The festive period is the perfect time to look to the year ahead – and it’s when trend forecasting can really be on your side for your business. As always, we’ve done the hard work for you, cutting through the marketing buzz to bring you the top 5 digital marketing trends for 2020.
1) Service with a smile
Customer experience (CX) comes to the forefront this year, where it’s less about selling and more about experience. Key to this is making things easy for the customer, from convenience to investing in tech, to providing an easy way to pay. Forecasters predict that focusing on this efficiency – along with knowledgeable, friendly service – will ensure customers come back for more.
2) It’s all in the numbers
Influencers are and should be part of your digital marketing strategy. But forecasters have a different idea for the coming year, where the focus is on engagement, not reach – or, as we like to put it, quality over quantity. Rather than celebrities and big names, the game’s changed to ‘’nano-influencers’’, or those with under 1k followers. Their engagement rates are reportedly seven times higher than those with larger followings.
3) Alexa, order me a Birkin
With virtual assistants increasing in popularity, voice search is naturally on the rise. Dubbed ‘’voice commerce’’, this new way of shopping is reportedly three times faster – and it’s not just confined to retail (think room service, restaurants, booking sites etc.). One such site that aims to redefine the ordering experience is Jetson, which can create tailored voice responses to customers who are using voice search on your site.
4) Video killed the infographic
Video has an important part to play in marketing – just consider the success of Facebook and Instagram stories. The industry is anticipated to be worth over $70bn by 2021, with customers spending three times longer watching a live stream than they do something pre-recorded, so it makes sense to capitalise on this trend. Reportedly the preferred way to be informed of a new product or service, live video engages with your customers in a way that goes beyond passive watching – they can influence the content by reacting with likes or leaving a comment in real-time.
5) Up close and personal
A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work in marketing. Instead, it’s about tailoring your offer and message to different audiences, and even down to the individual. Luckily, data collection helps identify what’s expected by consumers. At its simplest, this can be recommending products or services based on previous search history, or appearing more ‘’human’’ when reaching out on social media. But it can also mean segmenting your audience through things like shopping habits, income and interests, and even tailoring your site content to target different groups or individuals.
So there you have it – the top 5 digital marketing trends for 2020. The only question is: which do you think you’ll be implementing across your business?