Are you the kind of person that is usually tuned in when it comes to trends or one of the people that dread them?
Trends are actually very useful in guiding, planning and strategizing in disciplines such as Digital Marketing. That is why being familiar with most Digital Marketing trends can help you get a lead on your competitors.
Your company probably uses now at least one technique or tool that was once seen as a trend. Staying on top of changes in the market is only a way to guarantee you will be able to discern the fads from the long-lasting changes.
Take a look at these 2020 Digital Marketing trends to learn which ones can be applied to reach your company’s goals.
Sales trend in Digital Marketing
Sales are often one of the biggest concerns of the marketing department. After all, that’s what it all comes down to at the end of the day.
Building relationships with customers, trying to reach them, and even teaching them is all done with one focus in mind: helping a company sell more.
That’s why we will focus first on Digital Marketing trends that result in sales. Check out how they are being used by companies to succeed.
Use Machine Learning to sell more
Machine Learning is a tool that is being applied by businesses more and more often as time goes by. It isn’t hard to understand why as the tech finally reached a point of maturity that makes it especially useful in sales.
It is an Artificial Intelligence trend. With it, computers and software can digest information and apply it to everyday problems at scale.
Things that were hard to do with limited personnel, like lead scoring, take just a few minutes with Machine Learning.
That is why companies are using this resource to perform almost-real-time lead scoring so they can better understand the behavior of clients when interacting with the company.
Digital Marketing content trends
To get to sales, though, a company has to start somewhere. More than a decade ago, that would probably mean advertising in some form of print media, like newspapers or magazines. Maybe put a spot on the local radio. But now the internet is where it’s at.
In order to get ahead, Outbound Marketing was left behind by companies, and Inbound Marketing came to replace it.
This strategy focuses on building content that will help customers engage with a brand and make purchasing decisions.
Below, you’ll see the most important Digital Marketing trends for content in 2020.
Generate traffic for content with Google Discover
If you have an Android phone, you are probably already familiar with this tool. Google Discover presents users with a lot of relevant information (and relevant ads) and has been used since 2017 by the brand on all Google apps.
It works as a newsfeed and can be found, for instance, on your Google Now app. Based on your past searches and behaviors, Google caters messages that will be enticing to you, like the score in the last game of your favorite team or articles referring to products you’ve recently bought.
It is a significant change because it means content can get to users even if they don’t search it.
Inbound Marketing relies on organic consumption of content to build a relationship with customers, but with Google Discover, it is rapidly evolving to make the searching part of the process a thing of the past.
Getting your content into Google Discover starts with great Search Engine Optimization. Likely, your blog has already appeared in one of the Google Discover cards. You can find that out by searching on Google Analytics for “googleapis.com” referral traffic.
Google Discover is going to be available on all platforms and tied to every single one of Google’s apps.
Right now, that already means more than 800 million users that could be reading up on your content using the tool.
Search Engine Optimization for mobile
Since we are talking about SEO and its importance, we have to face the increase in mobile searches. You might have noticed changes in your behavior that are also seen on other users. People search more on their phones than on their computers, and that trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
But what does it mean for businesses who based their Search Engine Optimization strategies in web browsing? It means that it’s time to redirect your efforts.
Having a mobile site isn’t the only thing you should be doing to make better content for your company.
It’s about time you start focusing on keywords that are searched more often on the go and in making the user experience better by increasing page speed and image loading.
Google has developed the AMP project to help pages look better on mobile. If you haven’t started looking into this yet, it’s time you consider changing your pages to the AMP format.
Get personal with your website
There’s nothing the consumer likes better than customized experiences, after all we implement them on every single aspect of brand management.
This Digital Marketing trend has finally reached the point where it calls for personalized websites, and that is a major change that will impact your company.
The way you deliver content is essential to how it performs. Smart content and cookies have been used to talk directly to users, mentioning their names or the companies they work for in the pitch made by chatbots for awhile. But real customized content isn’t that.
The newest trend is adapting to how your website talks to the user in all instances. A 5-to-1 ratio of the times you speak to and about your customer to each time you talk about your company is part of that trend.
Other efforts, like reframing the way you present your solutions to address specific problems only your persona has is also a part of this trend.
Website trends for Digital Marketing
Not everything about marketing on the internet is content creation. Having a good website, for instance, is as much about developing a tool that can be used with ease by your clients to gather information, as it as about providing that information.
Because of that, we can say there are a few Digital Marketing trends specific for websites.
The following 2020 trends focus on how you can build a better experience for your customers and your prospects. Take a look!
Replace brand awareness with brand affinity
For long time companies were focused on brand awareness as the best way to make a client notice and remember them. But that has recently changed to a steady focus on a more valuable effort: brand affinity.
Brand affinity means that a client not only knows your company but identifies with it. That identification helps them build long-lasting relationships.
The shift in focus means that a company must strive to say something to both customers and influencers, which are of great help in promoting the brand even when the consumer is not on your website.
One way to promote brand affinity on your website is by changing the tone of voice.
That Digital Marketing strategy can be as simple as presenting the company’s cases in a more personal way, using storytelling, or as complex as having a digital spokesperson that talks and represents your brand online.
Personalized solutions in one click
As we mentioned before, personalization is essential for customers. That is why one of the trends we see on websites is the possibility of choosing from a few pre-selected options so customers can make it their own.
The possibility of changing the colors on a website’s dashboard or moving around some of its components so they can benefit each particular user experience is a great way to promote this personalization on a webpage.
Look into what your persona would like to customize on a website and, if needed, do a survey amongst your customers to gain a better idea of what would be great personalizations to the experience.
Embedding interactive tools on websites is also a fun way to do that. Price calculators, polls, and other types of interactive content can do wonders for a website’s engagement and the experience it offers to customers.
Just remember that your interactive content must first and foremost advance the relationship your brand has with a customer.
So you should always consider tools that will fit into the conversion funnel and serve to build a better understanding between your business and the visitors it gets on its website.
Digital Marketing social media trends
Social media was once a trend itself. Although some saw the mere idea that companies should put up profiles on the internet to establish constant contact with consumers as a crazy idea, but look at where we are today.
It’s hard to find a business that isn’t on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram, and that has created its own subset of trends.
The following Digital Marketing trends focus on how a company can approach their relationship with customers on social media websites using what we learned in the last few years dealing with online marketing.
Livestream all you can for more engagement
Video has quickly become one of the most effective tools marketers can use in their strategies.
With social networks like TikTok growing in popularity at an amazing rate, it is hard to ignore the need for including this type of media in your strategy. But you can go wrong even if you’re following a major trend like that.
The more traditional marketing solution for video is to create material in the studio, edit, polish it and then publish. That’s not what audiences seem to be looking for.
According to Core DNA research, 80% of users would rather watch live streams than read up on content like blog posts.
That isn’t surprising as live streams often generate a high number of views for companies.
Consider including in your strategic plans for regular live feeds on places like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for more engagement.
Be creative when thinking of those live streams and consider inviting experts and promoting talks that will be relevant to your business’ persona.
Forget your Instagram feed
Been losing interest in the products you promote on Instagram? Maybe you’re using the wrong tool to increase sales and brand recognition. The stories function is where the action is at, and a third of the most viewed ones are from businesses.
If your company hasn’t jumped to the conclusion that investing less on your feed and more in real-time posting in Instagram Stories, consider all the tools it offers for engagement and getting to know your customers.
Polls and tags are great ways to understand how clients feel about your marketing strategy in an instant and should be used to make your content more interactive and fun.
The landscape of Digital Marketing trends has evolved a lot in recent years. Just a while ago, a trend report such as this would list things that are now considered everyday tools for marketers, like email marketing and establishing a social media presence.
That is why it is so important for marketers to read on trends and try to implement the relevant ones in their businesses as soon as possible. Most of what you’ve seen in this Digital Marketing trends report will be the status quo for marketing departments starting now.
Now that you know the most relevant trends for Digital Marketing in 2020, you need to plan your strategy. See how you can do your Digital Marketing plan in 5 steps in this blog post!