Do you want to improve your marketing strategy and help your business rank higher online? Do you want to gain more organic search results by improving your marketing tactics? Do you want to keep your business in with the newest digital marketing trends?
One of the aspects that keeps a business successful after its launch is its ability to adapt. 84% of executives know that innovation is important to their growth strategy. This means using the latest trends in digital marketing to your advantage.
Below, we’ve got a list of the ten biggest trends in digital marketing in 2020. We’ll discuss a few examples of how you can apply them to your brand. Keep reading to learn more about how you can use all these trends to improve your business prospects.
1. Facebook May Lose Its Place as the King of Social Media
In 2019, the number of Facebook users saw a decline while the number of Instagram and TikTok users grew. Today, you can ask anyone who belongs to Gen Z about Facebook, and they’ll tell you it’s a site for older adults.
We also saw a social media detox trend where people reduced their usage of social media. Facebook lost a lot of users then. It lost even more users when it became a place for fake news and political propaganda.
You can’t deny that Facebook is losing its grasp on its throne in the past few years. However, this doesn’t mean you have to stop your marketing campaigns on Facebook. Remember that a majority of adults over 24 still consider it their top social media platform.
The trick to taking advantage of this trend is to get a bead on what works well on Facebook marketing. For example, your target audience is people 30 years old and older. If so, Facebook is the right platform for your social media marketing strategy.
Teach yourself how to use Facebook Live to reach audiences when most of them are online. Learn how to make efficient use of Facebook Ads. Also, don’t forget that business pages on Facebook can still improve your SEO, too.
2. Video Content Is Indispensable
Gone are the days when a blog article and photos were enough to keep your audiences’ attention on you. Today, people expect to find professional videos on your page and benefits for both parties.
As a business owner, your videos serve to attract, engage, and inform audiences of your brand. You create a deeper connection with your audience through your videos. You can also use your videos to show how you make your products, how you check their quality or your office.
Let’s also keep in mind how live video is one of the current and new trends in digital marketing. You and your audience often see these videos on social media. It’s the type of content that takes advantage of the FOMO or “fear of missing out.”
They add an interactive aspect since live video platforms also have a live chat. However, doing live videos can be more effective if you follow a formula. Click the link to learn more about video marketing strategy.
Another type of video content also includes short videos. These are the ones that last only 24 hours before they expire and get archived. They also exploit the idea of FOMO.
3. Interaction With the Content Is the New Mainstream
Using interactive is not an exclusive thing that only some brands can afford anymore. Today, it’s so central to customers that it’s becoming more of a must-have than an exclusive feature. The good news is that you can find an interactive feature for all industries.
Interactive content can be anything from a single “swipe up to learn more” to a personality quiz. Some good examples include online contests, online games, polls, and surveys. You can also make infographics, guides, and e-books interactive.
One of the most useful examples for many industries is the calculator. Your business can have a focus on health and fitness, real estate, hair care, or fashion. Add calculators to help people compute their calories or mortgages with more ease.
Remember the goal of adding interactive content on your platforms. That is to engage your audience by allowing them to compete, compare, or get results faster. This can be more immersive and engaging than written or posted content.
4. Good Content + Good Context = You at the Top
You can use video content and AR more now. However, don’t stop at video content and interactive content. You want to continue to create quality content as well as include context.
Remember that Google’s algorithm wants well-written, quality content. It still ranks blogs that are educational, reliable, and authentic. Now, it also looks for written content that uses context and targeting.
Google algorithm isn’t only ranking websites by the information that they hold. The latest Google algorithm update makes sure your content is also relevant. To ensure you create content like this, you have to ask yourself a few questions.
Does my content solve someone’s problem? Does it have a takeaway to my readers, even the ones that only skim my blog posts? Do my blog posts include specific and contextual images?
If you’re posting content on social media, ask an extra set of questions. Does it use engaging language and imagery, like emojis and memes? Does it use hashtags that make it easier to lookup?
5. Voice Search Is One of the Top Trends in Digital Marketing
Of the biggest trends in digital marketing, voice search boomed some years earlier and continues to build up until today.
In the post-pandemic new normal, a top priority is voice search optimization. Businesses now realize how fast voice search is growing.
Also, let’s not forget how accessible smart speakers are. About 24% of US adults have at least one smart speaker. That means about 60 million people in the country use one or more of 157 million smart speakers.
One of the smartest moves you can take is to optimize your content for voice search. This means using more natural and conversational sentences in your content. You can also add queries and their answers, which voice search engines pick up well.
6. Customer Services Can Stay Online 24/7 With Chatbots
Small businesses don’t always have the resources to open their customer service lines 24/7. This is where chatbots take center stage. Using AI is one of the top digital marketing trends in 2020 in general.
Compared to hiring customer service representatives, you also save on resources. It reduces the time it takes to respond to a customer. Since you’re using a bot, it also means you won’t need to think about overtime pay, schedules, breaks, or vacations.
That means you can focus your resources on other things, like video marketing. Some of the best chatbot software includes BirdEye, Outgrow, Ada, and Landbot. Qualified is also a top choice with an entry-level price of $500 per month, but it’s the best option for chatbot software out there.
7. Instagram as the Young Consumers’ Social Media Preference
If your target customers are adults in their early 30s and younger, you may want to invest in Instagram rather than Facebook. Instagram is the top social media platform for them. It is the third-most-popular social media network after Facebook and YouTube.
Instagram also makes heavy use of graphics and images. If creating graphics or shooting photos is your forte, then this is your time to shine. If it isn’t, you need to learn how to create interesting images to upload to your Instagram account.
If you can grow your brand’s Instagram page, you’ve got a bright future ahead of you. This is also the time for you to improve your visual content game. Study how to communicate your message and engage with audiences through visuals.
8. Personalization in Email Marketing
Customers like to feel that the businesses and brands they use value them. They also like to feel seen and known by the brands they often use. That is why personalized email marketing remains one of the top trends in digital marketing.
Email continues to be one of the most-used channels of communication. People still use it for work-related and personal communication. Brands and businesses also use it for commercial purposes.
Apply it to email marketing, and you’re going to see a boost in traffic and sales.
The goal of using personalization is to ensure a high-quality customer experience. You’re not only inserting the name of your client to grab their attention. You’re also using data from their preferences and recent searches to attract them.
Some brands use email subscriptions to tell people about upcoming discounts. Others use it to let people know that a product they bought before or a related product is available again. Brands that sell services use email marketing to inform clients about their schedules.
9. Messaging Apps Make Good Marketing Grounds
Email isn’t the only medium of communication that you can use to market your products. You can also use other communication platforms like messaging apps.
Marketing on your messaging app also makes you more accessible to potential customers. They don’t need to write an email or call your phone number. They don’t need to go to your physical store to ask a question.
When they see your ads on the messaging app, they can tap on your business name and ask their query right away. If they don’t see your ad on the app, they can look up your brand name instead. Many messaging apps also ease communication by letting you send images or videos.
A customer may even video call you when the situation calls for it. It’s the next best alternative to face-to-face communication, after all. This is why it became one of the top trends in digital marketing.
If you don’t have an account to use on messaging apps yet, it’s time to create one. It gives you a chance to reach a broad audience. You can also add pre-written messages that you think potential clients are most likely to ask you.
This makes it more convenient for them to ask. You can also use personalized texts on messaging apps, which you can send on set intervals. Remind them about weekly essentials or the items that are still in their virtual carts.
10. Invest in Omnichannel Marketing
For the last item on our list of 2020 trends in digital marketing, we’ve got omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel marketing is using multiple platforms for marketing. Rather than creating a message for one channel at a time, you’re making one for all the channels your brand is on.
These channels include everything from email, social media, and your website and apps. This will give you more consistency with your voice and brand message while saving you time, effort, and resources.
If you aren’t using omnichannel marketing yet, it’s time to change your marketing strategy. Create an omnichannel strategy that will fit your business best. Use tools for social media management, customer relationship management, and operations management.
Keep Your Digital Marketing Strategies Relevant and Up-To-Date
That is the end of our guide on the top 10 trends in digital marketing. Digital marketing is a key component of your business strategy. However, it won’t be as effective if you stay focused on trends that are now irrelevant and outdated.
We hope this guide helps you learn about the top digital marketing trends for this year. We also hope that you find this guide informative on the examples we included above. If you want to see more content on improving your digital marketing tactics, check out our blog page.
Do you have queries on how to develop your brand with digital marketing? Do you need help with planning your new digital marketing strategy that’ll cater to these trends? Feel free to talk to us. You can reach us via our phone, email address, or physical office.