Marketing and social media trends for 2020

Marketing is an essential part of doing business. Especially as we move into 2020. Marketing your business online is the most effective way to grow your business and increase revenue. Online marketing also boasts impressive ROI for just a minimal amount of effort if you know where to focus. And knowing where to focus is perhaps the most important part of marketing your business online.

If you run Facebook ads for example, and your business’s customers don’t use Facebook, you’ve just wasted your time. Knowing who your customers are, where they spend their time online, and how they purchase your product are the most important aspects of online marketing. But the delivery of your marketing might change, even though your customers remain constant.

For example, year over year as new platforms emerge online, your customers’ habits will shift and change. They might migrate to websites where before they hadn’t spent any time. And as new ways to purchase (mobile for example) become the norm, you’ll need to accommodate these new habits to capture revenue.

In this article, we’ll go over what marketing trends are emerging and making a big enough impact to affect how you should conduct online marketing in 2020.

DOING WHAT’S NEW MATTERS

You might think that you can ignore emerging trends online, and if your business is doing well already, it might seem tempting to ride things out and avoid change. But even brick and mortar businesses need to stay on top of the changing landscape online. For example, look at the pervasiveness of Google reviews and store pages today. Just a few years ago these pages were not near as complete and complex as they are today, and if you run a business with a physical location, they are essential to your success. Most people use these pages to decide things like what restaurants to visit, or where they get their car serviced.

Being complacent when it comes to emerging trends online is a good way to get left behind. If the trend gains enough steam, you also risk looking like a laggard, which could further adversely affect customer acquisition. The good news is that as online marketing matures, brands have begun to discover that they don’t need to have a significant presence everywhere. For example, if your business is not particularly visual, there isn’t a need to have a large presence on Instagram.

As we move into 2020, there are a variety of new and emerging marketing trends, but most of the trends that are becoming ubiquitous you are more than likely already familiar with.
Trends

AI (CHATBOTS)

Chatbots came onto the scene a couple of years ago, but until recently they have not been the most useful tool for your website or business. They had mostly been a gimmick and frustrating to develop, and not particularly useful in most business use cases. But this is beginning to change.

As more platforms move to develop useful chatbots, there are emerging useful bots from the likes of Botsify, Drift, and others that might finally be able to deliver some real value. If your business might be able to make use of a bot like this, you should take a look at what they have to offer. You might be able to add some real value to your sales process, and at the very least, you’ll get to play around with some cool new tech.

VOICE SEARCH

As Amazon’s Alexa has made it into households around the country, voice search is emerging as a real requirement for brands and businesses online. Allowing customers to search with voice commands is something that seems like it’s right out of science fiction, but as tools arise that allow for this kind of functionality, there is a real demand for the ability to use it.

If your brand is in the consumer space, this trend is more than likely something that should be on your radar. As these tools become more popular, and as these voice libraries get extended, the demand for data for them to consume will only increase, and you’ll want to be part of the conversation.

VIDEO

Video content is becoming increasingly important for even small local businesses. And the nature of what video it continues to change. 2020 is going to see an increase in micro-video content or videos that last for only around 10 seconds or so.

This demand for more video content and video content that is often very short will challenge brands who have done video a certain way in the past or have not looked into video content at all.

INTENT DATA

Using ‘intent’ data is something that many consumer brands, and especially B2B brands have been looking to adopt, and will adopt in 2020. This requires leveraging technology to identify consumer intent to help drive conversions, find sales opportunities, and deliver value to customers.

INFLUENCERS

Utilizing influencers for marketing has been a trend for a while now, but what we are going to see in 2020 is an expansion of this trend. Platforms that make it easier to connect with influencers, influencers on platforms where you might not have expected them, and influence as a service might all make 2019 the year of the influencer. At the very least your brand might be wise to jump on the bandwagon for this trend as it reaches its peak in 2020.

CONCLUSION

Marketing is an essential part of doing business, especially as we move into 2020. Marketing your business online is the most effective way to grow your business and increase revenue, and not participating in emerging trends is an excellent way to miss out on a lot of opportunities. Online marketing boasts impressive ROI for just a minimal amount of effort if you know where to focus. And knowing where to focus is perhaps the most important part of marketing your business online.

In this article, we’ve discussed some emerging trends that could help elevate your businesses marketing online, and deliver more ROI than marketing efforts you’re most likely already doing. Looking toward 2020 we hope you found something in this list compelling and relevant to marketing your business.