In this digital world, where digital media is integrated in almost everything, digital marketing is playing a vital role for organizations and businesses by offering them the freedom to advertise their portfolio to a seamless customer base. What makes it so reliable for the business world is its efficiency level. With the increased internet penetration, it’s far more viable and feasible to target the ideal audience or consumers online through the digital platform than the traditional media which cost a lot more than what digital platforms and media do. Be it social media, surfing for information on Google or making purchases, India has transformed this medium into a full-fledged market. And this market has flourished into creating digital marketing as a prime source of bringing business through the internet. Digital Marketing is growing at a rate of 25-30 percent in India annually. And if statistics are to be believed, India touched the 500 million user’s mark of the internet by the end of 2018. India also has the World’s largest Facebook population. The high-speed digitization, online portals, social media channels, and much more, lead to a growth of digital marketing in a trend par imagination.

However, the year 2020 was a bit different. The year witnessed one of the biggest pandemics in the century, due to which the business world saw brands and the marketers stumbling to survive the unpredictable events that have been unfolding. Even in this period, digital marketing was the only approach that helped companies to maintain a balance in their business. The coronavirus pandemic didn’t just change the usual process of operating businesses but disrupted the entire marketing space. Which means that, while some of the trends which were predicted pre-pandemic did end up coming to light, others didn’t emerge at all, with various forced adaptations reshaping elements of the marketing landscape. However, there are many expectations from the industry in the coming days, as digital marketing will be considered by many more businesses to retain current customers, generate more revenue, and result in a quantum increase in sales. Let’s have a look on top 5 trends that the industry would foresee in the coming year.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - AI is being implemented in all different ways across various business processes and marketing. One can use it to improve communications, analyze the available data, track operations, and predict customer behaviour patterns, thus helping in reducing manual work. AI can majorly be used for improved customer satisfaction as it can help in easily reading what the customers expect. With advanced software development, AI has become more accessible to businesses, making itself a very valuable tool for marketers. It also influences the customer’s choice by giving relevant recommendations as per the taste and preferences. It helps in growing the brand by meeting the customer’s expectations.

Blocking Ad-Blockers - The digital marketing trends of 2021 aren’t all about positivity and progress - it’s also about overcoming obstacles like ad blockers. With 27 percent of internet users expected to use ad blockers in 2021, many marketers are having their primary stream of traffic automatically cut off at the source, including PPC campaigns. First, you want to check how big of a problem it is for you and your ad data and analytics should tell you what you need to know. Depending on your target audience or where you post ads, the damage might be negligible. If your ads do fall victim to ad blockers, your best strategy is to adopt and don’t waste time trying to convince potential customers to change their own preferences. Readjust your advertising budget to suit other, more fruitful campaigns, like influencer marketing or sponsored content. Younger audiences don’t respond well to display ads anyway, but they do respond well to influencer marketing, so making the switch is advisable in any situation.

Increase in Voice/Visual Search - An increasing number of consumers are searching via voice-activated tools like Alexa. Perhaps that’s due to people have been stuck at home, with limited opportunities for conversation, or perhaps it’s simply because this type of technology is more readily available (about one in four American homes has a smart speaker of some kind). But it’s not just voice search that will prevail in 2021 - we can also expect other creative search methods to rise to the top, like visual search. Tools like Google Lens enable consumers can search for whatever they can see. This means marketers will need to focus even more on image alt-text and sitemaps for images. Over the next year, visuals will become increasingly important in the SEO game.

Local SEO - Google frequently updates their local SEO algorithm, so if you’re a local business, you should continuously update your business’ appearance in local results too. In a way, local SEO is even more powerful than broad SEO, people searching for a specific type of business with their geographic location have more intent to purchase, so it’s easier to convert them. For starters, you have to get verified by Google. You can do this by signing up for Google My Business and either claiming your listing or creating a new one. This helps you rank higher in Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and also gives you the chance to offer additional information about your company to online searchers. Additionally, you want to incorporate local keywords prominently into your SEO strategy. Obviously, prioritize the name of your city or town as a top keyword, but you can go the extra mile by also incorporating related keywords. If your location has a famous landmark or quirky claim-to-fame, mention it once or twice.

User Interface & User Experience - User Interface and user experience (UI/UX) continues to adapt changes to suit the preferences and attract the users’ revived interest. You need to keep up with changes in UI/UX web design trends as a business developer to keep ahead of the curve. User interface and marketing were historically understood to be different streams of research. But later, biz individuals have started to realize how developments in UI and UX design influence customer behaviour. The key areas to be looked upon in 2021 in terms of UI/UX are - integration of Voice-based UI, including 3D graphics, implementing Demi-bold fonts, or working with trending colour palate.

Conclusion
The occurrence of coronavirus pandemic and the business crisis was inevitable; right now what the organizations need to focus is on fast adoption of changes. This applies to the digital marketing sector as well. Staying upgraded with the trends and implementing it can help organizations regain the connection with their customers.