New Year, New Methods: Digital Marketing Trends You’d Better Not Ignore in 2020

Since we started using the Internet on a regular basis, marketers have faced new digital challenges every year, and 2020 is no different. In fact, it is expected that this year, the amount of money spent on digital marketing in 2020 will reach $1.3 trillion.

This happens because companies are investing in marketing more than ever before, as consumer behavior changes drastically every year. To increase sales, businesses need to know how consumers react and what their needs are. This is paramount if they want to keep up with the extremely competitive market and the rising number of startups in almost every field of business.

To help set your trajectory this year, we have put together a list of this year’s most popular digital marketing trends. Upon reviewing them, you can decide which one (or more) is suited to help you achieve this year’s goals.

Educational content helps build trust

Content played a huge role in 2019’s digital marketing industry, and 2020 will be no different. That happens because consumers are not only looking for products to purchase online, but also for information on various subjects.

Businesses should focus on creating content that is informative, authoritative and relevant, not only because it drives customers, but because it helps them become a reliable source of information in time. Let’s say that you are running a business that sells bikes. If someone wants to buy a new bike, they will most likely go look online for information. A simple blog post named “What to look for when buying a new bike” has the potential to draw thousands of leads to your website. And, if they were able to find valuable information on your website, there is a high chance they will take a look at your products as well.

Chatbots are gaining even more popularity

Another trend that saw massive popularity in 2019 and will continue to thrive in 2020 is the use of chatbots. In fact, it is estimated that 85% of customer service will be powered by chatbots, by the end of this year.

The greatest advantage of chatbots in customer service is that they provide constant support, 24/7, at very low costs. This, together with the fact that people nowadays prefer communicating over text, instead of calling, especially in customer support, will make chatbots indispensable in the future.

But chatbots are not only useful for businesses. Consumers can now get instant responses to their issues, unlike those times when you had to wait in line to be connected with an agent and try to solve your issues. However you want to see it, it’s a win-win situation for both you and your customers.

Video marketing becomes the most important trend

Any reputable digital marketing agency will tell you that videos are the future of advertising. Because we live in such a fast-paced era, people don’t have the time to read pages and pages of content, when they can watch a video that explains it all in under 2 minutes. 72% of businesses say their conversion rate was improved when they started using video marketing, so there is no question if it works or not.

Consumers have also stated short videos are their favorite way of learning about new products. This does not mean you need to open a YouTube channel. You can make videos for your social media pages and encourage people to share them in order to expand your reach. In fact, 70% of consumers have, at one point in their life, shared a brand’s video.

Influencer marketing won’t go anywhere

Influencers are here to stay, and they represent the evolution of word-of-mouth marketing. Over 60% of consumers trust influencer recommendations more than they trust the brands themselves. However, what seems to have changed is the type of influencers that people turn to now. It’s not those who have millions of flowers that the people trust most, but rather the micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers are influencers that only have a few thousand followers, often having narrower niches, but being considered more trustworthy amongst fans. Consumers view their content as recommendations from a friend, having a much higher engagement rate.

Micro-moments, or how to be where consumers need you

As Google describes them, micro-moments are those intent-rich moments when a person turns to a device to act on a need. The consumers’ 4 needs are to know, go, do, or buy. Now, if you manage to tackle any of these needs, you have the potential to increase sales tremendously. Depending on your business, you are going to be able to tend to one or more of these four needs:

• I want to know: when a person is researching a product but has not exactly entered purchase mode.
• I want to go: when a person is looking for a local business or considers buying a product form a local store.
• I want to do: when a person wants help to complete a task, or try something new.
• I want to buy: when a person is ready to buy a product but needs help deciding what and how to buy it.

Shoppable social media posts

Businesses are constantly trying to get social media followers to actually visit their e-commerce websites. The good news is, now they don’t have to anymore. Various social media platforms have introduced what we know as social commerce. It means customers can buy products directly through social media posts, without the need to even leave the app.

Now, this is not an entirely new concept, but Instagram managed to help it get more and more popular since they introduced Instagram Checkout last year. If you come to think about it, it makes perfect sense. People are spending a lot of time researching product purchases on social media, so why shouldn’t they be able to make the purchase directly from there?

Sentiment analysis

This focuses on analyzing the reactions people have regarding your products. Sometimes, reviews can be purely positive, or purely negative. But there are a number of reviews that fit into a gray area. This happens when customers like all but one feature of a product, or they find out the product is not what they are actually looking for. By analyzing such reviews, you get a much better chance of understanding what customers really think.

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