Healthcare Marketing7 Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2021

Admit it; 2020 came with a lot of unpredictability. While business strategies came up with business strategies to improve their bottom line, the pandemic happened. This transformed the marketing landscape by a wide margin.

Noticeably, while some marketing trends worked out fine, others took the backseat. Now, with the production and distribution of COVID vaccines, everything seems to be going back to the way it used to be pre-pandemic.

But will marketing strategies remain the same or face some changes? Look no further. We’ve specially curated the top marketing hacks you can implement this year and how to do digital marketing for a website. Check them out below:

Implement Ad-Blocker Blockers

This is 2021. No one likes wasting time. It would seem everyone is in a hurry to get things done and as fast as possible. And if your business must thrive, one of the digital marketing strategies you should apply is to look for a leeway around ad-blockers.

Noticeably, more people make use of ad-blockers on their web browsers, even on smartphones. Thus, many digital marketers who were making huge profits from traffic are finding it difficult to do so.

You need to ask yourself if this is going to be a problem for your brand. A quick look through your analytics dashboard will give you your answer. If the results are pretty favorable, it means ad-blocks don’t affect your generated leads. And that’s a good thing.

But if the data isn’t suitable, you should promptly adjust your marketing strategy. You can try any of the following:

• Influencer marketing. The role of influencers in a world tilted towards social media can’t be downplayed. Why? They have a huge following and command respect and patronage of their followers who judiciously latch their content. What’s more? Millennials and Gen-Z respond to influencer marketing more than you can imagine. You should hire an influencer to promote your brand with engaging content to your target audience. But here’s the trick: an influencer known for promoting soccer-related content will do so well with advertising consumer goods. It is essential to hire an influencer that is particular to your niche.
• Micro-influencing. Apart from hiring big-time influencers to promote your content, it would help if you took advantage of micro-influencers. While they may not be as popular as the bigwigs, they have a considerable following. It would be best if you involved them through social media contests and giveaways. It’s cost-effective to do so.
• Sponsored campaigns. Another way you circumvent ad-blockers is to create sponsored contents that will attract your target audience.
• Gen-Z marketing. With many Gen-Z venturing into the workforce, you should develop content that will suit their preference.

Featured Snippets & No-Click Searches

Another marketing hack you should implement this year is to get into a more comfortable SEO spot. For digital marketers, better SEO rankings translate to better visibility for their content when people search for it. That has always been the ultimate goal.

But things have taken a different turn, particularly for the search engine. Google has long introduced the featured snippet at the top of search results. You should deploy all resources to ensure your landing page is displayed there.

This works differently from other search results. The featured content is separated by a box and showcases relevant content that will interest the user – without them clicking on it to find more answers.

This has birthed the name “No-click searches.”

Now, digital marketers may see this as unproductive. The rationale is that people won’t need to click on the URL to get answers from the search results directly. But the importance of no-click searches is beneficial, even for marketers.

Getting featured at Google snippets gives the impression that you’re an authority in that niche. As such, you’re going to win some clicks to your website. What’s more? Featured snippets are typically read aloud with Google Assistant when people voice content search.

To pull it off expertly, you should deploy the following:

1. Use ‘How-to’ content.  Google’s snippet is designed explicitly for self-help phrases and questions. So, your content should be provided a step-by-step guide on how to get something done. Your content should also contain appropriate definitions thoroughly formatted for high quality.
2. Make use of keywords. The primary keyword of your blog content must be utilized throughout the blog. Ensure you don’t over-stuff your content with keywords.
3. Include lists. To have a good shot at getting featured on the snippet box, you should use either bulleted or numbered lists to pass your point.

Interactive Content

One of the greatest goals in advertising is to convince your audience to be interested in your product or service. One of the beautiful ways you can pull that off is through interactive content – something that speaks to them.

Frankly, thousands of similar businesses on the internet offer the same service – some with even better deals. You must create and develop content that will boost engagements for your audience and increase leads for your brand.

You can start with open-ended questions, social media contests, surveys, and giveaways to spur interest. This increases the time spent viewing your content, which is beneficial to your brand and user experience.

Engaging your audience will expose some of the things you may be getting wrong and quickly make amends to them. On the plus side, you can use this trend to collate information about consumer preferences.

Voice Search

One of the top marketing trends every marketer should take advantage of is voice search. It’s the simple nature of a user asking Google Assistant about something with their voice. Google then reads out the best possible answer.

This is a trend that is gaining popularity and relevance. Google reports that 27% of online users make use of voice search on their smartphones. Thus, you should optimize your website for voice search.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Register a Google My Business account. Creating a Google My Business exposes detailed information people are asking about your niche. It can also promote more searches for your brand and get reviews.
2. Think about providing answers to questions related to your niche. To rank higher and get featured on Google’s voice search, your content must answer a question.
3. Optimize your page speed. Google typically ranks pages that load faster higher on search results. Factor this into your strategy.

Inclusivity and Diversity

Another marketing hack you should introduce in your campaign is inclusivity. We now live in a world where inclusiveness and gender equality take center stage.  The Black Lives Matter campaign across the globe sheds enough light on the matter. Inclusiveness is a necessity.

Millennials and Gen-Z are pretty passionate about this. They want to see this in the content they want to see and the contents they want to consume. Consumers are willing to abandon businesses that do not reflect identity, diversity, and sexuality.

Your marketing strategy must cut across all races, religions, cultures, and sexualities. It should also accommodate people living with unique abilities and disabilities. You should showcase this in your visual content as well as your textual content.

Customer Segmentation

One online marketing success you should introduce is customer segmentation. This is simply the act of segmenting your audience by shopping habits, demographics, and behaviors. By so doing, you can specifically develop content that is best suited for them.

Thus, instead of starting generic marketing campaigns for everyone on the internet, you should develop content targeted to your users. This means, if you’d have to come up with different newsletters for your audience in other groups, you should do so. You can also create sponsored ads that are specific to each demographic. You can create different blog posts and social media content for diverse communities of consumers.

By customer segmentation, you can increase consumer engagement, as they’d respond more to content exceptionally curated for them.

Local SEO

This isn’t a new trend, but it is increasingly popular amongst digital marketers. Google is constantly updating its algorithm concerning local SEO. Thus, it is essential to update your business and flow with the trend if you own a local business.

It is not surprising when people discard local SEO in the grand scheme of digital marketing. Not enough attention is focused on it. But its importance is more than one can imagine.

For starters, people looking at specific content from a geographical perspective get access to local websites. If you run a bakery in Chicago and someone in Chicago searches “Bakeries near me,” your website should pop up and rank better in SERPs.

Thus, you should optimize your website for local SEO by introducing your city or county as a keyword in your content. If your city is famous for something, try to incorporate it into your content.

Conclusion

The goal of digital marketing is to get more people interested in your product or service – and improve your bottom line as a result. With each year comes different strategies to achieve this goal.

To thrive above the stiff competition, you should incorporate these marketing trends for your business.

Author Bio:

Tim Absalikov is one of the leading SEO experts in the country. He specializes in on-page optimization, link building, UI, and UX considerations, as well as a keyword search. Tim is the owner of Lasting Trend agency. He has worked with leading companies from many industries.

This post has been sponsored by Lasting Trend