DateTime values should be inserted as if they are strings surrounded by single quotes
'20201231'
but in many cases they need to be casted explicitly to datetime CAST(N'20201231' AS DATETIME)
to avoid bad execution plans with CONVERSION_IMPLICIT warnings that affect negatively the performance. Hier is an example:
CREATE TABLE dbo.T(D DATETIME)
--wrong way
INSERT INTO dbo.T (D) VALUES ('20201231'), ('20201231')
--better way
INSERT INTO dbo.T (D) VALUES (CAST(N'20201231' AS DATETIME)), (CAST(N'20201231' AS DATETIME))