No-one could have foreseen what happened to the world in 2020 and it’s fair to say that 2021 is equally far from predictable. So much hinges on when life as we knew it returns to a degree of normality. However, as marketing goes, the events of 2020 have led to some clear shifts in the way that we absorb and engage with information. Here are just a few of our thoughts on what we are likely to see taking place in marketing over the next few months.

1. Digital marketing spend will increase

In 2020, more people went online than ever before. With so much of our world shut off to us, the online environment provided some much-needed social interaction and social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok saw unprecedented levels of growth, with Facebook edging towards a whopping 3 billion active users per month. The world continues to turn to digital as a primary channel and many experts are predicting growth of around 25% in 2021.

2. Brand transparency will increase

We discussed in an earlier blog how certain brands, Brewdog being one excellent example, had reacted superbly during the Covid crisis and they actually managed to grow their following and their sales during 2020. Other brands will have observed and learned that having a purpose goes further than simply making a business feel better about themselves, it can directly impact their profitability, too.

3. Influencers are here to stay… for now

The influencer market suffered a bit of a reputation hit over the past few months, but this bad press has only given them more exposure. This, combined with the continued rise of digital uptake, means that the influencer bubble is unlikely to burst anytime soon. The so-called “nano-influencers” , those with less than 25k followers, is a growing space and can give marketers a great return on investment as they target very specific, but highly relevant, audiences.

4. Events will be hybrid

All events since March 2020 have been online and given that events take months to plan, no organiser is willing to take the risk of investing in a fully live event right now. Instead, we are likely to see a growth in “hybrid events” whereby most activity takes place online, live-streamed, with smaller audiences there in-person. Expect to see a slow re-introduction of live events towards the end of this year. 

5. Websites will focus on interactive elements

Adding interactive elements to your website works well on so many levels; it enables brands to connect with their audiences, by adding extra value. It also enables businesses to find out more about their users. For example, an estate agent would benefit from adding a mortgage calculator tool to their site. The business is offering something genuinely useful, but at the same time learning more about their website visitors based on the data that they enter into the calculator. This can help businesses to define their personas and target their content accordingly.

The above is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are some of the key elements which are set to shape marketing in 2021 and are worth considering when planning a marketing strategy.