Top digital marketing trends you need to know in 2020

2020 is here, and every year experts of various industries will highlight the trends they think are to come over the next 12 months. Below, we’ve put together some of the most interesting trends highlighted by established marketers across the world, so you can stay ahead of the curve.

Social commerce

E-commerce and social media are already powerful in the world of marketing, but according to Rachel Swann, commercial director at 3radical, many brands are now combining the two to maximise opportunities for sales. Shoppable posts are more user friendly today, so brand no longer have to worry about prompting social media followers to visit their online shops.

Following the launch of Instagram Checkout in March 2019, shoppable posts are getting way more attention, which is no surprise considering 54% of consumers using social media to research purchases. This allows brands to reach new customers and shorten the sales funnel to provide almost instant access to the products they want.

Video and live-streaming

Platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Twitch have skyrocketed video into the marketing world, and according to Hubspot, 54% of consumers want to see videos from brands or business they support. And you’re not just limited to YouTube anymore, now functions like going live on Facebook and Instagram allow you to directly video out to your network. So if you’re looking to improve your content marketing strategy to engage and connect with your audience, video is the way forward. 

How?

Hold live Q&A’s, or tell your audience about how your products or services solve their problem.Identify popular content from your blogs and repurpose it into short how-to videos.

Conversational marketing

Conversational marketing comes in many forms, like email marketing, live customer support, customer success programs, Facebook Messenger and chatbots. Businesses are now realising that these one-to-one conversations are what helps to move buyers through their marketing funnels. Being human, and providing a personal service creates a better buying experience, where you can also learn a lot about your audience.

Data strategy

Econsultancy.com spoke with Daniel Gilbert, CEO of Brainlab, who spoke about data and its importance in the profession:

“In 2018, I predicted that creativity would take a back seat during the economic unrest following Brexit negotiations, in favour of investment into channels that are effective at driving sales. In the past year, we’ve been inundated by articles decrying a lack of creativity in the industry, backed by an IPA report finding a “crisis in creative effectiveness”. There’s an ongoing battle between creative and data that I just don’t agree with. They’re not enemies: creative is informed by good data architecture, which is why data strategy is going to be the key theme for 2020.

“This year, we started to see the impact of a new age of data privacy, with a number of high-profile fines being issued under the GDPR, on top of a number of incidents of media owners misusing user data.

“Initiatives like Intelligent Tracking Protection have sent a clear message to advertisers: data needs to be handled appropriately, and personalisation should not come at the cost of user privacy.

“In 2020, I’d like to see the industry actually following through on past promises and collecting data transparently to improve the overall data economy, and increase trust with consumers. There will be consequences for all of us if we don’t step up our game and treat data with care.”

Buyer profiling

AI now powers customer segmentation, push notifications, click tracking retargeting and content creation. Marketers are using AI for product and campaign recommendations. Alex Membrillo, from Cardinal Digital Marketing told Forbes that he thinks marketers will continue to use AI to improve customer service, for profiling buyers based on their behaviours and actions.

The age of voice search

Nifty voice assistants are making our lives easier, like Alexa and Google Assistant. Almost every smartphone is integrated with the voice search system. Voice search is a valuable tool for the growth of digital marketing. This tool had made it easy for internet users to access internet services anywhere and everywhere. It’s still yet to replace text search, but over the next few years we’re sure its usage will vastly increase.

Email marketing continues to dominate

Email still remains the basic principle and trend of digital marketing. Email marketing is an appropriate way of understanding and targeting audiences. With the increasing competition and innovation, “brand loyal” has become just a term. Customer preferences continue to change, and therefore it is essential that marketers make it easy to update every preference to ensure customers are always engaged with the right content. Email marketing also improves customer engagement, allowing marketers to better understand audience behaviours from new, existing and potential customers.

Dynamic content delivery

Personalization is essential for marketers today. Consumers expect to receive emails and offers tailored to their specific needs almost instantly. In fact, according to statistics from Instapage, 54% of shoppers anticipate a personalised discount within a day of sharing their information with a retailer.

But in 2020, consumers want next-level personalisation – dynamic content. Also known as adaptive content, this refers to web content that changes based on the user’s demographics, behaviours, preferences, and interests. For instance, the content on a webpage can change based on the weather of the location the user is in, like in the example below. 

Traditional & digital marketing efforts

Many marketers will draw a fine line between the two, both in the ways they think and operate. However, duplication of job roles, two separate marketing strategies and the inability to make digital relevant to consumers are all examples of wasted money and time following the disconnect between traditional and digital marketing efforts.

The solution? Toss out the typical traditional v digital mindframe and adapt a process to ‘marketing’ – an integrated effort that understand and develops the needs of the customer. Create content for people, not products and services, and identify why individuals are interacting with a business if you want to optimise customer experience across each channel.

Change is a fundamental part of marketing, so we must look forward to innovate and adapt successfully if you want success in 2020.