What are the biggest marketing trends for 2020? More influencer marketing, more content, more web video and more of what will get digital consumers engaged with your brand online.
Social media has now become synonymous with digital marketing, going hand-in-hand with most, if not all, digital campaigns. Habits change, platforms evolve, and new platforms come into existence. This influences how people use and react to social media marketing, as well as how marketers can reach their audience.
With this in mind, I have researched what will be the key marketing rends to look and plan for in 2020. Having the right tools at your disposal, having a premium up-to-date strategy, and implementing these skills, should help budding marketers stay ahead of the curve.
The digital detox
Global Digital Report 2019 conducted a worldwide digital yearbook report that recorded "Headline Digital Data for EveryCountry in The World." The results showed:
· The number of internet users worldwide in 2019 is 4.388 billion, up 9.1% year-on-year.
· The number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion, up 9% year-on-year.
· The number of mobile phone users in2019 is 5.112 billion, up 2% year-on-year.
Staggeringly, these figures equate to 45% of the world's population. Whilst these figures suggest that brands have it all too easy to reach larger audiences online, a new trend is effecting that audience base.
More and more than ever, people are now choosing to"detox" from social media. What does this mean? Simply, deleting apps and profiles in order to spend less time on their devices. The trends are popular within users choosing to favour one platform over another. E.g. Facebook is seeing a decline in user’s but Instagram is attracting more.
You mustn't bank all your marketing eggs in your social media basket. It is vital you spread enough budget and resource across other social channels, such as email marketing, search engine marketing, etc. Your brand needs to offer more than just memes - you need to deliver content that will have a positive and memorable impact on your audience and give as much value as possible.
Podcasts 100mph potential
Podcasts are perfect for storytelling. Whether you are a small or big business, your story and background are what helps you draw customers in, creating traffic so they become invested in your business, persuading them to choose you over the rival competition.
Starting a podcast will open opportunities for you to be found on platforms like iTunes, which has 800 million accounts, or even SoundCloud, with over 250 million active users. New listeners who come across your podcast are often those whoare searching for information on a specific topic. This ensures you’re reaching them with the right information at the right time.
Vlogging
We all remember the rise and importance of blogging when it first got discovered. Now, it has gone a step further to Vlogging. Vlog posts consist of creating a video of yourself where you talk on a specific subject such as reporting or reviewing a product or an event. The 2019 report shows that 87% of marketing professionals use video as a marketing tool (Wyzowl, 2019).
Users are seeing video content increase on various platforms and from a marketing perspective video marketing is a good way to increase profit this year, plus users love video. they love it. The fundamental reason why video marketing is favoured as a marketing tool is because of its potential to explain everything in a format that is preferred by users. Long gone are the days of users reading pages and pages of blogs, the 2020 users want to see it, feel it, and implement it.
Voice Search Optimisation
In 2020, the voice search optimisation of your website and all marketing material is a significant digital marketing trend that you cannot afford to ignore. "In fact, according to the (comScore), 50% of all searches will be done by voice by 2020 and 30% of searches will be done without even a screen according to (Gartner)."
Make sure to focus and adapt your business to becoming more voice search-friendly. If you are unsure how to integrate this in your business, start by improving your website loading time, adopting local SEO strategy and ensure you have a mobile-friendly website and take the first small step by creating a mobile-friendly website.
Influencer Marketing
Described much simpler as word-of-mouth marketing. Influencers within a niche community must be trustworthy figures and maintain a loyal following. They will typically have knowledge of what they are promoting or advertising. This trend of marketing has become more and more popular than just the company’s advisements.
The trend for consumers is that relatability has proved to be more important than the popularity of the brand.
Interactive Emails
Today, interactive emails and email newsletters have become a popular, successful trend in digital marketing. The type of digital marketing provides higher customer engagement with ease for your business. GIFs are the most popular example of interactive content in an email. This can link to videos or other interactive experiences.
According to Martech Advisor, “interactive email content increases the click-to-open rate by 73% and adding videos to your email content can boost click rates up to 300%.” Consumers want to be entertained and they want to have fun. More than they want to be informed, or made to feel curious, customers are looking for their favourite brands to entertain them with cutting-edge interactive content.
360-Degree Videos for the Real Experience
With the growing popularity of virtual reality (VR), demand for 360 video production marketing is also on the rise. This unique marketing tool works magically within industries including travel, retail, real estate, event management and many more.
With the growing wealth of 360 production tools that are now available this coming year, this software could take lift off!
2020 Prediction
Digital Marketing is about staying on top of key trends.There is no perfect strategy and it is important for businesses to peruse multiple different directions and creativity of work to see what works best for you.
If you adopt these key trends to your marketing strategy in 2020, we believe as a Creative agency you will watch your business grow more than ever.
