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9 min read
Opinion

Digital marketing trends of 2020.

digital marketing trends of 2020

It really doesn’t seem that long ago that our mobile phones were the size of bricks and it took 20 minutes for a picture of your favourite movie star to slowly load on the single family desktop in the living room. Now we’ve got mobile phones in our watches and assistants in our phones.

Well, the times really are a-changin' fast now and this next decade will see the pace of change within the digital marketing arena increase ever-more dramatically.

Voice-powered technology

The digital trends of 2020 will begin with many homes already making regular use of voice-powered technology. It’s estimated that one in five homes already use smart speakers such as Alexa, Siri or Cortana. (Gov.uk report)

Smart technology allows us to sit back and request the music of our choice or for our smart lights to be switched on or off without lifting a finger. We can delve into the latest news stories, access global weather reports and we can even ask Alexa, Siri or other digital assistants to tell us jokes, explain political events or even help us with brain teasers!

As voice-powered technology has continued to grow in popularity, voice assistants will be intrinsic in the digital marketing trends of 2020, too. Currently, search engines mainly use typed phrases with specific keywords. However, voice search will very quickly override the need to type anything into a search box.

This change will, in turn, affect SEO. It will mean we’ll have to make sure our websites are more compatible with the spoken language. This is to say, we must become more conversational and equipped to answer voice-powered searches. These are more likely to come in the form of questions than the disjointed phrases we usually use as search terms.

A recent new algorithm for Google (Bert - introduced in late 2019) has made subtle changes to the way Google searches and ranks businesses. New algorithms will be key to the digital marketing trends of 2020. Every new algorithm brings with it benefits and problems. However, each update improves the quality of search results. This will continue, so companies will need to become better equipped at adapting to evolving search algorithms.

The top spot in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is now position zero. This is where a featured snippet of text appears above the search results. Position zero is the first, and sometimes only, result that users will view. It’s a highly coveted spot and should be the main focus of any digital marketing effort online.

Private messaging

The continued uptake in using private messaging apps is likely to continue as a digital marketing trend in 2020. Smartphone apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat are becoming more popular as they allow the set up of private messaging groups. These private groups can be a great, cost-effective way of bringing together audiences of like-minded people and talking directly to them. It’s niche and requires your audience to actively engage in joining your group. However, if you do manage to hook them in, what a great way to communicate!

Another growing trend over recent years is in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Augmented Reality is the ability to visualise what a piece of furniture might look like in a home through your desktop or mobile device before buying it, for example.

In 2020, experts predict that AR will surpass the popularity of VR – so it’s a bandwagon worth jumping on!

Better go to Specsavers

Interacting with content in an AR format engages buyers in a way that reading text and scanning images just can’t. 

A high street company that’s successfully embracing AR interaction is Specsavers. By taking a simple scan of your face using your camera on your desktop, tablet or mobile, you can then ‘virtually’ try on hundreds of different pairs of glasses. It’s a great way to check out your new look and to share this with family and friends to get their take on the different products, too.

All businesses should take note: this interactive communication is such a powerful way of engaging with your audience. If you use interactive communication correctly, you can dramatically increase the percentage of sales per interaction.

Social media shopping platforms

Businesses are increasingly using social media platforms as another online revenue generator. Although it’s not necessarily the most obvious sales platform at present, given that 72% of Instagram users have purchased a product using the app, and 70% of Pinterest users find new products via this platform, we can safely say that shoppable posts are driving e-commerce sales up. This trend is gaining traction and is likely to go meteoric during this decade (you heard it here first!).

Digital marketing strategy can seem both fantastically useful and downright annoying. However, if you send targeted messages, tailored to specific audiences, the response is a whopping 36% sales – well-worth the effort. The prediction for 2020 is that most companies will be targeting precise audiences instead of following generalist campaigns.

It’s already very noticeable that certain large businesses are using highly personalised data. This is information they have captured about us to market and remarket products in a timely and measured way. They purposefully use language and references they know we’ll like and appreciate.

For example, if the target audience likes culture and film, then why not embed a bit of popular culture into your marketing content? Your audience will appreciate the references and feel more related to your brand - this ultimately results in boosted sales.

Predictions state that digital marketing will grow substantially in the next few years and that by 2022, around 87% of marketing budgets will be spent on digital marketing. In partnership with this growth is the increasing requirement to protect your customer’s private data.

In 2018, the GDPR policy was tightened to ensure that companies handle customer data transparently. The emphasis of transparency of data use will become ever more important to consumers.

Smart bidding

Google Ads are incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise bids and allow smart bidding. Maximising conversions is key and in order to do this, Google Ads will choose conversion action. The app will automatically change when sales start/stop and optimise bids over multiple campaigns.

Interactive content

Chatbots and video content will both become more heavily used. Chatbots use either verbal interactions or chat windows to help web users navigate to their destination or answer direct queries. In addition, live videos are continuing to attract audience viewing times for up to three times longer than recorded videos. 

This is another area that is relatively easy to engage with and doesn’t have to soak up too heavy a budget. Again, it’s the customer interaction which ticks boxes for the consumer and increases sales conversions radically when deployed strategically. Remember, Ketchup can help you with your marketing strategy plan to make sure you’re always getting the most out of your investment.

One-stop shop

Looking at the marketing operation from the inside out, one of the overriding difficulties agencies have is the fact they are often using many different software packages to deliver all the services within their portfolio. Many systems are cloud-based; some platforms communicate with others, some don’t. With this mis-matching and diverse portfolio of supporting software packages comes a feeling of confusion and inefficiency.

To combat this, there is a definite trend towards a one-stop shop, an overall solution, within one software package. The advantages of a single solution include the following:

  • Reduction of tedious work.
  • Streamlined marketing efforts: You can keep track of where you’re at in the buyer’s journey with your customers and can communicate with them more effectively.
  • Improved accountability.
  • Organised data resulting in improved customer management.

The digital marketing landscape, which has been changing fast, is only going to speed up further. Major technological advances, increased consumer awareness and the on-going drive towards living in the present and expecting things immediately, will only gain traction. These are all things to keep your eye on when watching the digital marketing trends of 2020.

As a marketing team, Ketchup has a duty to keep ahead of the game. We take the time to equip ourselves with all the latest industry knowledge so that we can drive our own business forward and those of our clients.

So, if you’re looking for that one-stop shop of digital creatives with their collective finger on the pulse of marketing trends, then get in touch with us today. Our team has carried the flame from traditional marketing into the digital era, and we’re forging forward into the new decade with energy and excitement. We look forward to bringing you along for the journey too!