20 Feb Digital Marketing Trends to Consider in 2020
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Digital Marketing Trends to Consider in 2020
The advent of social media, the proliferation of information on the internet, and fast technological advances have created a race. The purpose of this race is to find things that allow you to stand out among the crowd. For a consumer, this means they are forever searching for new products and alternatives to the ones they already have. This results in a huge and constant change in market trends, and that creates a huge challenge for companies.
The brunt of that challenge shifts to the marketing department as they have to find creative ways to attract customers. Sure, you can create amazing products, but what would be the point if there is no one to buy it.
It is well established by now that traditional marketing tools are simply too outdated. Everything needs to be digital now, and digital marketing is the way to go too. Let us take a look at the most important trends of digital marketing that we must keep an eye on in 2020 to stay successful and relevant.
1. Artificial intelligence
It should be quite obvious by now that artificial intelligence is one of the most important things going forward. You can dream all you want about the whole Terminator scenario. But before reaching for the edges, let us take a look at what is happening in AI. From a digital marketing perspective, AI is turning out to be a big problem solver for companies.
Tools like chatbots are a great example of AI where you can use technology to communicate with your consumers. A key development is the ability to communicate in a natural language, so the bot feels like a real person. This is important for customer satisfaction and can even be used to convince customers to make purchases.
Currently, AI is playing a key role in several different areas, like basic communication with customers and providing recommendations based on customer-defined parameters. It’s also involved in creating new content, generating emails that sound a lot more personal in their tone, making transactions for customers, and so much more.
2. Tailored experiences
With so much spam and noise floating around the internet, consumers try to ignore marketing as much as possible. If you want to grab someone’s attention, you have to look and sound like someone that they may know. Or at the very least, they should feel like you know them. Generic advertising content is highly annoying for most people, and they try to avoid it at every cost.
Subsequently, if a consumer receives a personalised experience from you, the chances of them making a purchase are much higher. Ask around, and you will probably see 90% of people say they would prefer a personalised experience.
Companies are using consumer data to determine all sorts of things about them and even to predict their interests. You will see these strategies used in a wide range of scenarios, be it grocery shopping, travel, hotel stays, etc. Some have earned billions simply by changing their approach and letting the customer have more say in the product they want.
3. Video marketing
One of the strongest tools that you can use to improve your digital marketing is videos. The power of videos is still not fully realised, and a lot of brands are behind in this aspect. Consumer data, on the other hand, gives all the evidence you could want of its success. The chances of you improving your conversion rates through video are incredibly high. They also provide the most authentic and reliable source for the consumer to judge a product before buying it.
Simply put, they are the best tool for consumers to learn about any product. Whether you are selling something generic or creating something brand new, having video marketing in your strategy is mandatory!
A lot of you might even be thinking that videos mean YouTube, but that is far from the truth. There was a short time when YouTube videos were the only place for digital marketing videos but not anymore. With new tools emerging, how you communicate with your customers via video is also evolving.
Live streaming on Facebook and other platforms, making use of the quirky and fun tools in Instagram and Snapchat, and even creating dedicated video feeds are the way to go now. It also touches the affiliate marketing side where you get popular YouTube video-makers to review your products.
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4. Influencer marketing
Continuing with the subject we were just talking about; influencer marketing has created a huge place for itself in the marketing world. With so many social media channels connecting to millions of people daily, digital marketers use them as an effective platform for marketing. One of the biggest positive points about influencer marketing is that they can create a sense of reality about your product that no other method could.
Seeing a real person interact with a real product generates a lot of confidence in customers. A lot of firms, especially the newer and smaller ones, are now relying primarily on influencer marketing to get the word out about their products.
The impact of being able to relate to a real ordinary person is so great that a lot of big brands are also changing their digital marketing strategies. Instead of opting for celebrities, they are now trying to create ads that involve ordinary-looking people without any glamour that relate to the person watching the ad.
And this is not just a temporary scenario either. Influencer marketing’s success is growing so rapidly that by 2021, an estimated ad budget of $10 billion will be allocated to it.
5. Messaging apps
The popularity of messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Snapchat etc. carries a huge potential for digital marketing. WhatsApp alone hosts a massive 55 billion messages sent every day with a billion active users daily. Add to that the user base of WeChat and Facebook Messenger and the total number you get is bigger than the user base of YouTube or Facebook!
What that means quite simply is that the level of activity on social messaging apps is a big digital marketing target. A lot of businesses are now using these apps to communicate with their customers for many different reasons. Whether it is to develop new leads, communicate about products, remain connected to current customers or generate sales, it is all happening on these apps.
There are specific tools that these social media platforms are creating for businesses to derive maximum benefit from this huge user base. It also costs a lot less than other marketing methods, so not taking advantage would be extremely unwise.
6. Visual searches
The new generation of customers is creating a completely new paradigm on how products should appear to them. One of the key search methods that millennial buyers are interested in is visual search. Being able to find the product simply by uploading a reference image is the new trend.
Optimising your digital marketing strategy to meet this new requirement is quickly becoming more and more crucial, so make sure you read our blog – the “Top 10 Application Marketing Strategies”. Even if you do a regular Google search, nearly a fifth of the results it shows are now images. This means customers are genuinely interested in finding things that they only have a visual reference for.
What this also means is that companies have to generate a lot more visual appeal for their products if they want to sell successfully. Optimising images to the point that they hit targets every time should be a major focus for businesses in 2020.
7. Stories
A hugely popular component of social media apps that almost all giants have adapted is stories. The ability to post full-screen posts that only last a fixed period, usually 24 hours, can be a major FOMO creator. FOMO means “Fear of Missing Out”, and this is a great way of generating quick sales.
When you post a great deal for your customers, but the information about the deal is only visible for a single day, consumers are much more inclined to make quick decisions. The full-screen aspect also ensures that the customer is not distracted with a bunch of other information on their screen.
This high attention, low-cost method of marketing is showing a lot of promise too. Even when you are working with influencers, they tend to charge less for stories. There are a whole bunch of great tools you can employ as well, such as embedded website links, location tags, audience filtering, etc.
In addition to that, you can also do a lot of other things like creating polls, answering direct questions and more. This is a side of digital marketing that you should grasp quickly to reap the full rewards.
8. Push notifications
Get out of the way newsletters because push notifications have arrived and they are here to stay. You see a pop-up on almost every single website nowadays asking you to approve being sent push notifications. This is how websites are making it more convenient for users to communicate with them. Why wait for a newsletter to catch your customer’s eye when they open their email when you can show up directly on their screen?
The results and success that push notifications are showing are staggeringly higher than that of even the best email newsletter services. The secondary approach means the chances of your customers responding to or even opening your email are slim.
Push notifications are expected to grow at a much faster rate in the coming days for their effectiveness and convenience. Whether it is to ask a customer to sign up, display ads, create CTAs or anything else, push notifications are the way to go. With the ability to add graphics as well, these are the ultimate tool for businesses to generate higher conversion rates on all site visits and abandoned carts.
Take the smart approach
If you are working in your company’s digital marketing department, you have probably already seen the importance of change. The trends in this article are a clear indication of how rapidly digital marketing is changing. Staying ahead of these changes is the only way to achieve long term success.
Of course, asking for professional help is also a good way to fool proof your digital marketing strategy. With companies like edirect providing professional digital marketing assistance, you can be confident that the strategy you get is the most up-to-date one that meets your needs effectively. Take the bold step and transition into the future of digital marketing.