Advances in technology will always play a part in shaping how companies and brands interact with customers. In our last installment, we covered some of these advances and the latest trends in digital marketing, specifically focusing on current search functionality and cross-device optimization for a seamless user experience.
We continue our review with a focus on content, what consumers are looking for in a post-pandemic and socio-politically charged world, and how they want to interact with companies and brands online. Some things haven’t changed: consumers still want to be entertained and they still want convenience. But today’s consumers, by and large, want a more personalized experience. They also expect more transparency from the brands they interact with and they want those brands to reflect their values.
So how does this apply to your digital marketing efforts? We break it down with the following five top trends in digital content:
- Interactive Content
While interactive content is nothing new and has been a growing trend for a while, it has risen to the top as a best practice for engaging with customers and prospects on websites and social media. Quizzes, polls, open-ended questions, surveys, contests, and giveaways are all effective tools for gathering customer data with the added benefit of improving the visitor experience, lengthening the time visitors remain on your site, and garnering higher engagement on social media. This, in turn, improves the algorithms that determine how you show up in searches and feeds.
- Shoppable Posts
For e-commerce businesses, shoppable posts on social media are a great way to reach and engage with customers. Essentially, a shoppable post is an unpaid post on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, with specific product tags that lead users to a website where the tagged product can be purchased. Instagram has also replaced the “Activity” tab with a “Shop” tab and is continuing to make it easier for IG users to shop products and brands without ever having to navigate away from a post.
- Social Media Stories
Instagram rolled out the stories feature a few years ago, and while still relatively new, stories have quickly risen in popularity among users and are presenting a great opportunity for increased brand visibility. On Instagram alone, more than 500 million users access stories daily. One of the reasons is the casual transparency and authentic nature of stories—something younger consumers are demanding more of from their favorite brands.
- Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation, aka market segmentation, is the division of potential customers into specific groups based on similar defining characteristics. This segmentation allows brands to more effectively market to their ideal target—people who match their best customer avatar—and weed out the rest. Once again, this is nothing new, but as the pandemic dramatically impacted consumer behavior, customer segmentation is newly popular and relevant.
- Current Events
Consumers want to shop with brands and companies they can identify with and that are aligned with their own values. They also expect brands to be in step with current times and are increasingly demanding a higher level of social and environmental responsibility from the brands they trust. Brands need to be mindful of current events—2020 served up plenty of examples from the pandemic, social unrest, and natural disasters, to climate change—and respond accordingly while remaining true to themselves.
Of course, all of this comes with a caveat: Digital marketing trends are fluid, and no one can fully predict when trends will shift. 2020 was a prime example of rapid change, and how quickly trends can become outdated and new trends can arise! At the same time, advances in technology continue to deliver better consumer data and new means for reaching consumers. This is why keeping up with trends is important to any ongoing digital marketing strategy and your overall online presence.
If you need help with your digital marketing, contact Fuze7 today. Our team of experts can help optimize your online presence and customer engagement.
For more information on consumer behavior and current trends, check out these two articles from Forbes:
Cultural Trends That Will Shape Consumer Behavior In 2021 And Beyond
