Digital marketing and customer experience trends enable us to see how the business world is changing. By staying on top of this information, companies of all sizes can make meaningful adjustments to their activities and plans to ensure they’re taking care of the customers´ pain points efficiently.
In 2021, businesses faced the challenges of a post-COVID world. Some economies decided to live with the virus and opened completely, while others issued extensive lockdowns. That required companies to be more flexible in their approach to serving people. All industries were affected by the pandemic.
The following digital marketing and customer experience trends show that post-Covid cost-effectiveness is the overarching goal, but that each company takes a unique approach to that outcome.
Digital Marketing Changes in 2021
Because of the ongoing supply chain issues from pandemic-related changes, businesses continued shifting to digital media instead of agencies. Since global travel restrictions, local rule changes, and other challenges impacted customers, people sought authenticity as a top brand trait.
Authenticity creates feelings of trust and connectivity. It’s not quite the same as someone coming up to a person to ask if they need help, but it’s pretty close.
We saw many new initiatives in Digital Marketing in 2021. For example digital marketing explored the idea of live streaming shopping more often in 2021. By focusing on the customer experience, e-commerce became a social event. That led to the changing adoption of current social networks while new channels like Clubhouse appeared.
Customer Experiences in 2021
Individualization and customization were the customer experience trends in 2021. Technologies that improve the customer journeys while streamlining the full funnel created more efficiencies for shoppers and brands alike.
As digitization continues to mature in an extreme pace it has led to the rise of the business technologist. This person outside of the IT department, whether centralized or with a business unit, aims to create analytics or tech suitable for business use. A marketing team hiring a data scientist to develop new data-driven customer strategies would be an example of this trend.
The customer experience also transitioned to the always-on process. Instead of creating specific campaigns that generate analytics and data to examine, this updated approach to interaction works to create remarkable brand experiences while scaling through systematic optimization.
As almost a new trend we saw new pushes in augmented and virtual reality in 2021 to create more hyper-personalized experiences for customers trying to solve their individualized pain points.
Business Agility in 2021
Businesses rose to the challenge in 2021, focusing on innovative responses to overcome the ongoing and systemic challenges that COVID brings. The benefits of embracing this forward momentum include higher-performance outcomes, staying true to the mission and vision, while serving customers as efficiently as possible.
Companies continued to embracea flatter structure to accommodate the extra flexibility that 2021 required. As brands explored the future of work and the workplace, they began to see how hybrid experiences and improved connectivity enabled more productivity opportunities.
Even in the post-COVID world, many businesses are looking for ways to move away from the traditional office. Although not everyone can be like Apple and give each worker a $1,000 bonus and indefinite telecommuting options, each brand is looking for opportunities to develop more efficiencies within their current corporate structures.
Business Intelligence Advancements in 2021
Artificial intelligence continues to drive the business intelligence aspects. The trend of using chatbots and other resources to automate everyday customer interactions increased in 2021 as more people turned to e-commerce to meet their needs.
Automatic systems with built-in learning make it possible to create semi-sustainable tech assets that increase a brand’s overall efficiency in each department.
With more online interactions comes additional security threats with data privacy. That’s why blockchain technologies saw much more interest in the past year. By embracing the same benefits that cryptocurrency receives in other areas, companies are finding new ways to protect critical data.
As information levels grow, it has become necessary for more brands to embrace SSOT concepts, or a “single source of truth.” By aggregating data from many systems to a single location, a single reference point increases the efficient use of this resource instead of compartmentalizing it into different silos.
What will 2022 bring? That question brings plenty of concern for today’s businesses because tomorrow’s world looks to continue being unpredictable. By focusing on these core elements and pushing forward with innovative investments, the power of digital marketing and customer experience will continue to help you grow.
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Author:
Helena Nordman Stålnacke
Strategic Advisor
Recoordinate
Connect with me: Linked In
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