How Are You Going To Stay Ahead Of The Digital Marketing Trends In 2020?
As a small business owner, how are you going to stay ahead of the trends when it’s just you or you’ve got a small team? The digital space is rapidly changing. Just staying on top of what you need to do for your business is often all consuming. So how do you stay up to date with the constant changes online? In this blog I discuss the seven top digital marketing trends for 2020 with another five thrown in just for good measure. Not everything is brand new and despite the rapid changes in the way we navigate the online space, some of these digital marketing trends have been around for a while.
(tl;dr Click here to Watch the Videos Below)
The way we are entertained, learn and search online has dictated the way we need to market our businesses. Our clients have short attention spans and the more they are online, the more there is a need for connection. Marketing is simply showing your clients you fill a need in their life. To do that you need to establish a relationship and as you will see with the top digital marketing trends they do focus strongly on relationship building.
The 7 Top Digital Marketing Trends
Video Marketing – one of, if not THE, most important marketing trend today and likely to remain so for the next 5-10 years. It is the fastest way to build a rapport with your clients.- Chatbots – will continue to be an important part of digital marketing in 2020. It is an instant customer relationship tool.
- Personalisation – If you want to stand out in 2020, you need to personalise your marketing, nobody likes to feel like just another number.
- Influencer Marketing – focus on micro-influencers for word-of-mouth marketing amplify your brand message to a larger market. With this trend you are tapping into some one else’s relationship with their followers.
- Visual Search – take the user experience to a totally new level: People can upload an image to conduct a search and get more specific results.
- Micro-Moments – “An intent-rich moment when a person turns to a device to act on a need – to know, go, do or buy.”
- Voice Search & Smart Speakers – The increasing use of voice search has made Google change its algorithm in 2020.
5 Other Digital Marketing Trends to Watch
👉 Social Media Stories
👉 Browser Push Notifications
👉 Content Marketing
👉 Social Commerce & Shoppable Posts
👉 Interactive Content (Quizzes and polls – Embedded calculators – Augmented reality ads – 360-degree videos)
1️⃣ Video Marketing For 2020
It’s ironic that the more time we spend online, the more we want to have that actual connection with the person that we see at the other end of the screen, and that’s where video marketing comes in. In fact, predictions state this trend will keep increasing over the next five to 10 years.
There are new video platforms that also build on this trend. The rapid adoption of TikTok, which offers 15-second snippets of snackable content. You don’t need to engage your brain too much, you are entertained for 15 seconds, move on to the next video. It may have been a platform developed for the younger generation, there are a lot of business owners that are now starting to use it, as TikTok is great for creating Instagram content and video content.
So, why is video improving and increasing, and why is the trend increasing? Because 70% of consumers say that they’ve actually shared a brand video at some stage, and 72% of businesses say that it’s actually improved their conversion rate. Not only that, but 52% of your ideal customer will watch a product video, and state it makes them more likely to buy that particular product. So if you have an online store or you are selling products online, over half of your customers will watch your product video, to determine whether they buy or not.
2️⃣ Chatbot Marketing in 2020
Chatbot marketing is a trend that is increasingly being adopted by small business despite Facebook’s ongoing changes. Simply because it’s great when it comes to customer service. It is an AI-based technology for instant messaging. Our mobile phones are used for nearly everything we do online which has increased the need and the expectation of instant response, instant gratification, instant entertainment. Chatbots are not going anywhere anytime soon.
Despite Facebook changing algorithms and rules around what you can and can’t do using Chatbots, predictions are that by the end of 2020, Chatbots will power 85% of customer service. The biggest benefit of Chatbots is the fact that you do have ta 24-hour service as well as instant response to inquiries. This ensures your clients aren’t leaving a message left feeling as if they are waiting for you to come back to them. By the end of 2020, 80% of businesses will actually either have a Chatbot or have this marketing trand in their plans to install as part of their customer service.
3️⃣ Personalisation Marketing in 2020
If you want to stand out in 2020, one of the big things that you’ve got to look at is personalisation. You know, getting a generic email that has been sent out to everybody in that particular company’s database doesn’t make you feel special, or important. The more we are online the more we want to feel that connection. The more we expect from those companies and businesses we are spending our money with.
If you’re running an online store, personalisation becomes essential. It is the fastest way to guide your customer through the purchase journey with notifications and emails. Even having a simple email sequence set up so that if a customer buys a particular product, within a couple of weeks, they get another email from you either recommending something similar or asking for feedback. Personalisation, is effectively building a relationship and creating a relationship with them.
4️⃣ Micro-influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a trend has been around for a while and for most small business is often beyond the marketing budget. Hence the shift to micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are brands or people that have a database or following of approximately 10,000 or less, of highly engaged followers in a particular niche. Generally, they don’t cost you an absolute fortune, but they have spent the time building a relationship with their followers. This means that when they represent or talk about a brand or product, it has the same trust-building level, if not more than a major celebrity. They have a relationship with their followers, which makes this marketing trend effective because you can tap into specific niche markets.
Of course this depends on who your ideal client is, as to whether you would target micro-influencers in your niche. So while it is a powerful marketing tool, you need to be careful as to who it is that you partner with, and do your homework.
5️⃣ Visual Search in 2020
On nearly every video or blog I do on SEO, I talk a lot about how you name your images. There is a very specific way of optimising your images so that they show up online, when people are searching for your product or service. In 2020 visual search will become more important because, with the amount of time spent online, customers don’t want to read a whole lot of text.
If you’ve got an image that actively portrays what someone is searching for, whether it’s an infographic, a chart, even just a general image that’s named correctly, you are going to come up in visual search.
Pinterest is leading the way when it comes to visual search. They have a visual search tool called Lens, which allows people to take a photo of a product, and search Pinterest to find out where to buy it online.
Of course Pinterest isn’t actually a social media platform. It is a search engine which is great for driving traffic to your website and blogs. Also, when one platform brings out a particular, a particular tool like Pinterest Lens, you can be guaranteed that the other platforms won’t be far behind doing the same thing.
6️⃣ Micro-moments in 2020
Micro-moments is a term coined by Google about 5 years ago, to describe how we search with our mobile phones. A micro-moment is nothing more than a particular moment when a person uses their phone with a strong intent to act on a need, learn, go, buy or discover. Google Maps anyone?
Micro-moments are best described searching ‘near me’, whether it is buying an item broken down at home and using your phone or computer for the nearest stockist is. Ensuring your content online is able to be found when people are going through these micro-moments, is key. Whether you are answering a question, giving information, filling a need.
Ensure your Google My Business is set up, as statistically, 92% will go to Google first when they’re searching for for what you provide. This ensures your business is showing up in maps and search.
7️⃣ Voice Search
The final of the 7 digital marketing trends for 2020 is voice search. This has been increasing with the increase in the adoption of smart speakers. The sales of smart speakers are increasing, with predictions that by the end of this year, 50% of all searches will be done via voice search. This trend has actually seen Google roll out an algorithm change at the end of 2019 called BERT.
The sole purpose of BERT was to ensure Google search could respond accurately to voice search. Again, predictions are that by 2022, (so in two years’ time), 55% of homes will have a smart speaker, the shipping of these products is increasing.
So those are the seven main trends that as a small business owner you really need to be looking at for your business. There are five others that I thought were well worth mentioning.
Other Digital Marketing Trends to Watch
👉 Social media stories, we are using them more often. Facebook and Instagram initially started their version of ephemeral marketing to take on Snapchat for that particular market. Now even YouTube is getting in on the act with short, mobile-only videos that allow eligible creators with 10,000 subscribers or more to connect with their community more casually. YouTube stories expire after 7 days just like Google My Business.
👉 Browser push notifications. A website pop-up, drops down from the top, asks for your location and states “we’d like to send you notifications”. You get the option to accept. 85% of online stores by the end of 2019 were using push notifications, as 50% more of people will actually sign up for a web push notification than they will for a newsletter.
👉 Content marketing. Not new, but still essential to being found online as Google is a search engine. The more optimised content you put out, the more relevant information you give, you give Google more to work with.
👉 Shoppable posts. This is a marketing option Instagram is rolling out. If Instagram is doing it, Facebook and Pinterest won’t be far behind. Social commerce and shoppable posts will only increase in 2020. Social media platform don’t want people leaving their platforms, so if your clients can buy a product and still stay on Instagram, Instagram is happy.
👉 Interactive content. Now, how many times have you visited a website and completed a poll, a quiz or used some kind of calculator? Again, it’s all about entertainment and being interactive, rather than just passively reading through text.
Conclusion
So that is the 7 top digital marketing trends for 2020 with five more growing marketing trends to look at adding to your digital marketing strategy.
If you’ve got no idea of how to apply even two or three of those into your marketing strategy, let’s chat. If you are looking for a guide of how to start, I do have a 16 page strategy workbook, click here to download. There is no better time than NOW to get your strategy set up for this exciting new year. Know who your ideal client is, know your clear concise message and know WHERE you should show up online!
If you have any questions or simply want to chat, drop a comment below! Otherwise connect with me on your favourite Social media platform, as I am on nearly every one! If you don’t know how to pull this all together, every month, I hold Digital Success workshops focusing on different marketing elements. Obviously this month is Strategy & Planning, however if you don’t live in my local vicinity, these workshops will soon be going online, giving me a great opportunity to take my own advice and meet my clients where they are at giving value.
So, if you are stuck or overwhelmed with creating the right Marketing strategy for you and your ideal clients, I have Strategy Sessions available. If its time to get a Clear Action Plan, Digital Strategy Map & Checklists, you can check out the details here!
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Digital Marketing Trends FAQs
- Video Marketing – one of, if not THE, most important marketing trend today and likely to remain so for the next 5-10 years. It is the fastest way to build a rapport with your clients.
- Chatbots – will continue to be an important part of digital marketing in 2020. It is an instant customer relationship tool.
- Personalisation – If you want to stand out in 2020, you need to personalise your marketing, nobody likes to feel like just another number.
- Influencer Marketing – focus on micro-influencers for word-of-mouth marketing amplify your brand message to a larger market. With this trend you are tapping into some one else’s relationship with their followers.
- Visual Search – take the user experience to a totally new level: People can upload an image to conduct a search and get more specific results.
- Micro-Moments – “An intent-rich moment when a person turns to a device to act on a need – to know, go, do or buy.”
- Voice Search & Smart Speakers – The increasing use of voice search has made Google change its algorithm in 2020.
