This past year has shown us how history often repeats itself in revitalizing old trends. Though newer trends are always appearing, they can rapidly cycle and just as soon as they appear, others emerge or reemerge in popularity.

It can be difficult to decide on the right marketing strategy for your business when there is such a wide variety of options and trends cycling through so quickly. Some businesses prefer influencer marketing and sharing advertisements through Instagram or Tiktok depending on their specific audience. However what works for one organization may not be the best option for another. Some people prefer direct promotional emails from businesses informing them of new product updates and exciting features while others prefer these updates in the form or a newsletter, tweet or SMS marketing. Though all of these platforms are rising in popularity more and more, there are still plenty of other strategies that still hold their weight against the world of social media, and email marketing. Here are three marketing trends to be on the look out for this summer:

1. Video Content

Just like we enjoy consuming social media content, videos and webinars provide informative and interactive presentations and can be specifically made for almost anything. Looking to explain a concept in a memorable way? Trying to show how a product works? It is so easy and convenient for consumers to watch a short explainer video using a free online editor to get a better understanding of what you’re trying to share. Walk-throughs of applications not only advertise to new clients, but give current ones a better understanding or an opportunity to learn something new. After this past year spent virtual, video has become the go to way to make viewers feel a more personal connection even through a screen or by hosting an event that is accessible to everyone. YouTube, creator platforms and video marketing guides can also serve as excellent place for marketers to create engaging content and build a lead funnel no matter the business.

Utilize Webinars

Webinars are reemerging in popularity as learning was also primarily virtual this past year. These virtual events or videos serve a greater purpose of giving someone, whether it be an employee or a client, the opportunity to learn something new. This has also brought a new spin on affordable marketing strategies as businesses work to connect and partner with other professionals to teach valuable lessons, skills and office management techniques. The best part about video content is that it can be rewatched and reused many times over its initial publication, so even if you miss the designated time of a live event, you can still access it on the company’s YouTube channel. There is no doubt that video content has been a top trend over the past year and it is likely to remain there for much longer.

2. Voice Search Engine Optimization

Voice search engine optimization is the new technological advancement that many are focusing on and directing their marketing towards. Any business hoping to remain competitive will need to turn their focus onto this. Specifically, it is the optimization of written content for voice searches. Voice searches are the most rapidly growing form of search and it’s really no surprise. Between Siri, Alexa and Google Home, some of us are probably spending more time talking to devices given all of the added functionality to search the web, spotify apple music and the bonus of recording meeting notes than we actually speak to other humans. Data shows that around 55% of users do voice search to ask questions on a smartphone, according to Perficient, around 40% of internet users in the U.S. use a voice assistant at least once a month.

When typing our searches directly into search engines, we tend to shorten our wording and phrases to get a more specific response. Meanwhile, when we use voice searches, we tend to treat it more conversational as though we are speaking to another human. This means that content that is written more conversationally will be more likely to appear in a voice search. Typically, people who type out their searches are more likely to do some research but when it comes to a voice search, a user will want an immediate answer to their questions.

3. Blogging & SEO

Blogging feels like it’s been around forever, or at least since the creation of the internet. For some, it may seem outdated and irrelevant to our current digital age and how some of us consume media in primarily short video clips, but blogging actually holds a lot more potential for businesses when they utilize it correctly. As a marketing tool, blogging is the ideal SEO target to bring in new clients. Blogging is reliable clicks onto your page especially when a writer and editor use eye catching images that are easy to download from free stock image websites. When it comes to your business and its success, how your website ranks when searched through a search engine is crucial to and directly correlated to your business’s success. SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and is the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of website traffic through non-paid (also known as “organic”) search engine results. You want to organically attract people to your website by popping up in their searches, which will improve the credibility of your site. By paying for advertisements, a business can appear at the top of a search, but it does not hold the same value as appearing without a paid ad.

Leverage Data + Market Research

Through using data on what’s trending for the content that is created for your site, search engines will be able to identify the use of keywords to drive more traffic to you. Beyond blogging, your website can be optimized for search engines as well and there are a variety of applications available to assist you. There are a variety of tools and certifications available to help guide you through the SEO best practices so you can improve the optimization of your website and your blogs.

Whether it’s through the tried and true, reliable marketing trends like video content and blogging or through the new trend of voice search engine optimization, these forms of marketing are all key to any successful and competitive business in 2021. Though it may seem as though we are beyond marketing trends, we never know what could reemerge next. Though blogging and video have been in use for almost two decades each, they have taken on new meaning as businesses discover the importance of SEO and website credibility. It’s important to establish a variety of different avenues of marketing to bring about the most return on investment, but it’s most important to build up each of these streams individually so that regular users can count on reliability. The sooner a business establishes use of regular content in these trends, the more credibility they will have established when clients and customers search for their website.