If
you’re out of date with your digital marketing trends, you’re limiting your
brand in both reach and repetition. You may be blissfully unaware of new
marketing trends, but your target customer and your competitors are not. The digital marketing
landscape is constantly changing. To help you stay ahead of the curve, below we
outline the 10 best digital marketing trends in 2020.
1.
Chatbots Take Off
Many companies will continue
using a chatbot, they’re effective software programs that interact with website
visitors and customers. Chatbots communicate naturally
with people viewing the site and can answer their questions in real-time.
Chatbots
either use verbal interactions or chat windows to help web users find what
they’re looking for. Hiring an individual to monitor and communicate with
visitors on your website can be expensive, but chatbots save costs by answering
common questions on your behalf. And subsequently, customers tend to appreciate
the personalized service and getting their questions answered quickly.
2.
Voice-Powered
Search Accelerates
As the growth in technology continues to
increase rapidly, we will start to see more people using smartphones with voice
assistants. Features like Google, Alexa, and Siri are useful in digital
marketing.
Voice assistants can search for things, read
text loudly, and even voice dictate text messages for you so that you can be
hands-free. Voice search is also essential when using it for your business.
It’s helping in the growth of a mobile-friendly movement and adding value to
local SEO. Voice search also boosts the use of artificial
intelligence and prioritizes semantics of searches.
3.
Single
Marketing Software Providers Dominate
There’s an enormous number of marketing technology solutions out there. This number is overwhelming, which is why many companies are switching to one software solution that contains all the tools that they need. HubSpot is a perfect example of an all-in-one marketing software solution, as is Marketo, and ActiveCampaign.
Other companies, like MailChimp, who historically only provided email marketing services, are now adding marketing automation capabilities, landing page builders, and ad platform integration. Consolidation among solution providers is accelerating in response to the user’s desire to have all of their marketing tools under one umbrella.
4.
Shoppable posts
Although shoppable posts on social media have been
introduced over two years now, 2020 will witness an explosion of these blinking
dots, primarily because of easier, out of the box integrations with third party
apps and ecommerce marketing tech.
As the number of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest users
are growing and buying impulses are triggered through feeds and stories,
ecommerce businesses are realizing the impact social can have on their
ecommerce sales with measurable numbers and increased traffic.
Furthermore,
interactive ads would minimize bounce rate and reduce the sales funnel as
customers are provided with a seamless online shopping experience.
5.
Direct messaging
In a bid to get more personal with customers,
brands are taking the conversation to DMs. As a means of streamlining customer
service and assisting in sales, direct messaging is becoming one of the hottest
digital marketing trends of 2020.
Through messaging apps like
WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, or through private messages on social media
like Twitter or Instagram, brands are building stronger connections with their
customers. These forums offer the convenience of text with the immediacy of a phone
conversation, all in an environment the user is already familiar with from
talking with friends.
Brands
find DMing customers to be effective for forging relationships, whether
addressing complaints, taking sales orders, or even just goofing around. This
technique works best when you encourage users to message you by providing your
handle or username, and maybe incentivizing them with an exclusive deal or
coupon code.
6. Sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis, or social listening, is the practice of analyzing the
reactions of users and customers to a product or service, typically on social
media or other places online. Online reviews and posts aren’t always a black
and white “I like/dislike this.”
Maybe a user likes the product on a whole but one
particular feature gets in the way. Maybe the product is fine just not what
they were expecting.
Sentiment analysis usually involves
data-collecting tools and algorithms to scour online responses to your brand
and evaluate them. Again, this isn’t a new digital marketing trend, but new
technology is making it more popular than ever before. Advances in natural
language processing let computers understand the meanings behind what humans
say online, including slang and emoji.
Sentiment analysis tools like Critical Mention, Repustate or Lexalytics reveal what people really think about your brand. You can then use that
data to fine-tune not just your products, but also your strategies for sales,
marketing, social media and content.
7.
Alternative and niche social media channels
Despite optimism over Facebook’s most recent earnings,
the continual declines of both user growth and public opinion have shaken
confidence in the platform’s dominance. Likewise, Twitter is seeing a similar
plateau in growth, leading to a shift in power. To be clear, both Twitter and
Facebook will remain useful marketing tools throughout 2020 and beyond. But the
exodus has already started.
Alternative social media channels are already seeing new interest and promising growth levels. If you can start developing your presence on these “secondary” sites now, it’s likely to pay off in a few years after they continue to rise. In particular, Snapchat, Pinterest, Medium and Reddit are becoming new favourites for marketers lately.
8.
Programmatic advertising
Just like with sentiment
analysis, don’t send a human to do a robot’s job. AI and machine-learning
algorithms are designed to make your work easier, and that includes optimizing
your online advertising campaigns.
Just like with sentiment analysis, don’t send a human to do a robot’s
job. AI and machine-learning algorithms are designed to make your work easier,
and that includes optimizing your online advertising campaigns. Handing off
these tasks to an automated system can be best for both you and your business.
9.
Smart Bidding in Google Ads
Google Ads has introduced smart
bidding which,
according to them, uses machine learning to optimize for conversions or
conversion value in each and every auction. Smart bidding strategies include
target Cost-per-acquisition, target ROAS (return on ad spend), maximize
conversions and enhanced CPC. Smart bidding has been introduced as a subset of
automated bid strategies.
With smart bidding, not only businesses can
have better conversions but also people can get more relevant ads.
10. Live
Video
Video marketing has been one
of the biggest trends in the last two years and it’s going to continue in 2020
too. However, this time it’s going to be Live Video. Live videos have already
been a trend in social media and it is going to expand further into the web.
The possibilities of Live Video, in the form of live webinars, shows, live
interactive videos, etc. can offer great leverage for brands, marketers and
content creators.
Live video is great for grabbing the attention of your social audience on Facebook or Instagram. These types of videos are so attractive to viewers because they tap into “FOMO” or fear of missing out. When you’re not sure if a live video is going to contain a tidbit of information that you can’t get anywhere else, or it will mean you’re the first to find out about some new and exciting news, you’re going to want to watch it.
Conclusion
A lot of the
stuff mentioned above isn’t talked about a lot and they aren’t popular
marketing topics that everyone wants to hear, but
it is the future. These are trends that will come true, some already
are, and you have to adapt for them. Here’s the beautiful part, though. You
just read this, and now have a chance to act on the information before your
competition. So, make sure you go and do so. I want to see you not only succeed
but I want you to beat your competition. And I believe you can, whether you are
a big company, or just starting off with very little to no money.
