TOP TEN TRENDS IN DIGITAL MARKETING IN 2020

If you’re out of date with your digital marketing trends, you’re limiting your brand in both reach and repetition.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.

7 Digital Marketing trends for 2020

Here are 7 digital marketing trends for 2020 that we expect will see the most traction:

The rise of new social platforms

while user growth has slowed down across most key markets, India has shown no such trend. This is a direct result of easy accessibility to mobile Internet and cheaper smartphones with the advent of Jio. This has consequently led to the huge influx of new social apps in digital markets, like TikTok, Helo, Sharechat, Vigo, Bigo, Firework and some more in the pipeline.

The year 2020 will likely see a rise of even more such apps as these have proved to be a hit with new data users, having tapped into vernacular content and the interests of people in smaller towns. And since a large chunk of internet users from rural India - 251 million to be precise - have contributed to the growth in the total number of Indian Internet users this year, 2020 can expect to see a higher demand for social apps that cater to this demographic.

Vernacular will go mainstream for brands

On that note, with so many first-time internet users, the rise of a lot of social platforms have seen their tremendous growth simply because they offer their content and services in vernacular. Language-driven services have had such an impact this year, that even Amazon and Flipkart are planning to get on this bandwagon soon to catch up with new age players like Niki.ai, Bulbul tv and Shop101.

With a higher demand for vernacular content online, brands across segments will be forced to explore and deliver too if they want to see bigger growth. Storytelling is an impactful way to engage and connect with customers, and when done in a native tongue, the outcome is very personal and unique. This is evident in the thumbstopper format that Facebook offers, which intends to tell a story without sound, in order to capture the essence of a story and be able to tell it to speakers of any language. A recent campaign done by Swiggy called #SwiggyStarhunt is testimony to this. Targeting at their delivery partners to showcase their talent via TikTok, they launched the campaign in 11 languages to grab their attention. It resulted in over 1500 entries from 400 delivery partners receiving 44+ million organic views, reaching a pan-Indian audience and giving Swiggy the uplift it deserved.

AR will pick up momentum

4G has taken India’s markets by storm, and Indian service providers are eager to capitalize on this moment to drive user and customer engagement. Augmented Reality can be used in a multitude of ways, changing experiences across different sectors, be it retail, live events, museums, real estate, education or automobile.

Facebook introduced Spark AR this year for the general public, which allows users on Facebook and Instagram to create filters and upload them online. Other users can then save these and apply them to their stories. Facebook has been seeing a lot of success with the launch of this product and this will probably ‘spark’ AR trends even more. Google had already rolled out Google Lens which is an image recognition technology that uses the point and shoot feature to show fitting search results. These two giants have showcased the diversity in the use of AR and how successful it can be when implemented right, driven by function.

Voice will also start driving e-commerce

E-commerce is the way of the future, and with search interaction having increased, leading companies will find voice a profitable technology to drive sales and revenue. This has already been evidenced in the huge investment Amazon has put into Alexa and Google into Google Home and its Google Assistant. Businesses will see voice user interface as an innovative tool that enables faster, more efficient customer engagement as voice commands surround every sphere of life, driving purchases, payments and more. Voice ordering, already a popular phenomenon in the US, will start picking up in India as well. Brands are also tying up with new-age start-ups like Niki.ai to engage with the next billion Internet users. These AI powered start ups build user experiences that are not just intuitive but also in a language that the customers in the Tier II and III cities are comfortable in, making it easy for them to place orders using voice commands.

Better audience targeting through AI and first-party data

It’s quality over quantity, always. Which is why, many brands are now wanting to capitalize on their first-party data, instead of opting for second and third-party data. First-party data allows for exact, valuable insights into a customer’s direct engagement with the brand, whether it’s their individual interests, which ads they engage with, or how much time they spend on the brand’s website. This information is unfiltered, specific, and relevant, which helps to build an audience profile that is an exact match with the product or service in question. It is also cost-effective, as it’s free, and is lawful and transparent. Nike is one such company, which has already announced that they will be selling only directly going forward.


Influencer marketing will have a rocky 2020

Social media platforms have seen quite a few changes this year, which were a little surprising for everyone. At one end, there are platforms like TikTok and Sharechat, which incentivized influencers, and at the other end, Instagram rolled out an update that removed the like count. The Advertising Standards Council of India has also announced that they are framing new guidelines and rules in a bid to protect consumer interests, which will include influencer marketing under its purview. With the aim to curb forms of misleading information, the reach influencers have, the kind of information they put out, and the engagement brands have with influencers may all change in 2020.

Online to Offline Attribution will be more prevalent

It is commonly believed that as the world became increasingly digital over the years, physical stores began to see less engagement. But this doesn’t hold true for brands that rely heavily on location, like hotels, restaurants, and auto dealerships. Even today more than 95% of commerce in India happens offline. For such brands, online to offline attribution is extremely relevant and useful, as this metric helps brands to trace and identify which online ads can be attributed to driving in-store foot traffic.

While Google Store Visits is already live and being used across brands, other platforms will also start leveraging location data, combined with first party and CRM data, to showcase what results digital is driving for retailers and offline stores. This can be a game changer for traditional brands that did not have digital as a key aspect of their marketing campaigns. The start of the next decade will likely see a lot of brands who are not yet using digital come online to use this tool to engage with customers better and drive sales insightfully.

Video for Small Business: 7 Ways to Boost Your Brand

By now you’ve probably heard all about how video can help your business.

If you’re now wondering how to use video to market your business, we’re here to help you get started. We’ve rounded up a list of seven different ways your small business should be using video (with examples), so you can get started in the right direction!

1. Introduce Yourself and Explain What You Do

Some of the best small business videos are a simple hello. Try adding a video to your homepage that simply outlines what you do and what problem you solve for your customers. Even better, keep it under 90 seconds.

You’ll find this is a lot more effective than trying to cram these same explanations into the headline and first paragraph of your home page… all while struggling to keep everything above the fold.

The combination of both audio and visual stimulation in video makes describing complex concepts much easier—and easier to understand.

Take advantage of this by adding a few in-depth videos that explain the details of your product features or the different services you offer for viewers to discover once they’re hooked. These can live on a separate section of your website, drawing viewers in for further education to help them decide to buy.

2. Highlight Social Proof

If you’re doing your job right, your biggest brand advocates should be your customers. So why not get them in front of a camera and share what it is that makes them love your product and your company so much?

First-hand accounts are much more effective for your audience than hearing the same people from your company do the same pitch over and over again.

3. Empower Your Experts to Educate Your Audience

One of the most effective ways to position your company as a leader in your space is to get your own leaders in front of a camera sharing their knowledge and educating your audience.

 4. Show Off Your Culture

You’ve probably heard about “culture content” before, but what is it really? It’s content that shows what makes your business unique.

5. Share Your Origin Story

This is particularly relevant for small businesses, even more so than larger corporations. Similar to culture content, people are often very interested in how the organization they spend their money on was founded. Oh and also… people love stories. It’s in our DNA.

6. Blog in the Medium Your Audience Craves

It’s time to add more of your audience’s preferred content to your blog to get them coming back for more. Video blogs, also known as Vlogs, don’t have a Hollywood production budget.

Record a video blog with your webcam while sitting in your office or a meeting room. Or even use your phone to record some thoughts while you’re walking down the street!

 7. Thank Your Customers

Loyalty is critical to the sustainability of your business. Keep your customers around by making them feel appreciated. Send them a reminder every so often that you’re thankful for them and their support in the form of a personal video!

Must Know Digital Marketing Terms

Digital marketing is chock full of jargon and acronyms. Plus, rapid changes in technology cause new terms to show up almost constantly. Even if you’re immersed in the industry, it can be hard to keep up with the latest marketing terms.

1. Impressions

Basically, an “impression” is a set of eyeballs on your ad. In digital marketing terms, this means the number of times a user loads a page with your ad on it. It could also mean the number of people who open an email or see a social media post.

2. CPM

CPM stands for cost per thousand. So, wait, M stands for “thousand” now? M stands for mille, the Latin for 1,000, or you can think of it as the Roman numeral M. This is an advertising model in which you pay a certain amount for every 1,000 impressions.

3. CPC

CPC, on the other hand, is cost per click. With this model, you pay a certain amount for each user who actually clicks on your ad. Which model is cheaper depends on your goals.

4. CTR

Your click through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who see your ad and click on it. A low click through rate means that your ad may need to be reworked. You calculate it by dividing the number of people who click by the number of people who viewed.

5. Conversion rate

Your conversion rate is the percentage of people who see your ad, then go on to buy your product or take the action you classify as a “conversion.” (This could also be something like filling out a form to request a demo or consultation.)

A high conversion rate is one of the biggest goals of any advertising campaign, and if you have a low conversion rate, it may mean your copy or image needs work.

6. A/B testing

In marketing terms, A/B testing is when you take two potential ads and run them in tandem to see which one gives you the best results.

It’s a key element of any digital marketing campaign, and you should try to change only one part of the ad at a time, such as the photo or CTA (more on that term below). Think about when the eye doctor switches in different lenses to work out what prescription you need.

7. Back link

A back link is any link to your site that originates on another website. These are also called inbound links. Having plenty of quality back links helps your search engine ranking and encourages people to check out your site.

You should avoid having a lot of low quality backlinks, as this can lower your ranking and quality score.

8. Direct traffic

Direct traffic refers to people who went to your website without being referred by a different site. Meaning, they typed in your URL directly or clicked on a bookmark.

An increase in direct traffic may indicate that an offline advertising project such as handing out flyers at a trade show has been a success. The majority of traffic is not

9. CTA

CTA stands for call to action. Everything from your landing page to your ads should have a clear call to action, or a short instruction telling viewers what next action you want them to take. This can also up your CTR.

10. Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the rate at which visitors leave your website after finding their way there. A high bounce rate indicates that a page on your website isn’t as described or isn’t enticing potential customers to stick around or continue to other pages.

Hottest Digital Marketing Trend For 2020

Here I am going to talk about some hottest digital marketing trends for 2020. Before we discuss the trends the first thing we need is a good landing page that is able to handle incoming traffic with ease so first all we need to have an optimized landing and hope you have created one.

So let's see one by one the hottest digital marketing trends of 2020:

Video Content:

So videos have been also engaging right when compared to a simple post with pics, people always spend more time watching a video that is engaging and informative so creating video content is a great digital marketing strategy.

Videos always improve conversion rates, they are attention-grabbing, helps us to pass for more information and nowadays its very easy to create engaging videos as a lot of free and paid tools or apps are available for video creation so anyone with a little or no knowledge can create a video.

There are two types of videos they are:

Branded videos:

They are mainly used for educational purposes and helps to increase conversion rates.

Live videos:

Live videos are another type of video that generates a lot of engagement as it happens in real-time.A lot of apps allow live video broadcasting that includes the most popular Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin which has a lot of customer engagements and these apps has the feature of simulcasting that means we can broadcast the videos on all these apps simultaneously.

We can use video content for creating webinars, how-to videos, videos explaining your business and promotions.

Facebook Messenger Marketing:

According to surveys, there are about 1.3 billion active Facebook users, and so Facebook messenger marketing is a great trend in digital marketing in 2020.

The benefits of using messenger marketing is that:

• Booking Appointments: Booking appointments is now much easier with Facebook messenger bots.
• Lead Generation: We can use chatbots to generate business leads.
• We can get Feedbacks and Reviews within conversations.
• It also helps in delivering quality content.

How these can benefit your ads is :

• They can help grow your sales.
• It helps in trust-building
• Chatbots help you in automating your business activity.
• It also automates your lead generation process.

Audio Advertising:

Audio advertising is the latest trend in digital marketing, with the rise of music streaming and podcasts services audio advertising has reached another level. Audio services can always build intimate and authentic connections, and we can reach our audience based on their interest as we get an in-depth idea about there preference levels. Spotify one of the popular audio streaming services is such an example, now Spotify has also started audio marketing by introducing the Spotify ad platform, it mainly focuses on small to medium businesses, based on age and gender listing preferences.

Interactive Content:

Another trend in digital marketing is interactive content and it always has been a trend. Creating interactive content helps us to generate more engagement. Creating interactive content is not that difficult, its as simple as Taking a quiz, Taking a poll, or making them participate in a challenge.

For example, take Instagram stories, they are providing a lot of features for interactive content like polling stickers and sliders.

Another way for interactive content is email list building or generating email lists.

Snapchat Ads:

Snapchat, one of the most popular social media platform is into the business, by introducing the Snapchat ads platform, Snapchat ads were always expensive but Snapchat has reduced there ads cost focusing on small and medium-sized businesses. Snapchat ads usually target Millenials and gently crowds. Try to make sure that your Snapchat ads are always original and authentic.

So these are some of the hottest trends for digital marketing trends in 2020, and if u want to implement them make sure you have an optimized landing page that can handle the traffic.

YouTube for Business: Most Valuable Points

Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has become a modern media powerhouse, beginning with the development of the first wave of influencers (YouTubers) and, more recently, with the launch of its music streaming platform YouTube Music.

Currently, YouTube has more than 30 million daily visitors. Nearly 500 hours of video are uploaded every minute, with more than 2,400 channels that reach in excess of 1 million subscribers.

YouTube is a wonderful platform to market your product or services. It’s an open source platform offered by Google for uploading and downloading videos. Each and every moment n number of different kinds of videos are uploaded. In addition to that you can make money out of your uploaded videos through AdSense programme offered by the Google.

Interacting with others on YouTube

There are several ways to interact with other YouTube users.

·        Comments: Comments can be organized by most popular or newest. Engaging with users who comment on your videos boosts the video's engagement traffic.

·        Likes: This is a more passive form of interacting with content. However, if you've chosen to show your likes publicly on your channel, these videos will appear under the playlists section on your channel.

·        Subscriptions: The best way for users to stay up to date with your brand's content is to subscribe. Every time a user uploads a new video, a subscriber receives a push notification. You should constantly encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel, especially since it improves your engagement traffic and increases the number of views. Many popular You Tubers incorporate reminders to subscribe at the beginning and/or end of their videos.

·        Playlists: Organize relevant content using the site's playlist feature. If you choose to publicize them, playlists will appear on your channel's page below your uploaded content. You can also organize other users' content through a list. For instance, if you're a marketing agency, you can compile a client's videos into one big list. Otherwise, this is another way to organize your own content on your channel.

·        Sharing: The site's social widget allows users to share videos on other social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Blogger, Reddit, Tumbler, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

·        Messages: You can also share videos and message privately with friends and contacts.

Advertising on YouTube

There are a few ways to advertise on YouTube, as users reap the benefits of the site's free service. Since the site is based on video content, companies are encouraged to add a call-to-action link directing viewers to their website following the video.

There are four video ad options, including TrueView in-stream ads, which play before, during or after other videos. After five seconds, users can skip the ad. You'll only be charged for the ad when a viewer watches 30 seconds of the video or interacts with the video.

There are also discovery ads, which appear when a user is searching or browsing content on YouTube or across the web. These clips aren't limited to 30 seconds; they can be as short or long as you wish. You'll be charged every time someone clicks on the ad to watch the full video.

Bumper ads are six seconds or less, and users can't skip these. These ads also appear before, during or after another video. Outstream ads play only on mobile devices, showing up on partner websites and within apps. You'll be charged for these ads based on cost per thousand impressions (vCPM).

Encourage viewers to subscribe. Subscribing is the best way for your audience to know whenever you've uploaded a video, created a new playlist and more. It also gives you an estimated figure as to who will eventually view your video.

Share videos on other social media platforms. Link back to your videos whenever possible on your website and other social media networks. However, don't stop at direct video links. Link back to your channel so your audience can see what it looks like and have the chance to subscribe.

Use relevant keywords in a video's title, tags and description. Experiment with different titles and descriptions. As with other social networking sites, selecting relevant keywords to increase hits is a common SEO strategy for marketers. It helps audiences find content that interests them. A quick exercise would be to watch one of your company's videos from the beginning and then create a list of words and phrases as you watch. You should also be realistic about which keywords you use.

Engage with similar content uploaded by other users. Like and comment on videos uploaded by other users. Not only might those users stumble upon your videos and channel, but anyone else who sees that comment or like might as well. Do this with videos that have a similar topic, interest or theme as yours to attract new viewers.

Curate playlists. If any of your videos follow a consistent theme, organize them together. Perhaps you have a Friday series, meaning you upload a video every Friday morning. You should compile all those videos into one spot through a special playlist. These playlists will also appear on your channel's page, right below your uploaded videos. 

Upload content regularly. Especially if you've developed a decent pool of subscribers, viewers will be counting on you to create, edit and upload new content. This adds relevancy to your brand. This also applies to any other website where users can follow and engage with your content. It's best to add content whenever possible, even if it isn't as consistent as you'd like. 

Use clickable links to reference other content. At the end of videos, you'll notice many videos reference previous, relevant or maybe even newer content with a clickable link inside the video. You can add these while editing your video in the site's video manager. This feature can also link back to any pages or sites your video covers.

Work with top content creators to place products. Popular YouTubers, especially those with frequently trending content, have hundreds of thousands to millions of subscribers constantly watching their channel. It could be a great business opportunity to reach out to them as a potential sponsor. Many YouTube personalities place products in their videos, which gives a specific brand a larger audience than usual.

Use YouTube stories. YouTube recently created YouTube stories, which are similar to Snapchat or Instagram stories. A story is a collection of short videos that can remain visible for a day or until they're deleted. Google is now testing Al to swap backgrounds in stories, running a beta version of it with some content creators.