Your Channel-by-Channel Guide to 2020 Marketing Trends

One of the favorite parts of any marketing geek err, consultant’s year is happening now. As we approach the holidays, marketers get giddy…not because of the parties, festivities and time with family. Those special times are great too, but we love to prophecize about the marketing trends for the year to come. Don’t worry; you don’t have to be as excited as the marketing set is to master your marketing next year. This quick guide is set you up to summarize what you need to know for marketing success in 2020. 

Top Marketing Trends For 2020

Big Changes In Social Media – Just when we’ve got our social media game down to a science, something changes. (Remember that change to the Facebook algorithm in 2018?) Over the summer, Instagram updated its algorithm making organic reach harder, then made waves by announcing that it will be hiding likes for certain (and possibly all) posts in the near future. Keeping up with these changes requires a continuous pivot and, possibly, a reassessment of your overarching social media strategy. Understanding what you want to get out of this ever-changing channel and how you plan to measure it is the set up for success. Of course, what you were doing in early 2018 can’t be applied in 2020. One thing seems to be certain for social media; change is always on the horizon! Watch out for trends like the rise shoppable posts.

Digital Advertising Automates – Google is always on the cutting edge of technology, and finding ways to automate and optimize is top on the agenda. Google Ads are no exception as they use the machine intelligence to optimize your bids. This “smarter” system benefits you as it allows you to choose conversion actions even at the campaign level, automation capabilities to set when your bids start or stop as well as the power to optimized bids of multiple campaigns with a specified set of conversion activities. While we may lose some of our organic prowess in social media and SEO, we gain laser-focused abilities to control our digital advertising spend.

SEO Goes For Zero – What’s better than number one in SERP (the search engine results page)? The position above number one – zero. The coveted snippet is the place to be in 2020. It not only presents above all organic results and appears as an answer to the exact question a searching is asking, but it also increases voice search results, as well as mobile search results. Through comprehensive and consistent SEO activities, you may be able to achieve position zero, but in 2020, it will certainly require some insight and hard work.

CX Continues Its Uptick – In the past few years, companies, both large and small have adopted a focus on the customer experience. This shift has come about for two reasons. One, companies know that retaining a customer is cheaper than prospecting for new one. (That prospecting continues to skyrocket as organic reach is harder and harder to come by.) Two, consumers are now accustomed to brands that know who they are, provide exactly what they want on their terms and offer true transparency into the brand.

• Chatbots – Chatbots offer real-time attention that consumers demand. Consumers now consider it to be the norm to have an online option to interact with their favorite brands. Companies benefit from improved efficiencies, increased customer satisfaction levels and measurable data opportunities.
• Private Messaging Apps – Opportunities abound in new(ish) channels like WhatsApp, Venmo, WeChat and many more. Engagement as well as easier payment options will be on the rise in 2020 as marketers tap into these popular apps.
• AI – Artificial intelligence is most likely, not going away. On the contrary, 2020 will bring deeper adoption of “intelligent” non-human tool. Alexa and Siri are already pervasive in the consumer’s life but watch for more adoption in 2020 as well as industry-specific tools that cater to the nuances of specific industries such as the medical field.

Keeping an eye on marketing trends as we enter 2020 is my passion (and I’m happy to say a large part of my job). Even if it’s neither thing for you, it’s important for you to have a partner that works with you to assess what marketing channels sync up with your business goals and the specifics of your industry. As we race to the end of the year, let’s connect to find out how the changes and opportunities can support your success!