We have battled through a global pandemic, social justice movements, bush fires, murder hornets, and even thundersnow.

It’s been an unpredictable year. To say the least.

Along with it, marketing has been evolving to deal with these strange times and ever-changing consumer behaviour. And with 62 per cent of the global population now being online, the opportunities for engagement are indeed vast.

In this guide, Pure360 will discuss the marketing trends that they predict will shape 2021 for many brands and businesses. And how you can begin embedding these into your strategy to plan for a positive new year. You can download the full whitepaper here. 

 For marketers, a better 2021 starts here.

Marketers will need to be agile and responsive

Our number one trend and essential requirement for marketers in 2021 is to remain agile and responsive.

Being agile is not new for businesses. Particularly within software.

“Agile” has been used for years as a methodology aimed at being quick and efficient. In 2021 however, agility for marketers is focused around enabling brands and businesses to adapt their marketing to meet the rapidly evolving needs and demands of their audience.

But agility isn’t just about speed. It’s about doing the right thing for a business to improve growth and retention.

Many businesses have been forced to rapidly change, pivot, and re-invent themselves in 2021. It has shown many the activity that it is possible to achieve in a short period of time. And often with significantly reduced marketing resource.

And it continues to enable marketing teams to question the true value of the marketing investments they make. Where they are spending their time. The partnerships they have built. The software that they use. The third parties that they work with.

In such a changeable environment, all of the above needs to fit into a fast-paced, agile strategy. Else it will only slow down a business when they are in crisis mode.

Essentially, businesses need to have a strategy and framework in place that allows them to adapt and fully understand what their customers want, and how they can give this to them, in order to stay relevant.

Data insights will become democratised – and easy to access for all marketers

For many businesses, the power of data has traditionally been kept by a handful of analysts and specialists with the required skills to effectively understand, organise, and analyse complicated data sets.

This approach was a necessity, due to many employees not having the training or know-how to properly deal with an increasing flood of data and information.

However, data requirements are changing rapidly.

New technologies that are capable of making data shareable, manageable, and interpretable are fast-emerging, allowing for data to pass effectively and efficiently from the hands of the experts to the wider business.

And this data democratisation is a real game-changer.

For businesses who have been early to adopt, they have been able to catapult their marketing activity far beyond their competitors’ efforts, offering customers an unparalleled experience that is highly tailored and personalised to their needs, wants, and desires. 

And of course, this has not gone unnoticed by consumers, with 80 per cent of frequent shoppers only shopping with brands who personalise their experience. Meaning the businesses who are slow to adapt their data strategy are falling behind. Fast.

But it’s not just customer satisfaction that data democratisation benefits.

The ability for marketers to instantly access and gain insights from data translates into more efficient decision-making and agile teams – something that has been essential in 2020, and will continue to grow in importance in 2021.

Growth in data democratisation will lead to more empowered teams and individuals, many of whom can now take responsibility and ownership of data and its influence in their decision-making.

For marketers in 2021, there is no question that data democratisation is coming. In fact, it has already been embraced by many businesses. Instead, businesses should focus on creating it in their business as quickly and effectively as possible.

To read on, download the full whitepaper here.