10 MARKETING TRENDS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR 2020

As we are rapidly approaching the end of the year, it is a great time to look ahead at where we are going and the marketing trends we are likely to see more of in 2020. I have already touched on how we can expect marketing to evolve on a strategic level, and in this article, I’ll be looking in more detail at some of the specific trends to look out for.

While technologies such as AI and data-driven marketing will certainly be big trends for 2020, the overarching focus will be on people, not technology.

1. Customer Experience:

2020 will be the year of the customer. We are seeing a massive shift in beliefs about what marketing actually is. It is no longer about trying to convince people to buy from or work with your company. Instead, the priority has moved towards providing fantastic customer experiences that will keep people coming back for more. In a sense, when you focus on building a positive business culture and providing great service, the marketing almost takes care of itself.

The growth of online content has given consumers more power. They are not waiting for you to tell you how considerable your products are. Instead, they are going out and doing their own research.

So you have to offer them something more than information.

Customer experience or CX is already the hottest buzzword in marketing circles, but it’s more than just a passing trend. 73% of people say that customer experience is an important factor in their buying decisions, but currently only 49% of US consumers say that today’s companies provide a good experience.

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2. Employee Engagement:

Your employees are the human face of your brand, so concentrating on the interactions between your employees and your customers should be a key part of your marketing strategy.

When you are turning the responsibility of creating a great customer service over to your employees, you need to make sure that they want your business to succeed as much as you do.

The key to this is building a solid foundation of employee engagement and taking steps to ensure every employee understands and is aligned with your brand mission and values.

You can’t expect your employees to care about your customers if they are not happy at work and do not actually believe in what you are doing as a business. So gaining a high level of employee engagement is the first and most significant step in correcting customer experiences.

3. Visualization:

With the explosion of smart speakers and voice search in recent years, you would be forgiven for thinking that “readable” content is more essential than visuals and design these days.

Google, Pinterest, and several other companies are also investing in visual search technology. Images are already returned for 19% of searches on Google, and 62% of millennials say they are more interest in visual search than any other new technology.

Visuals are also easier to remember than written content. Adding data visualizations, infographics, images, and videos to your text not only makes it more interesting and attractive, but it can help your message to be absorbed better too.

4. Personalization:

Increased data collection and advancements in technology have already had a huge effect on the level of personalization that is possible and on what consumers expect from their interactions with brands.

Marketing personalization is no longer limited to automatically changing the name of the person you’re addressing in your email newsletters. Improvements in technology such as AI combined with increased data collection and insights from social media and other sources have made it possible and easy to hyper-personalize everything from content to design to product recommendations and everything in-between.

5. Strategic Marketing Transformation:

Strategic marketing transformation is the term utilized to describe the procedure when a business operating without a strategic marketing plan grow by changing its fundamental business procedures.

Undergoing a marketing transformation can help companies to improve customer service and experience, boost brand awareness and reputation, and ultimately increase revenue and profits.

Businesses achieve these benefits through a combination of data collection, using modern technology, building customer relationships and engaging with customers online, publishing quality content, and improving their online presence. All of these things are part of the underlying strategy that influences every department and employee in the company, not just the marketers.

Your strategic marketing plan defines goals and determines which marketing tactics you will employ to reach your customers including content marketing, SEO, email marketing, social media, advertising, and offline marketing. It then lays out a plan for how every part of the organization will be involved in these tactics.

6. SERP Position Zero & Featured Snippets:

SEO will continue to be an important aspect of digital marketing as we move into 2020, but we’re now seeing one of the most major shifts in the SEO industry in the last decade.

With the growth of mobile and voice search, people are changing the way they use search engines like Google. Being number one in the search engine result pages or SERPS is no longer necessarily the primary goal of your business should be aiming for.

You have probably noticed your individual search and browsing behavior has changed in the last few years due to Google changes and the fact that you are looking for the fastest information when you are on the move.

Brands are still trying to figure out how to achieve position zero as it requires different SEO techniques than those employed for a normal listing in the SERPs. If you can be the first in your industry to get there, you’ll have a huge advantage over your competitors. So expect to see more SEO companies offering this service over the next year, and pay attention to the latest best practices for optimizing your content.

7. Voice Search:

I have mentioned voice search a couple of times already, so you knew it was going to be on this list. Voice search shows no sign of slowing down and will continue to be a major influence on how brands create content and market themselves online.

Consumers are also expecting to use voice search more in the near future – 61% of those aged 25–64 who already use a voice device intend to use it more in the future according to research.

8. AI-Based Automation:

Will 2020 be the year of the rise of the robots? Maybe (but hopefully not in the Terminator-style of dystopian science fiction movies!).

We have already seen huge advancements in AI over the last few years, and a great increase in the number of businesses using AI-powered technology and automation to assist their marketing efforts.

AI is one of the major technologies behind voice search and smart assistants. It’s also made chatbots possible, which are now popping up on more websites than ever before.

AI technology and automation are helping to take some of the grunt work out of marketing so brands can concentrate on strategy and crafting a fantastic customer experience.

9. Focus on Customer Retention, Loyalty and Advocacy:

A huge part of providing a great customer experience is making sure that CX is ongoing and focused on keeping your existing customers, rather than just attracting new ones.

Recurring customers are more valuable than new customers. Studies have found that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep a new one, so it is definitely worth putting in the effort to keep your customers happy.

Loyal customers also help to increase the reputation and awareness of your brand as they will talk about your company and products with their friends and family. Happy customers make great brand ambassadors and influencers.

10. Live Video:

The live video industry is expected to be worth over $70 billion by 2021. Live video is incredibly popular with customers, and people spend three times longer watching live video than they do watching pre-recorded video.

Video is also the most popular method for customers to learn about new products.

When the live element is added, this makes video more engaging as the audience feels they’re a part of it and can influence the content, rather than just passively watching.

Live video is great for grabbing the attention of your social audience on Facebook or Instagram. These types of videos are so attractive to viewers because they tap into “FOMO” or fear of missing out. When you are not sure if a live video is going to contain a tidbit of information that you can’t get anywhere else, or it will mean you’re the first to find out about some new and exciting news, you’re going to want to watch it.

Now is the time to know about Digital Marketing Trends for 2020 and start planning your marketing strategy if you haven’t already. Make sure you start the New Year with a clear plan of your goals and how you are going to achieve them.If you want to learn more about this then Digital Marketing training in Chandigarh is the right place for you.