Artificial intelligence, data-driven marketing, and voice search optimization were once considered over-the-top and ridiculous. Today, these innovative digital marketing trends are among the top priorities for entrepreneurs and business owners. In order to succeed in digital marketing, you need to be forward-thinking.
As Kindred CEO Ian Schafer puts it,
Innovation needs to be part of your culture. Consumers are transforming faster than we are, and if we don’t catch up, we’re in trouble.
If you want your business to grow and remain competitive in today’s dynamic online landscape, you must adapt to the rapidly evolving changes in digital marketing. Marketers can no longer bury their heads in the sand and hope that the same old anachronistic methods will work forever.
Taking this into consideration and gauging exactly how these trends are going to impact your digital marketing strategy, we’ve created a comprehensive guide. Read on to discover digital marketing trends for 2020 that will help your business thrive.
Digital Marketing Trends 2020
1. Ann Smarty, Founder, ViralContentBee
(i) Semantic search
Google moved away from exact-match keyword matching years ago. These days Google understands a query context and searcher’s intent, getting better and better at giving their users exactly what they need. This is where semantic search comes into play.
Semantic analysis is making any topic (or search query) easy for a machine to understand. In order to better understand the knowledge base behind each query, use tools like Text Optimizer which applies semantic analysis to Google’s search snippets to extract related concepts and entities.
[To optimize for organic rankings, spend some time researching the relationships among related concepts and entities. Next, cover them in your content for Google to place right inside its semantic model]
(ii) Mobile and voice search
According to Google, mobile searches had surpassed desktop searches back in May of 2015, while mobile devices accounted for half of web page views worldwide back in 2017. The more recent research from Google claims that more than half (51%) of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product while searching on their phones. This means many more people are bound to discover your brand using their mobile phones rather than desktop computers.
Consumers turn to mobile devices to fulfill an immediate need which means your site needs to be optimized to instantly give the web users what they came for.
According to Google, 91% of their users turn to mobile devices for inspiration while in the middle of the task. Hence mobile websites need to be optimized for “micro-moments” satisfying the consumer’s immediate needs instantly.
Your website needs to engage customers quickly at each “touchpoint” making purchasing experience as fast and hassle-free as possible. This includes making your sites faster and ensuring a clutter-free user experience.
(iii) Google’s updates
Google algorithm updates have become much harder to diagnose and deal with. Major Google Updates (Google Penguin and Google Panda) have been integrated into the core search algorithm. Hence they are very hard to identify, as they are never officially confirmed by Google anymore.
Yet, search visibility is still the most effective online traffic source. In fact, there’s no valid alternative to Google’s traffic as Google dominates the global search market. And it’s not going to change anytime soon.
– The number of daily searches on Google – 3.6 billion, which equates to 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.
– 85% of customers use the Internet to research before making a purchase.
– Use tools like Mozcast and Accuranker as well as subscribe to SErountable to spot unusual search engine position movements and also watch your own site analytics closely.
2. Omar Kattan, Managing Director & CSO, Sandstorm Digital Worldwide
(i) Content Marketing – Profiling Buyer Personas
When you begin to piece together a buyer persona, you should be thinking about more than just profiling your buyer; you should aim to profile their decisions. Getting a consumer to make a purchase comes down to much more than their personality or what you’ve got to sell.
Work hard to understand how your buyer persona might think and make decisions. You’ll need a deep understanding of their attitudes, values, decision criteria, and other similar factors if you want your persona to help see you succeed. Spend less time focusing on fun “extras” like hobbies and more time thinking about crucial factors that impact decisions.
(ii) Answer Your Buyer’s Questions:
Since launching the Hummingbird update in 2013, Google has become smarter and more adept at identifying the intent behind users’ search queries. Using Hummingbird, Google can now interpret search queries structured in natural language, allowing users to find relevant web pages simply by phrasing their query as a question. Not only has this improved the quality of Google’s search results, it’s paved the way for people also ask (PAA) boxes, which you can use to attract more organic traffic to your website.
(iii) Optimize for Voice Search
Voice search optimization is no longer a niche consideration. Voice searches are comprising a larger than ever percentage of mobile searches which, in turn, are also becoming the favored method of making web inquiries. A website that isn’t correctly optimized for voice search risks losing out on a significant amount of traffic. These five tips will enable you to boost your site’s voice search ranking.
3. Lilach Bullock, Founder, Lilach Bullock Limited
The world of digital marketing is becoming increasingly competitive; in other words, brands and marketers need to
create content that stands out in 2020, in order to achieve their marketing goals.
What does this mean, exactly?
For one thing, there needs to be a bigger focus on personalization: a piece of content will not work for your entire audience, you need to create content for each specific audience personas so that you can nurture each lead with the right content. Likewise, you need to implement personalization tactics in your email marketing strategy, on your website and on any other channels you’re using.
Another big trend is interactive content: static content can be boring and forgettable – but a good piece of interactive content can hold their attention, get your audience to engage more and most importantly, help you generate more leads.
In 2020, it’s also important to experiment with different types of content to help you reach a wider audience, as well as help you improve your digital marketing results; try different types of content and channels, such as podcasting, video, live streaming, long-form content such as e-books and, of course, more interactive content.”
4. Ted Rubin, CMO and Advisory Board Member, Photofy, Inc.
It sounds obvious, but businesses are missing it: your employees are more important to the success of your company
than you think. Employee advocacy isn’t just about having your employees post on their social channels about your brand. Empowering employees to be more than just mouthpieces for your brand is a way to go beyond advocacy—and benefit both your employees and your brand.
What do I mean by going beyond advocacy? Last year I talked about empowering your employees through social media, so they can empower your brand and the concept of Employee Created Content, #ECC. However, I think you can (and should) take it further. But how do you do this?
Marketers may be able to reach the right person at the right time with the right message, but in the process, they are annoying the hell out of the 99.9% of people that are not in buying mode. Shoppers’ feeds are full of messaging for products they’ve already bought, hotel rooms and flights they’ve already booked, and deals on things they don’t need or want. Today’s shopper has more information than ever in the palm of their hand and is becoming very adept at using it when and where they want.
Brands that are winning this new journey are providing large quantities of fresh and relevant content for shoppers to use when they actually need it. Not only does this help simplify shopping, but it also has a lasting impact on the algorithms that affect what shoppers find across all forms of search.
Especially effective is localized content, as search becomes much more geo-specific. In the face of declining returns from digital advertising and the growing need for more of this kind of superior, impactful content, Collaborative Content Creation (crowd marketing), and Community Created Content, #CCC, offers a highly effective solution.
Considering the average overall social media engagement for branded content is far less than 1%, it is absolutely imperative that brands start thinking about expanding their content creation with those who truly interact and engage with others… Employees and Communities that value the brand.
It stands to reason that personal networks have higher levels of engagement thanks to a real relational connection, but brands need to know how to leverage it consistently and at scale. Most organizations are sitting on a goldmine of authentic content creation that is likely closest to their customers… personally and geographically.
Give your customers and employees the tools to create and share branded content (and if possible couple it internally with a powerful content management system and analytics package). It’s the perfect addition to existing brand digital activities and an incredibly efficient way to increase the scale and effectiveness of those efforts and content creation.
Empower Your Employees and They Will Power Your Brand. Start thinking Employee Created Content, #ECC, NOT Employee “Generated” Content.
Final Thoughts
Digital Marketing trends are followed by numerous opportunities across the world. The credit goes to the increasing popularity of technology and innovative thinking. Companies are seeking professionals equipped with the latest digital marketing know-how.
Since now you are aware of the Digital Marketing Trends, it is time to make the most out of it and elevate your career as a Digital Marketer.
Do you want a promising career in Digital Marketing? Join Digital Vidya’s Certified Digital Marketing Course and pave the path to numerous opportunities.
Thanks Gayatri for this great article about digital marketing trends in 2020. Very informative blog with the excellent guideline for beginners. I think the scientific method you discussed here is particularly remarkable.
Thanks for sharing, this article is extremely great and helpful it is very useful for users. Thanks and keep Sharing.