The year 2020 pushed businesses to adapt faster than ever and to hyper-focus on the wants and needs of their customers.
Many of the following top ten branding, marketing and design trends for 2021 are a direct result of this extraordinary past year:
Responsive Logo Adaptability
In this digital age of marketing, companies are attempting to be everywhere. It’s all about establishing brand awareness through your website, having a presence on social networking platforms, and even engaging influencers.
This multi-faceted engagement has created a need for shape-shifting logo designs. Your logo must change in size, color, and complexity depending upon the marketing channel.
In 2021, the key will be to remain consistent with your logo’s typeface, letters, logomark, and color. This will allow it to remain functional and ensure consistency and brand recall no matter the variety of layout and size.
Motion Logos
Motion logos—which are also known as animated logos—will become a key branding element in 2021. Why? Because you want to catch and hold the consumer’s attention.
What’s the best way to animate your logo on your site? If your logo is five to 10 years old, you may want to consider a brand refresh and have your motion logo created at the same time.
Simplified Data Visualization
Decision-makers don’t have time to read through paragraph after paragraph of content. They prefer to see data presented visually to rapidly comprehend concepts or information.
In 2021, data visualization will need to be even more simple.
Dark-Mode Design
Dark-mode design reduces bright light and makes it easier to view content in low-light situations. You may have noticed an increased implementation of this on websites and social media platforms last year.
The dark mode also makes your brand appear sleek and modern. This trend will likely continue for years to come.
Social Media Slide Decks
First came infographics, then micro-blogs, now brands are moving towards social media slide decks, which consist of a group of static images or videos.
These are a great way to visually communicate a message to readers.
Social Media Branding
In today’s always-on social-media digital marketing culture, an organization’s main goal should be to use its social platforms for brand-awareness campaigns.
How you share, showcase, and engage with your target audience is key. So is analyzing your data for ROIs and KPIs.
Technology-Based Brand Strategy
With the increased implementation of artificial intelligence among businesses, technology-based brand strategies will gain even more traction in 2021.
By using technology as much as possible, your company will enable improved KPI predictions and ROI.
Purpose-Driven Models and Socially Responsible Branding
Defining your brand’s purpose and becoming a socially responsible brand will be a key ingredient to a successful business in 2021.
Why? It’s all about the trust that establishes a connection to the customer. As per Salesforce in 2020: 82 percent of customers stated a company’s trustworthiness mattered to them.
Branded Hashtags
Branded hashtags have become an essential tool for social media marketing.
Why are they so important? Because they help increase your customers’ engagement by 50 percent and also increase brand awareness.
Branded hashtags help measure how your clients perceive your brand—which underscores the importance of monitoring them closely.
Hyper-Local Branding & Marketing
The year 2021 will be all about geolocation data in marketing. Today 8 in 10 marketers are using location data today in their marketing strategy. Ninety-four percent are planning to in the future.
Geofencing allows brands to send distinctive messages to targeted clients based on their location, past search data, and purchase habits. It is 20 times more effective than standard ads.
If you have not thought about your 2021 marketing and branding strategy yet, hopefully, this list will get you started.