2020 turned out to be a year of marketers keeping on their toes and rolling with the punches. Many marketing trends were broken and new ones were formed thanks to the new business-​as-​unusual environment. 2021 was expected to be the year when things would return to normal, but the pandemic isn’t over yet. Here are a few digital marketing trends Saher Shohdan, writing for Business 2 Community, recommends you keep in mind for this year.

The Digital Marketing Trends of 2021

SMS

SMS, or text message, marketing is expected to remain one of the top digital marketing trends this year. “Despite being one of the oldest mediums, a text message was always considered a very interactive line of communication with your target audience,” says Shohdan. He points out that SMS marketing is an ideal inclusion for omnichannel marketing campaigns. Nowadays, people always have their phones on them. And they tend to check them almost instantaneously when the phone gives off a notification sound. Specifically, 81% of consumers actively interact with text messages on their smartphones. As such, SMS marketing grew by 10% last year. 

Texts from businesses that contain website links can direct recipients to the company’s website or other business content. “As it becomes tougher to target customers across the web through cookies embedded in browsers, companies might turn increasingly to SMS marketing to remain in touch with their customers through their integrated CRMs.”

Social e‑Commerce

Social e‑commerce joined the top digital marketing trends of 2020 thanks to the pandemic. With more people shopping online and engaging more on social media, it just made sense to merge the two. Being able to buy while on social media gives consumers less time to rethink their buying decisions. It takes out the extra steps of navigating to the brand’s own website, potentially having to find the item again, and adding it to the cart before checking out. Big social media names such as Facebook and Instagram have made it easy for brands to expand into social e‑commerce.

User-​Generated Content

It doesn’t matter if consumers were avid e‑commerce shoppers before the pandemic. Most people need to develop a sense of trust for a company and its products before they will purchase something they have not seen in person. That’s where user-​generated content fits into the digital marketing trends of 2021. User-​generated content is organically produced by real people who are customers and not employees of a company. Consumers tend to trust the word of fellow shoppers rather than the promises of a faceless corporation. 

If your clients include user-​generated content such as written and video reviews in their marketing strategy, it will help their company appear more trustworthy, connected, and desirable. After all, according to AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel, 30.2% of U.S. adults only want to buy products that have 4- to 5‑star reviews. Additionally, 26.7% of U.S. adults are Positive Business Review Trusters and another 21.9% are Negative Business Review Trusters.