From social media to search engine optimisation, digital marketing trends have completely changed over the last decade. Everything has shifted in ways many of us couldn’t predict. As we move through the new year, existing digital marketing trends will grow and develop further and like always we will see a myriad of new trends emerge. While it’s hard to believe we’re already compiling the list of 2020 key trends in digital marketing, in order for your brand to meet customer demands, it is imperative to stay on top of predictions, innovations, and technology.
With accelerating developments in technology, we now have the ability to understand users better than ever before. The digital space is only getting started when it comes to exciting new trends even though 2019 made huge strides in high-tech social media. The growth of video and augmented reality has made social media more immersive than ever.
Digital marketing is a complex industry with tactics ranging from email and social media advertising to SEO and PPC. As a result, digital marketers are faced with a daily challenge of keeping their brand at the forefront of customers’ minds. As it grows, all marketers should consider applying these changes and trends in order to survive and stay ahead in the market.
This Is why It is crucial to evaluate what worked and what didn’t last year and update your 2019 marketing strategy with new trends emerging in the new decade. A company that walks with the trend and adapts marketing with these essential changes generates better business leads and earns more.
Rebel Agency predictions on the direction of digital marketing this year
- The Rise Of AI-Enabled Smart Speakers
- Content Marketing
- Create a blog and start writing blogs frequently
- Creating infographics and visuals to add value to your end users experience
- Identify the right media channels to promote your content on
- Adding relevant videos in the content
- Video Content
- Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence
- Social media channels
It is estimated that there will be more smart speakers used around the world than tablets by the year 2021. According to Canalys, the smart speaker will grow from around 114 million to 208 million in 2020. Asia is on the rise in the number of users while the US remains the largest market for smart speakers. Marketing for these products and platforms has yet to be fully explored, but with more people investing in smart speakers, they will continue to become integral to the home and eventually the ‘on the go’ user.
Why do we need to pay attention to these devices?
With the voice to text apps becoming more popular, we will see voice shopping on the rise, and smart speakers will be important for end-users. Smart speakers can be paired with other devices around the home like tablets, smartphones, televisions, refrigerators and other devices allowing complete integration of voice control living. While the idea is not new, implementation has been quite slow until now but it opens up new territory for how marketers will make the most of these connected homes.
Currently, there are two types of voice search. The voice search for smart speakers such as Apple home pod, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Home. On the other hand, Siri, Bixby and Google assistants are implemented in smartphones, tablets or computers which show the immediate result in written form, images, and videos.
If you think that digital content marketing can inflate your revenue, you are absolutely correct! Content marketing can help your brand increase visibility to a broader audience. It is the perfect fit for almost all business no matter what niche they are operating in with so many options to create great content and an effective marketing strategy.
But what is content marketing?
Content marketing can be defined as a marketing program that revolves around creating, publishing, and distributing content for an audience. In layman’s term, it’s all about creating content for the audience at the right time to attract them and bring them to your website.
Importance of content marketing to your business
As mentioned, content marketing can help small to large businesses to drive organic traffic to your website and rank better on Google search engine results. When the content you have produced is a good piece of content that is engaging and provides value to your readers, you can get massive traffic which then leads to brand awareness and subsequently sales for your business.
The best content marketing strategies may include the following:
Content marketing also includes magnifying profits or returns in other areas of the business, like customer services, sales, and marketing.
Customers spend more time watching videos than on other content across all social media platforms. Whether it’s in the form of product testimonial videos, behind the scenes videos, or interviews from experts in their field, it helps your customers connect with your brand as they can relate to the face behind a brand. This is why many big companies employ celebrities to be the ‘face’ of their brand. The video keeps users on a platform longer and as a result that encourages platforms to promote video content over other forms of content.
Video content is an easy-to-digest format that gives our eyes a rest from the overabundance of textual information. Compared to Youtube, Facebook videos have been known to have a much higher impression share when uploaded natively straight to Facebook. A live video is also an option on Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram which adds to a brand’s authenticity.
Huge improvements in the AI world over the past few years have made it ready to partner with corporate marketing in the new decade. Preferred human communication has evolved from letters, television, telephones, and email to text and chat. With these tools, marketers have continued to do well-implementing strategies that pair with these technological advancements. Now as chatbot technology is moving so quickly, it is essential for business owners and marketers to stay updated.
What is a chatbot?
Chatbot technology is not a new concept at all. AI programs have been around for decades. The automated customer service robots that assisted with telephone automation in the past are considered an early form of a chatbot. However today, chatbots are much more sophisticated and they use a quite high level of AI that makes many conversations indistinguishable from actual human communication. Chatbots are constantly evolving and they are now ready to reply to users not only in text but also by using audio, videos and even GIF.
Types of chatbot
Branded or service chatbots – These types of chatbots are used by companies to improve customer service and to optimise marketing strategies and gather client feedback.
Informational chatbots – These are data provider chatbots and are well known for providing data to users. Popular informational chatbots include Siri, Cortana and Amazon’s Echo. They were not built to include marketing functions, instead, were built to assist people with a wide variety of needs.
Thousands of people use these chatbots on a daily basis and on average spend 1.53 minutes interacting with the bot. For business, It can help drive new customers, encourage repeat orders and improve brand awareness.
Practical business knowledge is more than powerful in today’s digital economy. Knowing how your product or service creates a better world for your customers is imperative for survival in an increasingly competitive world. The use of social media in digital marketing is a strategic tool in terms of building brand awareness and in turn reaching your potential customers. Social media platforms are an integral part of the new-age buyer’s journey and it’s not just confined to Facebook. Businesses should consider reaching a range of audiences across a more diverse range of social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tik Tok, Tumblr, and Pinterest. Reddit is on the rise in popularity and is one of the most underused social media platforms for content marketers.
The role of social media in digital marketing
Amplify your message through active content sharing
every time you post fresh content on social media and people start to connect, if they like what they read or see, they tend to share and talk about your content. This type of activity provides you with an effective form of exposure and brand building because of the “buzz” it creates
Connect and communicate authentically
Unlike one way type communication like websites, emails, and advertisements, social media allows you to interact in a more authentic manner to build trust with your audience.
Increase traffic to your website
Social media can give you a more diverse level of inbound traffic. Visitors can be a potential lead when they have already interacted with your social media content. There is no doubt that social media is an effective way to send customers as direct referrals to your website.
If you don’t want to get left behind in business you may want to get on board with some or all of these trends soon. It’s important to create a custom marketing strategy for your business that utilizes both traditional and digital marketing platforms. It’s important to create a plan that builds brand awareness but also converts your followers to customers. If you want to keep up with the latest trends, a digital marketing agency like Rebel Agency can help.
Our team works with a range of businesses in all industries and can help you develop your business social media plan for the next 12 months. Contact Rebel Agency today so we can discuss your goals and how to keep your business ahead of the competition.
