We think the following will be the top 5 Digital Marketing Trends for 2020
Social Media Marketing (aka Digital Marketing) is a constantly changing industry with evolving practices, techniques and trends introduced with dizzying frequently. Old practices, techniques and tools get replaced with new, advanced and innovative ones that include software as a service (SaaS) subscription.
With over 3 billion worldwide users and 84% of that in the US, it is hard to ignore the impact and need to be digital in your efforts. The majority of the world population is on the internet; with that, the digital space has adopted created new trends and digital marketing are going to dominate efforts in 2021.
Here are what we think the top 5 digital marketing trends that will be highly significant and dominate in 2021.
1 - Visual Search
Visual search is going to be one of the big trends in search. Visual search technology is improving and is expanding across various platforms. With the rising usage of visual search applications like Google Lens, Bing Visual Search, etc., it is apparent that visual search is going to occupy a significant part of search, along with voice search, by 2020 and beyond. Visual search is going to provide leverage for e-commerce sites and consumer-product brands; we tend to communicate visually.
2 - Interactive Content
Content always plays a crucial role in digital marketing, but there are various kinds of content that can provide various levels of engagement and usefulness to the users. While articles and videos always have their own importance, but the trend towards interactive content like quizzes, polls, Q&As, etc., will grow. These methods help the audience interact with the brand or offering for measurable and improved campaign results as well as viral efforts.
For example, Interactive Social Media posts are already a significant part of many social media marketing strategies to encourage click through. Let’s see if 2020 would be the year when a significant part of the web content becomes interactive for your marketing efforts.
3 - Chatbots
Conversational/Chatbot marketing has been on the rise in recent times as a more interactive and personal way of marketing. Rather than making the user fill forms on a landing page, chatbots engage the visitors of landing pages, Facebook and websites and makes it easier and effortless for them to enter form details or information or event make a purchase, subscribe or refer others etc., in the chat itself. It is basically an automated digital salesperson.
Chatbots have been reported to increase the conversion rates while also providing better interactive experiences for users. While most people think of AI/NLP based scripting when someone says chatbots, that’s not the case. There are many pre-scripted chatbots in use that perform well, take Facebook's Chatbot for example. Facebook sees the trend and offers an easily scripted chatbot on business pages. Chatbots are still being improved and developed with a custom chatbot out of reach for most small businesses.
4 - AR/VR Integration
Immersive tech like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are going to play a significant role in digital marketing in the coming years. Keeping aside VR for now, AR is already being utilized by brands like IKEA which allows its users to test their furniture virtually using its IKEA place app. Automobile and motorcycle brands help you choose colors to visualize the vehicle.
AR can offer many possibilities for brands and marketers to engage their audience, interact with their prospects and drive them towards purchase a product or service, however, not all businesses can benefit from that marketing space and the barrier to entry is significant.
5 - Live Video
Video marketing has been one of the biggest trends in the last two years and it’s going to continue in 2020 and beyond. Moving forward however, it’s going to be Live Video. Live videos have already become a trend in social media and it is going to expand further into the web. The possibilities of Live Video, in the form of webinars, shows, demo videos, etc. can offer great opportunities for brands, marketers and content creators who can maximize their productions for improved internet search results. Just look at the top results on a google search and you'll see videos prominently displayed; the thumbnails naturally attract the eye.
Now, that doesn't that you need to run out and dive into all of these modalities; your business segment will dictate your use of one or the other. These modalities or services are all available from a reliable service provider with reasonable pricing plans on solution bundles. If you don't have a budget or have a proposal sitting on your desk, a couple of these digital initiatives are easily accommplished on your own; DIY.
Please note, to do this yourself requires a financial investment, commitment of time, dedication and patience; as well as time to review reporting from the results. If you are a solopreneur, it is best to set aside time each week to perform the tasks. If you have a team, it would also be best to have the team member do the same unless you can hire a full time staff member for the best results. Even then, they may find the need for assistance from a dedicated third party service provide with the tools to carry the heavy load. Your team member can be the liaison for your business, focusing on feeding content and news to the service provider.
Hope this helped! Thanks for visiting...
