Trends in Marketing Technology for 2021

By Madison Taylor
February 12, 2021
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In 2020, our reliance on technology only strengthened, when the landscape of the business world changed and the prevalence of remote work skyrocketed.

Reinforcing this dependency on technology, Scott Brinker’s Chief Marketing Technologist blog, lists more than 8,000 marketing technology tools. With new solutions cropping up every day, these are the key trends we’re keeping an eye on in 2021.

Remote Communication Will Continue

Many companies, forced to resort to remote work during the pandemic, have embraced the benefits of a distributed team and indicated that they’ll continue to allow their employees to work mostly or entirely from home, indefinitely. Amazon, Adobe, Aetna, Facebook, Microsoft, Nielsen, Paypal, Salesforce, Zillow, and dozens of others — tens of millions of employees in total — have all expressed an interest in a switch to completely remote work.

Their technological needs will change in response. We’ve seen enormous shifts in the world of martech this year, and the prevalence of remote work has leveled the playing field for small businesses. Technology geared around remote work can allow small companies to host virtual events, run marketing campaigns, and make sales pitches without taking a backseat to the companies with the downtown high-rises and fancy conference rooms.

Martech Spending Will Rise

Though the COVID-19 pandemic will subside and businesses will start to return to normal, the sudden thrust into a more digital mode of operations is here to stay, and companies will scramble to keep up. Remote work has forced the digitization of processes that, for many businesses, were still fairly analog and outdated — customer resource management, task management, scheduling, billing, email marketing, account-based marketing, and more were based on spreadsheets and email chains.

Now, companies that have been forced to work remotely have started to embrace tools that do the hard work for them. Tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and hundreds of others will reduce the busy work and difficulties with collaboration that companies have suffered in the past, and we anticipate that more and more companies will rearrange their budgets to prioritize tools that make their jobs easier.

Focus on Content Marketing Will Increase

With consumers stuck at home, companies had to compensate for the lost attention to retail spaces, face-to-face interactions, and events. Technology is making an enormous impact on the ability of companies to tell compelling stories and provide experiences that are interesting, immersive, and even interactive.

Many marketing leaders are planning to invest more heavily in content marketing platforms (CMPs), software tools that allow them to streamline the process of ideation, planning, content creation, approval, and publication. With an increased focus on online experiences, executives are looking to improve their companies’ ability to create engaging content quickly.

Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Will Be Priorities

Between the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2016 and dozens of major information breaches that resulted in the loss of personal information, consumers are more focused than ever before on the security of their personal information.

In the past, matters of data security and privacy have fallen entirely to the IT department, but marketing will have a hand in those areas going forward. When you’re crafting messages to your customers, you’ll need to emphasize that your customers can safely divulge sensitive information to you.

To do so, marketers are using tried and tested software like HubSpot and Marketo to keep track of their customers’ information. When you take advantage of the sophisticated software the world of martech has to offer, you can reassure your clients that their data is handled securely.

Looking Forward

2021 will be an interesting year in every industry — some businesses will continue to struggle, some will recover, and some will have to completely change the way they operate. One thing we can be sure of is that technology will be at the forefront of any change.

If you need help building your martech toolbox and strategy, look no further than Madison Taylor Marketing. Whether you’re looking for a strategic partner to help guide your company forward, a content creation strategy that keeps your customers engaged, or help with analytics to gain detailed insights into your customers, we can bring the expertise and experience you need to drive results. Get in touch with us today!