Year after year the digital marketing environment undergoes drastic changes. The new decade is finally upon us and marketers are still trying to adjust to these changes accordingly. One thing that every company that operates in the online world has in common is that everyone is looking forward to new trends and digital innovations in the marketing landscape.
The main reason for this anticipation is that those companies that are the first to adopt new trends and leverage new innovations that will most likely earn them a significant competitive advantage over companies that are still indecisive about hopping on board with trends and technological advancements.
The fact that modern technology is driving these trends means that consumers will probably embrace them quickly and marketers will have to act just as quickly if they wish to remain relevant to their audiences. With that in mind, here are a few digital marketing trends and innovations for 2020.
Micro Influencing
Influencer marketing has gained a lot of popularity and traction over the last couple of years, as companies of all shapes and sizes have collaborated with influential social media individuals to help promote their products or services to specific audiences. This strategy was all well and fine until consumers no longer trusted influencers with a large following, believing that these influencers weren’t honest with their reviews at all. However, influencer marketing is far from over. As a matter of fact, it only changed recently.
Now, micro-influencers are the ones driving this trend forward. These micro-influencers have a smaller following and a lot better relationship with their audience which makes them come across as more credible and honest to their followers. What’s more, their content isn’t overwhelmed with sponsored promotions, which makes them ideal for targeting specific niches of consumers.
The Social Environment
Social media has been among the most important channels for marketers. However, just like the rest of the marketing landscape, social media is also experiencing changes due to the latest trends and innovations.
To leverage social media platforms and their fullest potential, marketers will have to focus on these trends more closely. A good example is the so-called “shoppable posts” that are driving the social commerce trend. These types of posts are nothing new to online marketing, but they are starting to gain momentum in 2020.
The way it works is that consumers can make purchases directly from a social media post or ad without leaving the app or visiting a company’s website. Instagram’s Checkout, released in 2019 seems to have started the revival of this trend. It has once again been proven that online consumers prefer convenience above all else.
SEO and Algorithms
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has always been an effective marketing strategy. Over the years, as the online market grew to be more competitive and oversaturated, SEO became more of a mandatory practice rather than simply optional. However, SEO is as dynamic of an environment as the rest of the online market. That being said, Google, for instance, updates their algorithms at least a thousand times per year. That’s a lot of change for a relatively short time period.
Among the recent changes are mobile-first indexing, voice search, and visual search through rich snippets. These frequent changes have caused a lot of business to be worried about their ability to keep up and readjust their strategies. Fortunately, an innovative trend allows these businesses to leverage white label SEO and partner with reliable companies to share the responsibilities of marketing a product or a service. While one company develops and takes care of SEO the other company is in charge of sales.
Reinventing the Email
The email has always been in every marketer’s arsenal. Although many experts have argued over the years how email is losing its relevance and effectiveness, email marketing is still here and as powerful as ever. Furthermore, the return on investment (ROI) for email marketing in 2019 was 3,200%. Therefore, marketers won’t abandon this channel any time soon. Instead, the latest trend is to reinvent the email and give it a shiny new look. Interactive and engagement-based emails are on the rise these days.
Such emails resemble website pages more than plain text (naked emails). Innovations in UX design and interactions focused on customer experienced have revolutionized emails as we know them. Their purpose is to not just have a visual appeal to consumers but to improve engagement, conversions, and satisfaction.
Direct Messaging
Direct messaging and how companies interact with consumers has changed drastically over the last few years. This trend is pioneered by consumers, manly Millennials and Generation Z. Their close relationship with their mobile devices has encouraged marketers to communicate with the younger generations on their own terms.
Direct messaging over messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, Viber, and WhatsApp has become more common and more meaningful. Moreover, companies can develop more personal relations with consumers over direct messaging, and customer service and support has become more efficient. Aside from that, some companies have gone as far as leveraging AI (Artificial intelligence) to develop chatbots that exist on messaging apps that are appealing to the tech-savvy generations.
The digital marketing environment is changing and it will continue to do so alongside innovations from modern technology. Each year, marketers face the challenge of predicting and adopting these new trends so that they can serve their customers well and meet their expectations.
short url:
