The field of digital marketing is always changing, with new opportunities sprouting around every corner.
But are things looking greener for digital agencies in 2020? To help your business remain on the right side of the fence, here are five digital marketing tactics you should be using this year.
1. Vamp up your voice search
Consumers want their voices heard. Literally. It was predicted that 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020, and voice marketing is showing no signs of quietening down.
With so many searches spoken each day, is it time that you invited Alexa and Siri to your next SEO team meeting? You need to make sure your business is ready for the voice marketing takeover, and we’ve got some tips for the year ahead.
With voice search, the queries themselves are changing. This means you need to rethink how your content answers these queries. Here’s an example: to search for this article online, you would probably type in digital marketing 2020.
The query would likely sound like this: “Hey Siri, what are the best digital marketing tactics for 2020?” It’s more conversational, and the tone of your content should follow suit if you want Siri to pick it up as an answer.
Voice search-friendly content should focus less on keywords, and more on answering long-tail queries, and semantic search i.e. understanding the user’s intent. The overriding message here is that you need to think clearly about the user intent, providing relevant answers with conversational – yet concise – content.
2. Apply AI automation
Artificial Intelligence is taking over the world of marketing in 2020. That may sound dramatic, but all we mean is that your digital marketing efforts can now be automated, which is proving particularly useful for targeted advertising.
AI software is able to quickly analyse large amounts of customer data, like purchase history and geographic information, and then deliver highly personalised and relevant content to each user. AI software knows exactly what each consumer wants to see, ultimately removing the guesswork and human error of targeted ads.
This automated personalisation can also be used to improve your email campaigns. Given that personalised emails deliver 6 times higher transaction rates than regular emails, is it time you applied AI automation to all areas of your digital marketing?
3. Dodge the digital detox
In a world of scrolling, liking, and swiping, it would seem that social media is the best avenue for digital marketing success in 2020. But the growing number of digital detoxers would suggest otherwise.
With 56% of American 18 to 23-year-olds trying to reduce the time they spend on social media, you definitely shouldn’t put all your digital marketing eggs in the social media basket – even if digital detoxes only tend to last for a few weeks per person.
The best way for your business to stay immune to the digital detox is by focusing on other areas of digital marketing, like PPC, email, or display advertising. But if your business is social media-centric, then you can simply realign your content to engage with the detoxers.
In your social media content strategy, you should sympathise with their detoxing efforts, posting more about nature, encouraging physical activity, and generally demonstrating the value of balancing the digital worlds with the real.
Fortunately, social media marketing doesn’t have to be a stab in the dark. It is possible to track your success. You can, of course, search for mentions and hashtags about your brand, but for more accurate results, use a social media monitoring tool to easily keep tabs on what customers are saying about you.
4. Invest in influencers
Influencer marketing is nothing new. However, the consumer’s perception of influencer marketing is changing, so it’s important that your business uses this tactic correctly in 2020 to get the best results.
When influencer marketing was on the rise, it was common to see influencers advertising multiple products from different brands, without much thought given to each product’s relevance. Nowadays, consumers are savvy about these tactics and are seeking transparency from brands.
What does that mean for your tactics, then? Well, you should spend more time identifying influencers who share similar values to your brand, and develop long-term relationships rather than short, impersonal contracts.
You also need to think outside the celebrity box. Rather than throwing money at an A-lister, you should consider collaborating with an enthusiastic ‘micro-influencer’ – someone with a smaller, but more dedicated following. When you pick quality over quantity (in terms of the influencer’s followers), consumer perception of your brand will drastically improve.
5. Speak conversational marketing
Using AI for delivering your content is one of the latest digital marketing tactics. However, you need to remain human when you’re creating that content. In 2020, you need to listen to your customers, striking up relevant conversations whenever appropriate. This is known as conversational marketing.
There are many ways to integrate conversational marketing into your vocabulary of tactics, but the easiest way is to use a live chat feature. This is where the human, conversational touch works, with 48% of US internet users saying that the greatest challenge of using AI chatbots is that they provide too many unhelpful responses.
You can also implement conversational marketing by segmenting and personalising your emails (remember these types of emails deliver higher transaction rates), talking to customers on social media, and introducing customer loyalty programmes to help develop long-term relationships, which should pay dividends in your digital marketing endeavours.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking to revamp your digital marketing tactics, then 2020 is the year to do so. Whether your SEO needs supercharging with voice-friendly content, or your social media campaigns could use some influencer invigoration, these are the five best digital marketing tactics you can use to bring more wins to your business.