The post-pandemic digital marketing period has required the consolidation of new ways to connect with consumers, new business models, and new consumption behaviors.

Online presence has evolved significantly over the last decades, especially as a product promotion strategy and an ally in acquiring new customers and establishing the brand in the market.

Despite the ongoing progress, the COVID-19 pandemic undeniably accelerated these trends.

What is the current scenario of post-pandemic digital marketing? 

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With the health crisis, city closures, and quarantine, the world had to fully embrace the digital realm to ensure survival, both socially and professionally. This included the adaptation to remote work and a greater reliance on websites and social media for sales strategies.

Digital marketing emerged as a solution for managers of small, medium, and large companies. The trend is for this to reinforce digitization as the safer path for any business. Here are the main trends for 2021 and the adjustments your company needs to make to stand out.

What has been the evolution of digital marketing?

 While the pandemic intensified the use of digital as a strategy, this is not new. Marketing has always been an area of constant transformation, requiring adaptation to new technologies and market behavior changes.

As technologies improve, people increasingly demand digital platforms, making post-pandemic digital marketing even more essential.

What is the relationship between online and new habits? 

The pandemic brought challenges and adaptations for companies, but consumers also felt the impact. A new pattern of behavior became evident, with more people turning to digital means for purchases. Even with the easing of restrictions, many individuals still feel uncertain and continue to support online sales.

In the post-pandemic era, digital presence is likely to strengthen, and some consequences of this scenario are expected to persist:

1. Increased online purchases
2. Expansion of online services, such as psychological support, telemedicine, and corporate meetings
3. Blurring of boundaries between physical and online stores

Therefore, companies need to address hybrid customers, who engage both physically and digitally. Knowing which platforms your target audience uses is now more important than ever.

What are the main bets for post-pandemic digital marketing? 

Each passing year sees digital marketing actions increasingly focused on improving user experience and placing users at the center of strategies. The trends for the coming years are closely tied to the consumer, contributing to strengthening relationships and accompanying them throughout the sales funnel journey.

Here are the bets for post-pandemic digital marketing in 2021:

‍Production of creative and assertive content

The last few years have been marked by unrestrained production, with a focus on algorithms of platforms like Google and Facebook. It's time to slow down and prioritize quality, responding to the viewers' needs.

Digital platforms provide data that helps understand the target audience and develop effective strategies. It's important to explore these resources and let creativity speak.

Customized Marketing

Understanding who your customer is to offer what they need is what truly generates results. This establishes the necessary bridge for a good relationship and identification. The moment is to enhance the experience by personalizing actions and service.

Purpose

Concern for values above mass sales is well-received by the public. For example, during the most critical period of the pandemic, finance companies froze loan rates, considering the financial difficulties of their customers.

When a brand understands its role and is guided by a purpose towards society, it strengthens itself.

Humanized Connections

Even with automation processes that facilitate service, brands cannot forget that people are people and appreciate real connections.

Empathetic understanding is a path that will generate deep relationships and good results for the company.

Agility

Consumers demand personalized service but also seek speed and efficiency. Therefore, invest in tools and solutions that optimize processes and consequently reduce process execution time.

User Participation

The relationship between the brand and the customer is gaining increasing relevance. As a result, consumers are no longer just spectators; they start producing content spontaneously, such as comments, reviews, videos, and photos.

Partnerships

Customers search the internet for solutions to their problems, whether they come from a single company's product or service or multiple ones. Therefore, forming partnerships helps increase the value of delivery, improving the perception of your company.

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What are the factors shaping the new directions of digital marketing?

Here are 15 factors already shaping the course in digital marketing:

• Live Commerce and Video Marketing are expected to remain strong, offering a more personal and humanized experience.
• The use of user-generated content (UGC) in strategies is likely to strengthen.
• Increase in the creation of interactive content.
• TikTok and Reels are expected to gain more relevance.
• Rise in the use of voice assistants (during the pandemic, the use of virtual assistants increased by 47% among Brazilians).
• More searches without clicks on Google; therefore, resources like featured snippets, rich snippets, Google My Business, and the Google Knowledge Graph deserve special attention.
• Brands that are more human and committed to people and the planet will continue to be more valued.
• Shift towards slow content, creating quality content that delivers value to the persona and showcases the identity and purpose of your brand.
• Focus on data and content performance, emphasizing the importance of thorough metric analysis.
• Strengthening of Agile Marketing, an agile project management methodology to respond quickly to the market.
• Increase in investment in artificial intelligence. Chatbots and virtual assistants are just the beginning of many possibilities.
• WhatsApp Marketing gains more strength in customer relationships.
• Influencer Marketing to boost brand results and engage the target audience.
• Podcasts gain even more traction.
• Data privacy should be an extra concern for companies, especially with the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) already in effect.

How does Smarketing consulting work?

For a long time, digital marketing has demonstrated its importance, but with the pandemic, it has solidified as an efficient alternative. The trend is to strengthen even more.

Therefore, companies that have not yet embraced digital transformation or have successfully developed an efficient strategy must pay attention to fully enter the future and become even more competitive.

In this context, the union of the sales and marketing teams is a potent combination that makes strategies work better. Thus, the sales team presents the main commercial demands, and the marketing team devises strategies to meet these needs through strategic actions. If you want to bring more profitability to your business, you need to invest in strategic intelligence in digital marketing post-pandemic.

Our Smarketing (Sales + Marketing) consulting assists in projects, delivering intelligence and, above all, value to your sales and marketing processes. We digitize marketing and sales processes and extract valuable data for the company, generating concrete and positive results. Contact our team and request a meeting!