I share a weekly update on ways to be a better marketer, brand-maker, team-builder, and person. If you enjoy this, you can share some love by hitting the Substack heart button above or below.
Hi there 👋
Before I dive into some of my guesses at what’s in store for marketing in 2021, I wanted to take a moment for some housekeeping and a reset. First things first, THANK YOU for being part of this email newsletter. It means the world to have you here.
And a huge thanks to everyone who has shared feedback with me over the past weeks. Based on your feedback, here is how I’ll be approaching this newsletter in the new year:
You can expect to see:
Marketing and growth playbooks (especially branding)
Personal stories from the world of startups & tech
Links, videos, and podcasts that are worth your time
I’ll still be the one writing everything, although I will - as always - take a TON of inspiration and cues from those I admire in the tech marketing scene. Especially in 2021, I am going to be more aware of my sources and will aim to amplify the voices of people who are different from me.
Also … if you’d like to further support this newsletter in 2021, there is a paid subscription. Paid subscribers may receive additional templates and content, and all subscription revenue beyond the basic costs of getting this newsletter out will go to IFundWomen, a startup funding platform for women-owned businesses. Here’s a big blue button you can click to start a paid subscription:
Thanks again for being part of this list. Hope your year is off to a great start!
~ Kevan
Predictions for Marketing in 2021
1. The two hottest industries will continue to be e-commerce and future-of-work
If you’re looking for innovation and dynamism, look no further than these two industries. Obviously, both have benefited greatly from the macro changes in the world around us: more things are digital and remote than ever before. But it’s been an acceleration of an inevitable future, not a hard left turn. For instance, here’s a chart showing how e-commerce has been growing steadily .. and then suddenly:
source: ShawSpring Research, 2020
Because of this, you can expect to still see a ton of action in the new digital spaces that we’ve seen take off in recent months.
E-commerce 💰
E-commerce is the new small business. There are 30 million small businesses in the US (defined as any business with fewer than 500 employees), and almost all 30 million of them could benefit from moving some or all of their shopping experience online.
This will have a big impact on the marketing landscape in a couple ways: .
1 - Tools that make e-commerce possible. In a majority of cases, this tool will be Shopify. In fact, for marketers, it’s almost a requirement to be Shopify-fluent in 2021 — or at the very least know how to optimize a shop for e-commerce success.
2 - Tools that drive e-commerce revenue. Along with e-commerce tools like Shopify, there is a whole ecosystem of tools that can make e-commerce stronger. From subscription billing tools like Recharge Payments to messaging tools like Privy and Postscript, marketers have a wealth of options at their disposal for improving the customer experience and the company bottom line.
Future-of-work 🪄
This will mean continued growth and opportunity for remote work tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. But the positive impact won’t be felt just by these three big players. Expect to see opportunities like:
The Slack, Teams, and Zoom marketplaces where other companies can build apps to better serve customers where the customers “live.” Think: Calendly integration in Zoom … or a possible Buffer integration in Slack? 🤞
Alternatives to Slack, Teams, and Zoom. The market is certainly big enough to support players beyond these big three. We’ve already seen some exciting entrants like Tandem and Whereby and Daily.
Thought leadership. Some of the best marketing in 2021 will be content marketing about future-of-work topics. We’ve exhausted the “work-from-home tips” articles, but there’s still so much exciting space for marketing teams to innovate and drive positive change for the workplace. Here’s content by the Gumroad team that was very future-of-worky:
Further reading:
The Next Normal Arrives [McKinsey]
Podcast advertising will be where the most innovation occurs
Podcast advertising is not new — obviously, Squarespace and Mailchimp have done it effectively for years. But the podcast ad space is at an inflection point given that three things are conspiring: a) the amount of listeners, b) the inventory of niche podcasts, and c) that good ol’ technology.
For instance, you can run a brand new ad tomorrow on the entire back catalog of your podcast and then change it to something new the next week.
The team behind Conan O’Brien’s podcast pulled off a “golden ticket” giveaway where they customized the podcast feed of a handful of listeners so that they could deliver a unique message buried within an episode.
Dynamic ad insertion has been around for a couple years now, and we’re finally starting to see it hit the mainstream in the podcast space.
Read more:
Your brand must have a voice in social justice
For the most part in 2020, I think brands did well navigating a tremendously tricky landscape of pandemic, social justice, racism, riots, and an election. Yes, there were moments where brands were a bit over-eager to join a conversation, but brands got better and better at knowing what to say (or not say) as time went on.
I’d expect this to remain as paramount in 2021 as it is in 2020. And any brand that remains quiet on major moments will appear more and more conspicuous.
What does this mean in practice?
Again, just guesses, but …
For large companies, we’ll see a greater emphasis on hiring brand managers, consultants, and DEI experts with a particular focus on social justice matters
For smaller companies, we’ll see leadership (CEO, VPs) with strong voices on social media and PR
Social commerce is still a year off (at least)
Last year, among many other wrong predictions, I claimed that 2020 would be the year of social commerce.
Instagram and Pinterest will become shopping-first e-commerce platforms
Well, we do have more social commerce than ever before, but Instagram and Pinterest are far from e-commerce giants.
Have you tried buying anything through Instagram or Pinterest? In my experience, shopping on social media just makes me want to shop on a website. There’s a lot of basic e-commerce UX that doesn’t yet exist within social commerce — things like choosing varieties or searching a catalog.
Moreso, I think 2020 taught us that there is a strong desire for entertainment and escapism with social media. You see this in the way that Instagram has gone after TikTok by debuting Instagram Reels. Commerce will come … you can’t deny social networks the allure of the e-commerce pie. But for social commerce to really make a meaningful play, we’re at least another year away.
—
Here is what I predicted at the start of 2020 …
✅ Social media ad spend will increase in 2020.
❌ Instagram and Pinterest will become shopping-first e-commerce platforms
❌ Social networks will diversify into ... payment processing.
✅ Creators will be influencers. And everyone can be a creator.
✅ TikTok is here to stay
Thanks so much for reading. Have a great week!
— Kevan
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