Digital marketing trends 2020

The year 2020 seems to be very busy year for all the marketers. There are hundreds of new marketing tech tools that’s been flooding all over the market. Countless number of sales funnels are there which predicts each and every marketing trends. The cutting-edge examples show the exciting opportunities and thus measures how inn ovations in digital media will shape marketing in 2020.

1.Chatbots

In 220, chatbots will be an important part of digital marketing. This AI-based technology uses instant messaging to chat in real-time, day or night, with your customers or site visitors.

Surveys show that:

a. Chatbots will power 85% of customer service by 2020

b.Top benefits of chatbots are 24-hour service (64%), instant responses to inquiries (55%), and answers to simple questions (55%)

c.63% of respondents prefer messaging an online chatbot to communicate with a business or brand

d.By 2022, chatbots will help businesses save over $8 billion per annum

2. Conversation Marketing

With all that talk about chatbots, the reality of modern marketing becomes clear: it’s more conversational. People want it that way, and so brands are reacting. When consumers have a question, 82% want an “immediate” response.

Conversational marketing facilitates a one-to-one, real-time connection between marketers and customers.

As per David Cancel, founder and CEO of Drift:

3. Personalization marketing

If you want to stand out in 2020, you need to personalize your marketing – and that means personalized content, products, emails and more.

Consider these personalization stats:

a.63% of consumers are highly annoyed with generic advertising blasts

b.80% say they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences

c.90% claim they find personalization appealing

4) Video Marketing

d.70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video

e.72% of businesses say that video has improved their conversion rate

f.52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions

g.65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video

4) Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that focuses on using key leaders to amplify your brand message to a larger market. Influencers can be well-known celebrities, but more often they are Instagram or YouTube personalities with a huge niche following who can help spread the word about your business or product through their social channels.

Because influencer marketing is generally more authentic than corporate advertising:

a.63% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products much more than what brands say about themselves

b.58% of people have bought a new product in the past six months because of an influencer’s recommendation

5) Visual Search

Visual search can take the user experience to a totally new level: People can upload an image to conduct a search and get more specific results.

A)Pinterest lens

Not surprisingly, Pinterest has jumped on the visual search bandwagon. They came out with Lens, a visual search tool that allows users to take a photo of an item to find out where to buy it online, search for similar products or view pinboards of related items.

· They introduced Pincodes, a QR code-type technology that enables you to find inspiration while you're out shopping or flipping through your favorite magazines.

· They launched Lens Your Look to take the guesswork out of outfit planning.

· They partnered with brands like Samsung to bring visual search to its latest smartphones and Target to allow customers to search their catalog using related products they see in the real world.

· They've fully automated Shop the Look, a feature that helps users buy products from companies that work with Pinterest, so you can, for example, buy a pair of jeans you see in a picture.

· They launched a bunch of new tools to help merchants sell their products, including Catalogs, which lets anyone upload and convert their entire product catalog into shoppable Pins.

Make sure you are optimizing for visual search, because (not surprisingly) the top search categories for Lens are:-Fashion,,Art,Food,Products,Animals,Outfits,Beauty,Vehicles,Travel

B) Google Lens

And Pinterest is not the only one with visual search. Google Lens is a visual search engine by Google, which recognizes objects and landmarks through a camera app.

1.Barcodes: Use a barcode to find info about a product, like where to buy it.

2.Business card: Save the phone number or address to a contact.

3.Book: Get a summary and read reviews.

4.Event flyer or billboard: Add the event to your calendar.

5.Landmark or building: See historical facts, hours of operation, and more.

6.Painting in a museum: Read about the artist and learn more.

Plant or animal: Learn about species and breeds.

C) CamFind

CamFind is another visual search mobile app which enables you to search for anything from your phone simply by snapping a picture.

Instead of typing queries into a search engine, you can directly search via images to find similar images, price comparisons, local shopping results, etc. You can also take a picture of a movie poster and CamFind will show you movie information, trailers, showtimes and local theaters.

6) Micro-Moments

A micro-moment is “An intent-rich moment when a person turns to a device to act on a need – to know, go, do or buy.”

People generally make instant decisions within these four Micro-Moments:

To take advantage of micro-moments in 2020, you need to be where consumers are searching for information in the moment – or, as Google puts it, marketers have to “be there, be useful, be quick.”

The growing popularity of micro-moments means that marketers must rethink the linear marketing funnel that follows a set path: awareness, consideration and decision.In 2020 and beyond, the customer journey will be more dynamic and unpredictable, as it needs to respond to rapid changes in consumer desires. After all, in the mobile age, people have become accustomed to instant gratification. If they think or talk about something, they want to learn more, see more and buy more of it with just a few clicks of a button.

To get the most out of micro-moments in 2020, you should:

· Identify your consumers’ “I want to buy” moments

· Be there in these moments of need

· Deliver relevant content

· Make it easy for them to make a purchase

· Measure every moment that matters

7) Voice Search & Smart Speakers

The increasing use of voice search has made it important for companies to rethink their digital marketing strategies in 2020. Consider these numbers:

· 50% of all searches will be via voice by 2020

· 55% of all American homes will own a smart speaker by 2022

· 72% of people who own voice-activated speakers say that their devices are used as part of their daily routines

· Voice shopping is set to jump to $40 billion in 2022, up from $2 billion today

· Global smart speaker shipments have almost trebled between Q1 2018 and Q2 2019, growing from 9.36 million units to 26.1 million units

8) Social Media Stories

First, Snapchat came out with the concept of “My Story,” then Instagram and Facebook stories were introduced, and then YouTube unveiled their own story format: Reels.

To keep it all straight, here’s a social media stories timeline:

Since these types of stories disappear after a set period of time, this is a great opportunity for marketers to make good use of FOMO (fear of missing out).

The benefits of using social media stories include:

· Increased brand awareness

· Constant engagement with followers

· Cost-effectiveness

· Increased traffic to your web page

· Opportunity to reach younger audiences

Get inspired by some of these ways to use social media stories:

· Use polls within Instagram Stories

· Add links to your social media Stories

· Take advantage of Snapchat geofilters

· Add location tags

· Add mentions for other brands and your fans

· Give live video a try when creating Stories

· Invite followers to explore more with clear call-to-actions

9) Browser Push Notifications

Push notifications are on the rise, with 85% of online stores using them in 2019. Consider these other stats:

· At least twice as many people sign up for web push notifications compared to a newsletter.

· Only 10% of the best email marketers can achieve a newsletter sign-up rate that matches the performance of web push.

· 6.4 hours is the average time that passes before the recipient opens a newsletter. In the case of web push, the recipient will see the message immediately.

The updates to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and stricter filters have dented the potency of email marketing. Moreover, the younger audience favors other methods of communication and prefers to deal with less touchpoints when engaging brands.

As part of the bid to engage users on multiple channels, browser push notifications are something you will see more and more brands adopting in 2020 – and they are getting more sophisticated and personalized. In fact, using personalized push notifications increases conversions:

· 7% open rate for segmented push messaging compared to a 3% open rate for generic, broadcast messages (a 2x improvement)

· 54% of users convert from a segmented push notification, compared to only 15% for broadcast messages (a 3x improvement)

Notifications triggered by behavior are being used to re-engage people who have shown interest but failed to convert, and in recovering revenue from abandoned shopping carts.

9) Social Commerce & Shoppable Posts

With e-commerce and social media both growing at alarming rates, it’s no wonder brands are using the two together to maximize opportunities for sales.

In March 2019, Instagram unveiled Instagram Checkout, which lets users complete their purchase from within Instagram:

E-commerce brands hope this will reduce the risk that customers will abandon their purchase because they have to switch apps or sign in to an unknown store.

By now you've heard that Instagram is hiding likes, and with all the fuss, you'd think that the photo-sharing app was on the decline. Think again.

Social media is integral to digital marketing, and visual platforms like Instagram are gold for marketers. Better yet, visual commerce is taking off as more consumers are willing to buy products through ads they see in their feeds.

10) Interactive Content

Speaking of instant access, that brings us to one of the fastest-growing digital marketing trends in recent times: interactive content.

In 2020, we’re destined to see a shift from traditional text-based content toward dynamic, engaging content that offers users an immersive experience. For example, think about:

· Quizzes and polls

· Embedded calculators

· Augmented reality ads

· 360-degree videos

11) Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing was one of the buzzwords of 2019. While the phrase may now seem a little worn out, the strategy is as ripe and relevant as ever in 2020.

Omnichannel marketing is the process of marketing across multiple platforms (such as social media, apps, email and blog) so you can connect with prospects on more touchpoints. When you do omnichannel marketing right, you can offer an enhanced user experience and cohesive brand message that drives people to action.

To stay ahead, brands must present a seamless, consistent voice and message across all available mediums, including physical storefronts, social media channels, online, in catalogs and anywhere else you can imagine. All channels should be linked in one all-encompassing strategy for the best results.

Stats show that brands using three or more channels in an automation workflow can generate great results:

· Engagement rate: 18.96% on omnichannel vs. 5.4% on single-channel

· Purchase frequency: 250% higher on omnichannel vs. single-channel

· Average order value: 13% more per order on omnichannel vs. single-channel

· Customer retention rates: 90% higher for omnichannel vs. single-channel

With ever-more sophisticated SaaS companies providing the tools to manage multiple channels more efficiently, it’s becoming easier to manage an omnichannel strategy, although it can be a challenge.

12) Augmented Reality (AR) & Immersive Technologies

Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of enterprises will be experimenting with immersive technologies, and 25% will have deployed to production.

While virtual reality (VR) makes a lot of noise and gets everyone excited with grand sci-fi ideas, AR is much more implementable from a marketing standpoint. Experts predict that AR will continue to outpace VR in terms of market share.

13) User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content (UGC) is a potent resource for marketers who want to tap into the Millennial and Gen Z markets. You can encourage your audience to share unique content by offering them an incentive, such as a discount, or even partnering with them for a good cause.

14) Automation (& AI)

Gartner projects that 30% of businesses will incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) in their sales processes in 2020. In fairness, we should expect more, especially when you consider the amazing benefits of AI and automation for sales and marketing:

1.Improve Customer Retention and Loyalty

2.Predict the Behavior of Your Customer with Propensity Modeling and Predictive Analytics

3.Use AI-Powered Chatbots to Improve User Experience

4.Leverage the Power of Audience Insights to Boost Search Ads

5.Scale Up Your Content Marketing with AI-Generated Content

6.Deliver a Highly Personalized Website Experience to Every User

7.Optimize for Voice Search Queries

8.Identify “Hot Leads”

15) Google Ads Smart Bidding

With intense competition on social media slowly suffocating organic reach, paid advertising will become a more trusted force in 2020. And when you consider the Smart Bidding feature on Google Ads, you’d be a fool not to give it a try.

In other words, advertisers can hand the reins of their pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to Google’s AI system, which will then optimize their budget to maximize their ROI. This works for any number of PPC goals, including:

· Target CPA

· Target ROAS –

· Maximize Conversions

· Device

· Physical location

· Location intent

· Weekday and time of day

· Remarketing list

· Ad characteristics

· Interface language

· Browser

· Operating system

16) 5G Technology

In a world gone mad for mobile, arguably one of the most significant digital marketing trends of 2020 is the dawn of 5G technology, or fifth generation of mobile technology. This update heralds a new era of digital communications and its impact will be felt across virtually every industry.

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17) Long Content

In 2020, shorter posts won’t get you anywhere – with Google or your audience. Typically, posts that are at least 3,000 words long attract the most traffic, as they offer readers an in-depth exploration of topics. Long-form content allows content creators to establish themselves as an expert on a subject and gives them more scope for targeting keywords.

A study from Search Engine Journal indicates that long-form content gets 77% more backlinks than short articles, which is critical for driving organic traffic.

18) Voice search We already mentioned the impact of voice search earlier in this guide (trend #11). What we didn’t explore was the cumulative impact that voice-enabled devices and voice search will have on a fundamental aspect of business: your marketing funnel.

With these rapidly growing digital marketing trends, there’s no way that your traditional funnel can stay the same. It must evolve. In 2020, the linear funnel will cease to be relevant. In fact, that transition is already underway.

In the new voice marketing funnel, leads can enter the funnel at different stages of the customer journey, as many consumers now conduct a lot of their own research online.

19) Social Media Marketing

In 2020, we'll see brands tapping more into the potential of video and interactive content on social media to get attention, but they must follow it up by being authentic on their social channels, and by working hard to nurture a community of engaged, loyal followers.

· Facebook Pay: Launched in the U.S. in November 2019, this payment feature would “facilitate on-platform payments, in-stream, making it easier for people to buy products on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.”

· Facebook Watch: Facebook's own video-on-demand service.

· Oculus: VR technology that makes social media more interactive, which Facebook is touting as “the next evolution of social.”

· Cross-stream messaging: Facebook's integration of messaging functionalities of Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

· Instagram removing likes: In response the growing realization of the adverse effects on mental health, Instagram is focusing on better humanization of their brand.

· IGTV: Instagram's long-form video platform is not new, but will probably get another push in 2020.

· Twitter's mDAU: A new monthly and daily active user metric called “monetizable daily active users,” a move to clean up its platform from bots.

· Narrowcast tweets: An option that would “limit the audience and usage of your tweets, including the capability to remove the retweet function from chosen tweets, and to restrict your tweet reach to only chosen hashtag discussions and/or to certain friends…[and allow you] to target your tweets to specific audiences.”

· Tweet streaming: A new live-streaming feature.

· LinkedIn groups: Similar to Facebook Groups. Not exactly a new feature, but LinkedIn may try to push it again next year.

· LinkedIn video: Since LinkedIn users are 20x more likely to share a video on this platform than any other type of post, LinkedIn seems bent on improving their video discovery tools and putting more emphasis on uploaded video content.

· Snapchat AR: An Augmented Reality version of its Spectacles could be on the way, which would “overlay digital graphics over people’s real-world view.”

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20 )Tiktok marketing

Tiktok can make people feel like a odd posts, but its popularity and the visuals that is video focused layout gets open brands up to a unique variety of marketing. eMarketer estimates US marketers will have spent $34.57 billion on digital video advertising in 2019, a 27.1% increase from 2018, and social properties are taking a growing share. Short-form video is also surging in popularity. The branding opportunity and the awareness are been increased by tiktok. In China, where short videos have had a few years' head start, the format is taking a growing share of time spent on entertainment-based mobile apps. In Q2 2019, 38.5% of daily time spent by users of the Jiguang (Aurora Mobile) network was on such content. It has taken share away from video-on-demand and over-the-top video, as well as gaming. The matter of fact is that its already becoming a tool that some of the companies like Chipole, Washington posts to increase the engagement of new audiences. GenZ is an increasingly lucrative market segment, and the way this cohort communicates with one another is changing the way brands are engaging with consumers. From hashtag challenges to brand takeovers, advertisers are utilizing TikTok's unique ad formats.Short-form video is surging in popularity. Young people are adept at using digital tools for self-expression, and TikTok is one of several apps that give them a canvas to be creative. TikTok inspires users to not only watch, like, and comment on videos but also create them – giving brands an entirely new approach to getting their products seen through user generated content. Advertisers that use YouTube typically publish videos between 3 and 5 minutes, or 8 and 11 minutes. This largely contrasts to Tiktok's 15 to 60 second video clips. The brevity of a TikTok video forces brands to capture consumer attention within the first few second.More and more people and brands are talking about tiktok, but awareness doesn't necessarily translate to usage. Because it's so easy to view TikTok videos on other social media properties such as Twitter and Facebook, some users say they don't need to open the app to feel like they are "using" it.