Digital marketing is an ever-changing landscape with new technology arriving daily that redefines the approach marketers take to engage with their customers. Every new trend represents an opportunity to establish an advantage over the competition, establish expertise in an industry and increase ROI. Tried and true processes likely aren’t going anywhere but they are evolving.
With AI, machine learning, data-driven technology, emotional analysis, personalized customer experience and multimedia resources, the options are endless and the trends are in a state of constant flux. The trends for 2020 look to be maintaining the momentum of the technology industry, utilizing new and emerging opportunities to create advanced marketing techniques that answer modern problems.
Data-Driven Marketing
One of the most powerful tools in modern marketing is data-driven marketing, leveraging the power of big data sets to analyze and organize large pools of information that provide unique insight to customer behaviors, market trends, upcoming opportunities and strategy points. Of all the trends in 2020, Data-driven marketing has one of the highest impact deliverables when properly actioned by an engaged and opportunistic marketing team.
Taking advantage of massive computing power and the advancements of AI combined with Machine Learning, data-driven marketing is a game-changer in the industry that stands to deliver a greatly improved experience for both businesses and customers as lasting bonds are formed, increasing loyalty and helping business discover how to provide a better product.
Voice search
Optimizing for voice search engages an emerging tool for the marketing landscape that shifts away from the laptop and desktop scene into a fully mobile world. The majority of users today access most of their data via a smart device. With the expansion of the IoT devices, despite early hurdles, a voice search-friendly marketing plan or even one targeted specifically to this market finds itself in a realm that is not yet saturated and prime for novelty. It is essential to understand how voice search affects keywords, key phrases and search terms, in general, to ensure that digital marketing efforts are aligned with the most current trends. Voice search provides a unique opportunity to increase customer engagement and improve the business to customer relationship as voice, properly leveraged can feel more personal, easier to use and readily available, increasing the sense of utility a company enjoys from the buyer’s perspective.
Video
Video provides a unique opportunity to take advantage of a medium that gets stronger every day. As storage centers grow and bandwidth increases, video resources become a viable source of both marketing and customer engagement. Aligning a business with the best content opens new doors to discover and engage audiences. Understanding keywords, platforms and search functionality are essential to getting the best out of a video strategy, a knowledge that is less prevalent than one might first assume. Video clears the barrier between customer and business, putting a face to the business in a way that used to be limited only to television ads and magazine stills.
The antiquated days of polished public images provided by a select few are over. Anyone can now establish a direct channel to their audience and put themselves front and center in front of a camera. This perceived personal approach is huge in the customer engagement category, providing a link to the business that creates stronger message retention and more clearly relays the mission statement as a tangible and memorable moment in time. Videos are prevalent on all the major social media channels and can be adapted, reused and repurposed again and again.
Chatbots
At first blush, the chatbot might seem like the voice automation of the web form world but what they lack in personalization they gain in issue resolution. The chatbot is anything from a preprogramed list of canned responses to a fully automated, AI-infused virtual assistant that can solve the top problems faced by any support queue with ease. This eliminates a large burden on unprofitable resources dedicated to resolving customer issues.
By intercepting and resolving the most common issues, chatbots excel at lowering wait times for more complex issues, triaging less pressing questions and directing customers to the proper resources that often go overlooked in favor of in-person attention. As a marketing tool, chat bots can be used to intercept potential leads twenty-four hours a day, gather contact information, answer basic questions and deliver enticement opportunities to interested customers prior to human involvement.
Analysis of Emotions
One of the most effective and yet to be fully understood technologies emerging in the marketing scene is the art of emotional analysis. Understand and acting on the emotional response experienced by customers upon receiving new information is a powerful tool when used properly. It requires an extensive understanding of the human condition. Motivation and timing are key elements in properly executing an emotional analysis strategy. This blends well with data-driven marketing by analyzing data sources to optimize messages for the customer’s preference. Segmentation and targeting based on these factors is one of the most effective modern marketing campaigns.
Omnichannel Marketing
Businesses use a plethora of channels to attract, contact, engage with and entice customers. This kind of segmentation has created a marketplace where companies are spread thin for establishing a unified message of who and what their brand is. This can lead to confusion or worse indifference about a company and its products. Omnichannel marketing is the process of unifying this message into a cohesive, single statement that leaves no question to what the customer can expect to receive from one end of the process to another.
Creating an omnichannel experience requires skill and a firm understanding of all the marketing channels currently in use. Consistent branding, consistent content and a clear path of engagement unify business and set the story in a customer’s mind. Today’s modern markets demand an omnichannel approach to rise above the noise and establish a voice in the crowd.
Shoppable Posts
A major advancement in social media marketing, Instagram has eliminated the largest obstacle in the monetization of social posting. Drop-off is a real and dreaded fact of modern e-commerce. In testing since 2016, now available in countries worldwide, shoppable posts make it possible for customers who are attracted to content on an official stream to become shoppable from within the app.
Never leaving the website means never taking the risk of URL misdirects, waning interest, confusing website topography or other disturbances in the commerce path. A customer can make their purchase using their saved information, all the way through checkout and never leave the native application. The feature also includes a ‘shop’ feed where customers can browse available products directly from their phone and discover new products with ease.
Personalization
Personalization is a feature of several of these trends but the process of engaging with and providing a personalized experience for each customer is a standard in modern marketing that can’t be overstated in its effectiveness. Now more than ever it’s possible to provide that extra touch based on incoming information, previous buying trends, account profiles and more that makes each interaction a unique transaction.
The engagement creates a sense of loyalty that persists long after the transaction is complete. In a world of data management, analysis tools and data exploitation, personalization remains essential to creating an effective marketing plan.
Especially at a time when customers have more options than ever before. Web marketing by its nature may be a distance scenario but companies that leverage personalization in a tangible way establish themselves with their customers, create a lasting relationship and encourage a bond of loyalty. Taking this a step further, products that find a way to incorporate specific characteristics of their audience as part of the buying process create a one of a kind product that can’t be found anywhere else. This is a strong example of personalization at work.
Trends in 2020 are shifting towards a customer-focused, unique and personalized experience for every purchase. It makes buying easier, friendlier, more tailored to the specific needs of each customer and convenient. Embracing new technology means creating a stronger relationship with the audience and identifying exactly who that audience is.
