Goodbye and good riddance to 2020. The global pandemic had an impact on every business. From a marketing standpoint, what will 2021 bring?
We have made a short list about marketing trends for 2021!

Social media will become a top channel for purchase, instead of just discovery. 
Social media platforms are making it easier for consumers to go from discovery to purchase without ever having to leave the platform, creating a simple and seamless path to purchase. With social commerce continuing to grow into 2021, retail brands will have to adapt to these platforms with new rules, similar to what many did with Amazon.

Branding and storytelling will be get more important.
With closures in large parts of 2020, more companies have moved online. This means that online competition has become tougher and the battle for consumer attention online has intensified. In line with the increased online competition, consumers have also become more critical of who they spend their money with. When several companies offer the same type of products online, consumers have a free choice between the shelves, and it is therefore not always enough to be able to offer the product at the best price. Consumers increasingly want to shop at companies, which stand out and make a name for themselves. In 2021, you as a company should therefore focus on your branding and storytelling. Companies that dare to stand out, take a stand and express their attitudes and values ​​are the ones that are noticed. In 2020, we saw that many brands began to express their views on political and environmental issues. Here were, among other things, several of the big brands, who showed their support in connection with the Black Lives Matter movement or the fight against Covid. This is probably something we will see much more of in 2021, as consumers increasingly have an expectation that the brands they support will take a stand and express their views and values. However, this does not mean that you necessarily have to go out and comment on a political topic. But if you want to be stronger in the competition for costumer attention, you should have an increased focus on your branding. Use storytelling to show personality and differentiate your business from your competitors. This is how, you can create greater brand awareness in your target audience.

Informed buyers want to buy from informed brands. 
This means evolving even beyond the age of personalization and entering an age of personal commerce, where consumers co-curate their experiences with brands to reflect their preferences at any given moment. They expect for brands to understand what they’ve bought in the past and help them to determine what they should buy next, based on all the data that they’ve consciously shared with them by engaging with their sites and channels. This is not just a matter of brands meeting consumers where they are. It is about brands telling them what they want, when they want it. It is all about creating a demand, where no demand is. If brands are going to continue collecting data, they will need to begin to use it in meaningful ways, predicting what their costumers want to buy next and understanding where shoppers are in their buying cycles to predict when they will want to buy.

Virtual events started out of necessity, but they will stay.
In the face of the COVID pandemic, events became virtual out of necessity. As we move into 2021 and beyond, many events will stay virtual not only because of continued safety concerns, but also as a result of lessons learned in 2020. Companies found that by going virtual, they opened up their event to an entirely new audience as virtual events are more accessible than offline events. Companies have found that this allows for higher attendance and more participation. That means lower cost for more people. The key is to get creative and drive engagement through great speakers, interesting content and some fun of course. In 2021 and beyond, virtual events will continue to be a popular route to engage with a wide set of customers as companies see the many benefits of online events.

Technology will become the great equalizer for smaller businesses. 
The rise of software as a service (SaaS) applications for every function of a business and for businesses of every size, application developers with AI experience, and rentable technology as a service have created a great advantage for small businesses that would otherwise not be able to afford automation and access to sophisticated business analytics. With these benefits much more affordable and accessible, there is no reason even a small business cannot go digital to reduce costs and fuel growth.

E-commerce is getting bigger and takes over the market from physical shores.
The corona crisis has had a major impact on e-commerce both. As a result of the restrictions, large parts of the retail trade have been forced to remain closed, and costumers have therefore had to satisfy their desire to buy online instead of visiting the physical stores.
Among other things, this has meant that many of those who did not shop online before the closure have now opened their eyes to the many benefits of online shopping.
As a consumer, online shopping provides some security because you do not have to move between many people in small shops. Many companies also offer fast delivery and delivery to your door, making it even easier to shop at home from the couch.
However, Covid-19 does not bear full responsibility for the fact that e-commerce has grown so rapidly. E-commerce has been growing rapidly in recent years, and Covid-19 has therefore only accelerated development.