have traditionally been inefficient and inaccurate, but AI is helping to change that. It’s easy for customers to recognise the value in working with a “helper” who consistently provides sound advise and is reachable at any hour. Furthermore, forecasts project a global chatbot market worth $1.2 billion by 2025.

Advertising Programmatically

Programmatic advertising is one of the new approaches to digital marketing that is poised to become immensely popular. Advertising purchases can now be made automatically. Efficiency and speed are both increased when a process is automated. Better conversion rates and cheaper costs are yours to enjoy.

17. Digital marketing predictions for 2021 estimate that by the end of that year, programmatic advertising will have commanded 72 percent of the whole digital ad market.

(Source: Advendio)

Eventually, most businesses will come to rely on ad buying automation because of how convenient it is. Assigning something to a human worker when AI can do it so much more efficiently is a waste of time.

18. Programmatic video advertising will receive 29% of all new budgets in 2021.

(Source: Emarketer)

Market research firm Emarketer was the source for this.Multiple systems and forms of media will be impacted by automation, and AI can be trained to handle any form of interaction. If you remember nothing else from this essay on digital marketing trends, remember this: programmatic advertising is where it’s at.

19. In 2020, a whopping 84% of programmatic marketers were exclusively utilising digital ads.

(Source: MEDIARadar)

Because AI-based systems have become so much more precise and intelligent, this standard is likely to shift dramatically over the next couple of years. Today, they are much more effective because of advancements in technology.

Personalization

In terms of digital marketing, marketing experts have been harping on the topic of the significance of personalisation for some time now. Get ready, since it’s going to be necessary if you want to stay ahead of the competition in the future.

20. Sixty-two percent of American consumers would give up their email addresses for targeted promotions.

(Source: Statista) 

Most people don’t mind getting emails with advertisements. If the information is useful to them, that is. They don’t feel like they’ve wasted time if what they’re doing is relevant or interesting. Emailing everyone on your list with the same message is, according to digital marketing trends, a losing technique.

When you realise that email marketing is 40 times more effective than social media, you’ll see how true this is.

21. More than half (53%) of marketers say they are unable to achieve their full potential because they lack the skills necessary to effectively incorporate data insights into decision making.

(Source: Ascend2)

Without the know-how to put that data to use, having access to massive amounts of information is useless. In fact, half of all marketers say they struggle to put this information to good use. Recent developments in digital marketing suggest, however, that this is an area where AI could prove useful.

22. Sixty percent of marketers think that enhancing the customer experience is crucial to the success of a hyper-personalization plan.

(Source: Ascend2)

First, you need to provide the customer the ideal offer at the ideal time. If the service is subpar, the customer won’t return. Experts in the field of digital marketing are warning firms to focus on providing only pleasant customer experiences.

23. Eighty-six percent of marketers think AI-driven hyper-personalization is becoming better.

(Source: Ascend2)

The more you can personalise your offer, the more it will appeal to the target audience. The modern consumer has higher expectations for a company’s ability to tailor its services to each individual customer.

Web-Based Networking Services

24. By coordinating their ads on Facebook and Instagram, Vigor was able to generate 500,000 leads.

(Source: Facebook IQ)

Another trend in the development of digital marketing to keep an eye on is the use of several platforms. In Brazil, where this business is based, they promoted their product to 65 million people. That’s an increase of 30% beyond projections. They say they were successful because they took a multifaceted strategy to social media and made sure their campaign included both Instagram and Facebook.

25. In 2020, as much as 91.7% of US marketers were active on social media.

(Source: Statista)

There’s no denying the benefits of social media advertising. The success of this strategy hinges on the level of social media engagement of your target audience. It’s a recognised pattern in US online advertising. In fact, by 2022, an estimated 92.1% of US marketers would be making use of social media in some capacity.

26. Almost all (96%) small businesses today employ some form of social media advertising.

(Source: Fundera / Statista)

It’s no secret that practically all local companies employ some form of social media marketing. The fact that advertisers are willing to spend an estimated $110,628,000,000 on social media this year demonstrates the platform’s success.

27. For people in the 18-24 age range, social media is the single most important factor in determining what they wear.

(Source: Mintel)

Social media marketing may not be at the top of every marketer’s list for the most effective marketing approach, but it is still an important part of digital marketing news. Mintel didn’t specify which social media platform was most influential, but it did find that among young American women, 35% took their style cues from online sources.

28. Among marketers, only 44% are confident that they can determine the true value of their social media advertising efforts.

(Source: Forbes)

Surprisingly, 28% of marketers agree that precise return on investment calculations are unattainable in this field. It might be challenging to estimate return on investment accurately. Trends in modern marketing indicate that marketers are trying to address this issue. The difficulty in gauging success on social media stems, in part, from the fact that metrics must ultimately be dependent on user behaviour. It’s possible for someone to view a photo without being able to interact with it in any way. However, they may still check out your website and make a purchase.

29. One-third of Instagram’s US audience is under the age of 35.

(Source: Statista)

Instagram’s greatest demographic in the United States is still the 25-to-34-year-olds as of January 2021. Those between the ages of 18 and 24 make up the second largest demographic. Even so, Instagram’s over a billion monthly active users make it a great platform for marketers in 2021, regardless of age group.

30. Almost two-thirds of Americans (59%) agree that communicating with a company via social media facilitates receiving satisfactory service.

(Source: Hubspot)

What’s stopping you from making use of that by having a chatbot keep an eye on your social media accounts? To put it another way, it can handle simple enquiries from customers at all hours of the day or night without taxing your staff. Avoiding social media is no longer an option in today’s digital marketing climate.

31.When mentioning a company on social media, 96% of people don’t actually follow that firm’s social media profile.

(Source: Hubspot)

Even if you’re keeping an eye on your company’s social media pages, it doesn’t mean you know everything that’s being said about you online. It’s important to keep an eye out for mentions of your business online, so be sure to run regular searches.

Virtually all employees talk about their employers online but just a small percentage actually follow the companies’ social media pages, which could hurt their future digital marketing efforts.

Marketing with Content

32.47% of buyers say they need to see between three and five pieces of material before making a final purchasing decision.

(Source: Hubspot)

Some people are known to make purchases on the spot. When they find a product they like, they’ll likely make an instant purchase. However, roughly half of us require a little more convincing and will do additional investigation. This is a digital marketing trend that will take time to see results from. Yet if you do it well, your clients will have all the data they need to choose your offering above the competition.

33.When compared to traditional advertising methods, content marketing is 33 times more effective at generating leads.

(Source: Hubspot)

Our culture has evolved to the point that we no longer trust advertising claims at face value. Actually, the vast majority of users will never even look at the sponsored links that appear in search results. For this reason, content marketing will continue to be an important part of digital marketing strategies well beyond 2021. You won’t even have to pitch anything because your company will be completely absent from the article itself (other than in your profile). People value being able to easily access relevant information without being inundated with promotional material.

34.There are numerous interpretations of the term “content” (34).

(Source: Hubspot)

The first thing that springs to mind when we consider website content is text. PowerPoint presentations, video material, infographics, and the like are all excellent examples of content that follows current marketing industry trends. Focus on satisfying the needs of your niche.

35. Seventy-two percent of marketers think that content marketing boosts engagement.

( Source: OptinMonster)

Even more convincing is the fact that 72% of marketers believe content marketing successfully draws leads.

Conclusion

Improve the customer experience and increase sales by focusing on individual customers’ needs and wants. The trajectory of the future of digital marketing points to an ever-increasing role for AI in reaching these objectives, particularly through improved data analysis and automation.

Email and social media marketing remain effective, tried and true, go-to digital marketing methods. Long-term gains in organic traffic are also being prioritised, making SEO and content marketing more important than ever.

There are no longer any tried-and-true formulas for marketing success, making this an exciting time to be a marketer. This complicates matters, but it also affords the chance to try out some novel approaches. If the current trends in digital advertising are any indication, we have a lot to look forward to.