It does not matter what in the business world you are engaged in. Not paying attention to the “digital marketing trends” can ruin the business quickly and sustainably. Is your business at the top of the list in the competition? Are you beating your competitors? Do you enjoy high turnover and huge profits?
The modern business is equal to implementing cutting-edge digital marketing strategies as they do it to be on the top of the competition in terms of sales and popularity.
On the other hand, it does not have to be that complicated as before. Modern strategies and technologies help you keep up with the trends and grow your business. Here we share with you what digital marketing trends are in 2020.
Table of Contents
1. Strategic Marketing Transformation:
The explosion of new technologies and strategies used in marketing can make it difficult for organizations to keep up. From content marketing to social media to email marketing and digital advertising, new technologies and techniques are being released at a dizzying pace, and it can be hard to keep track of everything that’s out there.
Yes, the digital marketing strategy must be updated from time to time, but it still serves as a map for your organization’s marketing activities and helps to keep everything on track.
By understanding the strategies and tactics used by your competitors, you can create a strategic marketing plan that will help your business to gain an edge. This plan will tell you, first and foremost, what your competitors are doing and how you can do better.
The true value in marketing comes from understanding the needs of the target audience. Very often, business owners think they know exactly what their customers want, but if you’re not asking the right questions, you could be missing an opportunity. Your marketing strategy should include regular research and market studies to help you form your plan and give you a competitive advantage.
Recent developments in artificial intelligence, big data, and analytics have made it possible to gain valuable insights into your target audience by mining information from vendors, social media, and online commerce. Use that data wisely to help you form a winning strategy and make the most of your marketing budget.
A strategic marketing plan isn’t just a science; it’s a blend of art and science. Use modern technology to make planning faster, easier, and more flexible, but trust your gut and explore creative ways to gain more insights into your customers and target audience.
Your business must be able to adapt to change quickly, but it should never lose sight of its values or its identity. It’s the sense of who you are as a company that will fuel your vision and helps you to stay focused, no matter which trends and technologies come and go.
2. Voice Search:
Currently, search engines account for the majority of online searches. This has led to the creation of a voice search. Voice search is very much the same as typed search. What sets them apart is the way that users input queries. We don’t have to type words into our search engines anymore; we can speak them.
Until very recently, most people carried out searches with their fingers on a keyboard. Soon, they’ll be using their voices, thanks to the innovations in voice recognition technology that are making voice search possible.
Google heavily promotes the Google Assistant, which is the company’s artificially intelligent voice search and personal assistant that uses the Google search engine. It’s installed on most major smartphones. Because of this, both Google and customers are heavily invested in voice search. Customers are now expecting technology to anticipate questions before they’re asked and will get frustrated if a digital device fails to ask for their permission to use their location.
It’s only a matter of time before voice search becomes the dominant means for searching online. It’s already overtaking Google searches in popularity (the top ten voice searches in the UK involve contextual questions like “weather,” “how do I get to,” “what time is,” and “where-is?”)
In fact, almost half of all Google searches are conducted by voice rather than written text. According to an August 2017 study from BI Intelligence, 43% of all searches originated from voice devices – that’s 18% higher than for the previous year. That figure constantly rises each year with estimates predicting that 50% of all searches will be done by voice by the end of 2018.
Voice search is growing rapidly because it’s more convenient. There are certain insights you can only get with voice search. With an ever-growing number of voice-activated devices, such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, and smartphones, our day-to-day lives will soon become even more convenient thanks to voice search.
Voice search comes in many forms. You could use a wearable device such as Google Glass, a smart speaker like the Amazon Echo, a smartphone app like Google Search, or you could ask Google to run a search.
For many, this is much more convenient than typing in a request. So, if you’re in a rush and don’t want to write a sentence in your search box, all you need to do is say to your Google Home:
“Ok, Google, how do I get to The O2?”
And you’ll be given a spoken response with a Google Map. Or, you might ask Google about a popular topic, such as “What time are The Simpsons on Channel 4?”
Google will interpret the ambiguous “The Simpsons” and try to find the website The Simpsons schedule. If it finds it, it will show you the answer. You can also ask it to find a recipe for a dish you’re cooking or a method for making your hair curly.
How Voice Search Works
A lot is going on in the background of a voice search. It’s actually a very complex question to answer. To solve this, three different components in Google Search are involved:
The speech recognizer – handles the conversion of spoken words into text by using machine learning and artificial neural networks.
The speech recognition engine – translates the text from the first component into a meaning/logic representation that the integrated search system can understand. It converts the words into a structured, hierarchical form for processing.
The integrated search system – connects the structured information to the rest of the search engine via an intermediate layer. It also understands what a user wants and generates a ranked list of results about your request.
The powerful combination of all three of these components is what makes voice search possible.
It also allows search engines to understand the meaning and context of a request, turning literal words into a more meaningful representation of the answer the search engine is looking for. For example, a search for “weather” means something completely different from the request for “weather forecast.” The natural language processing (NLP) capabilities of voice search allow Google to be much more accurate in recognizing the intent of the user.
Google understands spoken words using an approach called “word spotting” or “automatic keyword spotting.” This employs a combination of artificial neural networks and machine learning to interpret the sounds made by audio. It’s not perfect, so the accuracy of voice search will probably never hit 100%. This means that Google’s voice search can get confused and mix up words you say. Voice assistants need to break out of this behaviour and start understanding the meaning of the speaker’s words.
3. AI-Based Automation:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the branch of computer science that aims to create intelligent machines that work and react like humans. This is done by giving computers certain “intelligence” that allows them to “think” in the same way as a human would, and to learn as humans do.
In simple terms, AI can be defined as the intelligence that’s exhibited by machines or software-driven devices, like computers and smartphones. AI requires a computer to be programmed to carry out specific tasks that aren’t pre-defined by a person or a process.
An example of AI in action is a computer that can beat the best human chess players. Rather than playing the game randomly, a computer can evaluate every possible outcome in a 30-move move from the beginning, quickly identifying the best moves and responding to the moves made by its human opponent.
Deep Learning refers to the ability of computers to “think” more like a human and be able to process a large amount of information (more than a typical computer program). This process involves unsupervised machine learning and self-learning algorithms.
Artificial intelligence is set to play an important part in digital marketing in the 2020s. While we may expect AI to automate a large chunk of work in digital marketing, it’s important to note that it won’t be able to do everything. It will only be able to automate simple tasks and improve processes that it would take one type of human to do.
But what happens when AI is used to automate other, more complex programs? How does this affect the quality of the program and human creativity? The AI revolution is also causing a surge in the development of Deep Learning, a branch of AI that’s following the evolution of cognitive computing and its goal to get computers to “understand” and learn as humans do.
Deep learning is a subset of supervised machine learning that uses neural networks (computers with many layers of learning capability, like the human brain) to learn from previous data and thus perform better in the future. This has enabled machines to make predictions and decisions based on the information it receives, just as humans do.
4. Account-Based Marketing:
The previous digital marketing trends we’ve discussed reflect the current business environment. They show how customers are interacting with brands and how businesses are interacting with customers. But where does account-based marketing (ABM) fit into the equation?
Online marketers are familiar with the term “account-based marketing,” but they might not know what it means. ABM extends the concept of account-based marketing (ABM) into the online and offline space by allowing the marketing team to take a unified approach to customer segments.
If you’re a seasoned marketer, you’re likely to falter when you try to define ABM. ABM is elusive. It’s an ever-changing, ever-evolving concept, and attempts to define the term are often conflicting and confusing. These days, people use the terms “account-based marketing” and “360-degree digital marketing” interchangeably – and with good reason.
Marketers who confuse terms like ABM and 360-degree digital marketing typically fail to see the distinction. ABM is more than just a catchphrase to distinguish a fragmented approach to digital marketing from a fully integrated and channel-agnostic one. Despite this, many decision-makers use “360” to describe ABM in all its facets, including technology, services, and processes.
5. Integrated Online-Offline Experience:
In 2020, we’ll see companies moving beyond online and offline “touchpoints” to offer a truly integrated customer experience. They’ll be putting into practice a new approach called Integrated Digital Experience.
Integrated Digital Experience (IDE) is about creating a seamless experience for the customer across all channels in an online environment (website, social media, mobile, and apps) and in an offline environment (physical stores, service points, sales teams, and call centres).
Integrated Digital Experience focuses on how people feel and think about your brand during their interaction with different channels. It’s not about how your brand looks or sounds, but how it feels to the customer. IDE aims to change the way people feel about your brand and your company so your brand can create meaningful connections and build lasting relationships with your customers.
Integrated Digital Experience is more than just a marketing initiative. It’s a movement in and of itself, which can and should be driven by senior management. If you’re at the top of your game, you’ll be able to turn Integrated Digital Experience into a successful business strategy. If not, you’ll probably find yourself settling for just opening another branch or outlet in a distant location, adding on multiple contact channels, or a large-scale “campaign” to increase awareness.
The integrated digital experience is an aspiration rather than a tangible reality. Some businesses are closer to achieving this goal than others. But all brands and companies are moving towards this goal, some faster than others. Here’s what we think:
In 2020, companies that invest in integrated digital experience platforms will be on the winning side of the competition.
Integrated Digital Experience demands a different way of working, and one that requires the C-suite to take ownership of digital marketing. In a few years, we’ll see the Integrated Digital Experience as an important aspect of strategy development.
In fact, we’ll see top decision-makers looking for hires who can address the future of integrated digital experiences. These people will seek to hire candidates who understand how an organization’s customers interact, consume, and respond to integrated digital touchpoints.
A single ‘touchpoint’ is no longer good enough in the modern digital market. In 2020, organizations will focus on integrated digital experiences across all channels. This will make it necessary for brands to redefine how they approach customer experience. This includes reinventing the way a customer interacts with the brand at every touchpoint.
6. Chatbots Will Dominate Customer Service:
You’ve probably heard about customer service chatbots and digital assistants, but you may mistakenly believe that they’re still just a niche option for a minimal number of businesses. Think again.
Chatbots are here to stay and are expected to get bigger and better in the coming decade. The implications are huge and will impact every business and industry. Customer service’s predicted growth during the coming decade has to be good news for job hunters and employees alike.
Artificial intelligence has already come a long way, and chatbots have proven themselves to be intelligent enough to handle some of the most common customer service queries. They use algorithms to diagnose problems with computers, internet connections, and other gadgets. They can even predict major issues before they happen and take the necessary precautions to avoid unnecessary downtime. They can answer questions 24/7.
In many ways, a chatbot can do a better job than a human. For example, a chatbot will be able to remember all of your previous questions and inquiries. At the same time, a human service provider will be unlikely to recall every question asked to a random customer.
7. Omnichannel Marketing Is Now Vital:
Omnichannel marketing goes hand in hand with strategic marketing transformation. You have to be able to track and analyze your customer’s behaviour and user habits online and in real life since their behaviour can be very different in each channel.
Thanks to the power of the interwebs, we can now track a vast range of behaviours, including where our customers go, what websites they visit, their cookies and subscriber habits, and more. The information gathered allows you to tailor your marketing strategy to each customer.
For the last decade, companies have been able to pivot quickly and create advertising campaigns that are hyper-targeted to a particular audience. This meant that when you saw a Facebook advert, for example, you knew you had been specifically selected.
This has been the holy grail of marketing, but businesses quickly realize they can use these channels to get even more information and insights into their customers.
Marketing automation has brought these tools to the masses, meaning that in the near future, marketing will be not only hyper-targeted but also hyper-personalized. In 2020, it’s not an option anymore, but a genuine part of your marketing strategy.
8. More Focus on Customer Retention:
Creating loyal customers who keep coming back is now more important than ever.
As we mentioned previously, the competition is getting fiercer by the day. If you want to win your customers, you will have to go above and beyond their expectations. Customer retention is vital to ensuring your position as a business leader.
Businesses are now recognizing that customer satisfaction is more than upselling a product or service. It’s a holistic experience that starts from the moment a potential customer finds your website and extends until they’ve had their last experience with your company.
Retaining customers is a strategic business decision that requires you to plan specific activities for each stage of the customer life cycle, from finding to converting, retaining, and going offline. The key is to provide customer retention initiatives that ensure customers continue to repurchase.
There are also many smaller tactical strategies you can employ to increase your retention rates, such as cross-selling existing customers or upselling non-performing products.
Verdict
The principles of marketing have always been the same: provide a product or service that your customers will need and are willing to pay for, using the best possible strategies and resources. However, with the advent of new technologies and tactics appearing on the digital landscape every day, you need to keep an eye on the trends – not just for you but also for every aspect of your company.
The good news is that there is no need to work alone. You can hire an experienced marketing services company to come up with a strategy that’s unique to your business – and help you implement it.
The marketing trends to be ready for in 2020 are expected to be influential in the coming decade. They’re becoming integrated into every aspect of the business, from head office to the call centre.
It’s time to embrace the future and take pleasure in the knowledge that you are a part of a changing world.