The New Year is around the corner, and I know you are prepped up to make a bang with newer marketing trends.
To date, you might have gone through the most popular marketing blogs and followed ample YouTube marketing channels. But, have you determined the digital marketing trends the market will observe in 2020?
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If not, here it goes!
Top Digital Marketing Trends You Must Know in 2020
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Voice Search
Image Source: Giphy
As per comScore, “50% of all online searches will be voice-based by 2020.”(Source)
Though this has been one of the most talked-about trends in the past few years, digital marketers could no longer be able to ignore it. Because 55% of households are expected to own smart speaker devices by 2022, says OC&C Strategy Consultants. (Source)
Besides, interacting with voice assistants like Alexa, Google, and Siri is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives. From smartphones and smart TVs to wearables and speakers, there isn’t anything or won’t soon be enhanced with voice-enabled technology.
When it comes to optimizing a site for voice search, companies can get the best out of their brand. But how?
Well, if you aren’t aware, there are software available on the market that can optimize your site for voice search. Hence, people can find your offerings or make a purchase from your website through voice search.
Let’s say; a customer is ordering a bathing soap from a particular store using a voice search. The software keeps track of this so that one can buy the same product time and again with little to no friction. It eliminates logging into the computer or pulling out the smartphone every time you want to make a purchase. Isn’t that cool?
Well, this clearly emphasizes how optimizing the content for voice search is going to be a priority for marketers in 2020.
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Personalization
Personalization is the new form of marketing that will help you stand out in 2020. Here, with personalization, I mean personalized products, content, email, and more.
The Head of Marketing at EmailMonks asserts that “personalized, triggered emails based on behavior are 3x better than batch-and-blast emails.” (Source)
Want to see how personalization looks like? Then, you must not overlook Netflix and Amazon’s recommendation algorithm. Based on assumptions and customers’ past purchase history, Amazon recommends products that not only suits an individual’s need but also fits in the context of his search.
Image Source: Rejoiner
With personalization, you’ll be able to convert more of your visitors into customers.
Moreover, these days, consumers expect to find what they like quickly. So, marketers need to personalize their content accordingly and deliver it at the right time. As per a study by HubSpot, “70% of consumers get frustrated when content isn’t relevant to them.”
Thus, businesses have started personalizing every customer experience, whether online or offline. It’s predicted that in 2020, personalization will be a game-changer for marketers.
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Business Intelligence Solutions
Today, customers prefer to shop from different channels and different devices based on their convenience. They might search for a product online and go to a store to make the purchase. Conversely, they may visit a store, find something, let’s say, a jacket but not in the correct size. They will pull out their smart device, check the inventory online, and place the order.
Whatever may be the scenario, the essential side of omnichannel is that customers get a seamless experience and stay connected throughout the purchase journey.
With multiple channels to manage and a host of different ways to market the product and services, you require investing in better analytics. Undoubtedly, there’s nothing wrong with Google Analytics, but with the evolving marketing needs and the advent of new channels, businesses need to look beyond the basics of Google Analytics.
As a result, they have started leveraging business intelligence solutions or analytics solutions that tie into their database better.
The purpose of Business Intelligence is to support better business decision-making through integration, analysis, and presentation of business information at a centralized place.
Image Source: Data Studio
Moreover, various business verticals like e-Commerce transactions, product recommendations, content creation, basic communication, email personalization, and more have evolved due to Artificial Intelligence, and soon it will be the driving force behind most of the services.
Nevertheless, adopting AI or BI in 2020 will help you reduce staffing costs and accelerate growth.
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Influencer Marketing
Do you remember the last time having a great experience at a restaurant and posting about it on Instagram? Can you think of a product you used and shared your views about it with your friends?
Well, this is word-of-mouth marketing.
People likely trust key personalities more than brands. And, influencer marketing is a kind of word-of-mouth marketing that uses famous personalities to promote a brand’s message.
You can have celebrities, YouTube or Instagram personalities with a huge fan following, or a well-known figure among the public as influencers.
More often, brands choose YouTube or Instagram personalities as they can spread the message about your business and products through their social channels.
A study by mediakix reports that the global spend on Influencer Marketing is expected to reach $10 billion by 2020.
One of the best Influencer Marketing campaigns that broke the clutter this year is Subaru – #MeetAnOwner.
Many of you might know that Subaru is an automobile manufacturer. It started the #MeetanOwner campaign to showcase the new Impreza in different locations, hoping to draw the attention of millennial buyers. They worked with several influencers from different industries right from art to fitness.
For instance, Zach King, a YouTube personality and American Filmmaker created a video trying to impress the love of his life under this campaign.
The video has gained 8+ million views. This campaign achieved an engagement rate of 9% for Subaru and increased its brand awareness.
When your wingmen are on point to help you impress the love of your life. #DateNight #MeetAnOwner like me and other real @Subaru_USA owners on MeetAnOwner.com #ad
With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, Influencer Marketing will be profoundly affected. AI will gradually play a crucial role in determining the right influencers to partner with quickly.
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Vlogging
When it comes to driving visibility and increasing online engagement with customers, vlogging is the most cost-effective tactic to employ.
It is becoming increasingly popular among marketers and is expected to be one of the most sought-after digital marketing trends in 2020.
Vlogging, an acronym for Video Blogging, refers to creating video content and publishing it frequently on either your website or channel on a sharing platform.
As against explainer videos or short films, vlogs are more direct and personal.
According to research, it is estimated that 44% of the global internet users, mostly younger audiences, now watch vlogs every month. (Source)
With the rapid shift of consumers to mobile devices, long-form sales pages and similar long-form content are fading faster as it becomes difficult to read long content on small device screens.
Instead, vlogs can display the same information in a format that works fine with devices of any size.
Moreover, people find video content more compelling and engaging. As a result, Google pushes video content higher in search rankings.
Further, you can use video content on multiple channels. For instance, you have created a video for your YouTube channel. Instead of just getting it published on YouTube, you can
- Transcribe it and get the text form of the video.
- Embed the video in your blog for better rankings.
- Upload the video with subtitles on Facebook.
- Convert the transcription into a short blog while adding some stats or facts.
- Seize the audio alone and use it as a Podcast.
Incorporating a video on your site is likely to drive 50 times more organic search results as opposed to text. When researched how people prefer learning about a new service or product, this is the response received:
Image Source: Single Grain
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Social Media Stories
A few years back, Snapchat came out with the concept of “My Story.” Then, Instagram and Facebook stories came into the picture. Just after that, YouTube also came up with its story format, “Reels.”
Now, one more social media channel TikTok has emerged with a platform where users can create videos instantly.
Stories on all these social media channels disappear after a set period. Thus, you can grab this opportunity and make the most of FOMO (fear of missing out).
You can simply engage users by adding a Poll to your story. For example, the National Basketball Association created polls to ask their followers who they thought would win the next matches.
This helped them maintain excitement around the event. Similarly, people make use of Instagram stories to check out local businesses. And, hashtags for events or places play an active role in boosting traffic to that destination.
How do social media stories benefit businesses?
- Boost familiarity by providing more digestible content
- Increase customer engagement
- Enhance users’ visibility and exposure to the company’s culture
- Encourage immediate purchase
Hence, social media stories have already been a powerful marketing tool for businesses in 2019, and it is here to stay in 2020.
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Alternative Communication Channels
In the corporate sector, email is considered the most effective tool for communication. In 2019, marketers observed that their open rates remained roughly the same, and the click rates went a bit down.
So, does this mean email is no more an effective medium? Definitely not! What companies will require doing is utilizing more communication channels.
The year 2020 will mark the importance of Chatbots and Push Notifications besides email marketing. Chatbots are built to improve customer experience without any manual intervention.
Whenever a user messages, the chatbot automatically sends a reply. Moreover, people find engaging with chatbots more entertaining.
Gartner says that 25% of customer service operations will use virtual customer assistants (chatbots) by 2020.
Likewise, push notifications to enable you to send a message on the customer’s mobile device directly in real-time.
This helps promote your products or services, engage customers who are not currently on your website, boost customer engagement, and increase conversion rates.
Today, many companies, regardless of their size, have already made web push notification technology a part of their marketing strategy, and have immensely benefitted.
Though these powerful tools are the upcoming digital marketing trends, you can start using them right away.
Wrapping Up
The above-mentioned 7 must-follow digital marketing trends in 2020 encapsulate stuff that you might have heard or read about. However, this is going to be the future, and you’ll soon see yourself implementing them in your marketing strategies.
Which of these digital marketing trends will rule in 2020? What do you think?
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