5 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2020

Every year around this time, marketers and business owners everywhere are busy finalizing their holiday Marketing campaigns and setting their marketing calendar for next year.

This year as you plan for 2020 it’s more important than ever to take a hard look at your marketing strategy and make some changes. Why? Because about 90% of the world’s data has been produced in the last two years, launching us into what Deloitte has dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The speed at which technology is advancing and changing has made creating a compelling, sales-driving digital marketing strategy more challenging, creating the need for business owners and marketers to constantly Adapt and evolve.

2019 brought us into the age of smart speakers and voice search, Google’s Answer Engine, and an introduction to the importance of the customer experience. Now that 2020 is around the corner, we’ve identified the top five digital marketing trends to watch:

1. Higher expectations from a brand’s human connection
2. More competitive digital space, especially search results
3. High-tech capabilities become mainstream
4. Expanded ecommerce capabilities and ad offerings
5. Behavioral and financial changes from a recession

Below we’ll break each one down and how they relate to your marketing strategy,and then give you more detailed applications of each trend. By the end, you should have an idea of where the digital space is headed and how your company should adapt. Questions? Give us a shout. 

How We Defined “Marketing Trend”

If you search “marketing trends 2020” you’re going to get a bunch of blogs that just give you a list of strategies you can incorporate next year, but aren’t necessarily trends.

Scrunchies are a trend. Online video marketing is not a trend.

Online video isn’t going to go away or fundamentally change. It’s been around for years and while the strategies around production and distribution evolve, the idea of video as a trend is baloney.

We used Rand Fishkin’s three criteria on what constitutes a marketing trend:

1. The phenomenon is relatively new, or is having a new kind of impact
2. There is a measurable difference between marketing without consideration of the trend vs. with it
3. Learning more about this thing can make us better marketers by informing strategic or tactical decisions about where we put budget and effort in the months and years ahead

With that in mind, below are the 5 top marketing trends of 2020.

Marketing Trend 1: Sky-High Expectations from a Brand’s Customer Experience

The biggest marketing trend in 2020 is a huge jump in how consumers relate to brands and what they expect from yours.

Not only do we live in an on-demand economy where consumers expect almost immediate response times, but consumers also want to purchase from companies that they can get behind.

The winners in 2020 will be the companies that form a deeper connection with consumers. A huge part of this will be your customer experience. A Walker study found that by the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.

Higher expectations for your customer experience

Customer experience was probably a buzzword you heard here and there in 2019, and it’s going to take center stage in 2020.

A brand’s customer experience is how a customer feels about the entire interaction they have with your business, from seeing their first ad to leaving a review after a purchase. Thanks to the speed at which digital technology is advancing, customer expectations for a seamless, easy experience are rising—in fact, after one negative experience, 51% of customers will never do business with a customer again. 

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

Find the friction in your sales funnel or buying process and take steps to remove it. For example, start with your website. Does it load in under three seconds? Is it mobile-friendly?

Once your website is fast and frictionless, move onto how customers actually purchase or book your product or services. How fast are you responding to customer requests? Can users get everything they need online without ever talking to a human?

What about your customer service representatives? Are they booking enough appointments? Are they creating lifelong customers? You can find out with phone call tracking. If it turns out your CSRs need some polishing, you can get them trained up with a service like Smart Selling, which turns them into sales-generating machines.

Higher expectations for a brand to have a purpose

“I want to make money” isn’t a suitable purpose for a business anymore.

Along with the need for a deeper connection, consumers expect brands to have a distinct purpose for existing. It pays off—according to Delloite, purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow on average three times faster than their competitors, all the while achieving higher employee and customer satisfaction.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

Why does your company exist? Most of the business owners I’ve met have some driving force behind their company—whether it’s helping more homeowners stay warm in the winter or helping small businesses grow. Find your purpose, flesh it out, and make sure it’s front and center in everything you do.

Higher expectations for instant customer service

In 2020, you’re going to have to step up your customer service game. Consumers now expect a near-instant response from brands, and research from LeadConnect found that 78% of customers buy from the company that responds to their inquiry first. Not only that, but 70% of U.S. consumers say they’ve spent more money to do business with a company that delivers great service.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

We now live in an on-demand economy where consumers expect almost immediate communication with brands. To rise to the challenge, you should be sure your website has a chatbot installed or has live chat capabilities, and that you’ve enabled auto-response messages or messenger bots on all of your social platforms.

Higher expectations for corporate responsibility

Today’s consumers have higher expectations for how brands give back. That includes everything from environmental impact to the way you treat your employees.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

First, I’ll tell you what NOT to do. Don’t pick a trending cause and launch some marketing campaign trying to make it look like your company is a selfless saint. Today’s consumers can spot a fake from a mile away, and they aren’t kind to companies that jump on a cause bandwagon.

What you SHOULD do is become involved with your community, and lend yourself to causes, events, and charity efforts that tie back to your company’s driving force.

If you’re an HVAC company, have a clothing drive for your city’s homeless in a “Keep [your city] Warm” campaign. If you’re a remodeling company, sign on with Habitat for Humanity. If you’re B2B, put on a free seminar for local small business owners.

Are you nice to your employees? Make it known! The way companies treat employees also has an impact on the new corporate responsibility.

Marketing Trend 2: More Competitive Online Real Estate (Especially in Search Results)

CMO predicts that by the year 2022, around 87% of marketing budgets will be spent on digital marketing, making quality online real estate more valuable and harder to come by. In 2019, we saw a big evolution in the search algorithms as Google continues to make search more intuitive for users.

The adjustments this year resulted in a higher demand for quality content and more variety in search results—including videos, images, rich snippets, and ad offerings like Google Local Services ads. This will play out next year in three ways:

Increased need for segmented and niche advertising

Consumers are expecting more and more personalized experiences and won’t respond to irrelevant ads, which means you’ve got to get on board with niche advertising and audience segmentation.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

Let’s say you’re the owner of an HVAC company whose service area covers a few different audiences. In one direction is a luxury neighborhood with older residents, in another is brand-new neighborhood development home to younger families, and in yet another direction is a neighborhood of old, historic houses.

Since the owners of the homes in each neighborhood have wildly different motives, needs, and budgets, you should segment that service area into three audiences with different ads. You’d highlight ultimate comfort and high-end health benefits in the luxury neighborhood; peace of mind, affordability, and convenience in the family neighborhood; and your experience and expertise with old systems in the neighborhood with historic houses (you can do this easily with Nextdoor Advertising).

Increase need for Advanced SEO

I remember when almost NO ONE knew what SEO even was. Now, it’s hard to find a business owner who hasn’t dabbled in trying to rank. But while you may feel like you’ve gotten SEO down to a science, search algorithms are continually evolving, and so, too, do best SEO practices.

We’ve come a long way over the years, and where SEO strategy used to be limited to keywords, now you’ve got additional requirements that keep piling up, thanks to all the new elements in the search results—like rich snippets, knowledge cards, and other features that contribute to Google being an “Answer Engine.”

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

You’re going to have to step up your technical SEO capabilities. Focus on capturing “position 0” in search engines by using advanced SEO practices like adding schema—a specific data language that helps give search engines context about content.

For example, FAQ schema was recently launched, and it’s already popping up in search results everywhere. If you already have an SEO company, make sure they’re on top of your technical SEO and schema. If you don’t have an SEO company, you’re going to need help getting schema implemented on your website.

Increased need to diversify ad buying

Remember when there were only a couple of different types of online paid ads? We’ve come a long way since then, and thanks to all the new technology and digital capabilities you’ve got more options than ever before.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

Because the search results are getting more competitive and people are shifting how they find products and services, you’re going to have to diversify your ad portfolio so you can claim space in all the right spots. This includes investigating social media advertising, taking out Google Local Services ads, investing in YouTube advertising, and even dipping your toes in advertising on niche sites like Nextdoor.

Marketing Trend 3: High-Tech Capabilities Become Mainstream

AR/VR and interactive content

A couple of years ago, using AR and VR in marketing was a luxury reserved for Fortune 500 companies and tech-savvy startups. Not anymore. AR/VR technology has advanced to the point that it’s tipping into the mainstream, and marketers are just now learning how many ways they can use it. While this technology isn’t for every industry, it can make a big impact if the niche is right. 

So far, my favorite example of a successful AR marketing campaign so far HAS to be the Dallas Cowboys’ AR photo booth:

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

The cost for creating an AR/VR app used to be astronomical—hence why only billion-dollar companies used it. Now, you can hire an AR/VR company and create a project for under $5,000. Before you jump in, however, make sure your business is conducive to this type of technology.

For example, if you run an HVAC company, you would definitely be better off investing in a strategy like Google Local Services ads over AR/VR (unless you have more money than you know what to do with…)

Hyper-personalized advertising

78% of U.S. Internet users said personally relevant content from brands increases their purchase intent.  Not only that, but 63% of consumers now expect brands to use their purchase history to provide personalized experiences, and 79% of them say they are only likely to engage with an offer if it has been personalized to reflect previous interactions the consumer has had with the brand.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

Be sure all of your email marketing has personalization in it, and use advanced analytics and tracking, along with remarketing, to provide more personalized ad experiences—both on your website and elsewhere on the web.

Automated and AI-powered messaging

We said above that customers expect an immediate response from companies, and if you don’t have some sort of messaging or instant chat on your website by next year, you’re going to fall behind competitors. 

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

Be sure you’ve installed some form of chatbot or automated messaging on your website, and make sure you’ve enabled auto-responses on all your social media accounts.

Marketing Trend 4: Expanded Ecommerce Capabilities and Ad Offerings

At any given time, 84% of Americans are shopping for something. This presents both opportunities and challenges in 2020. Because of this always-on mentality, your options to inspire customers to buy your products are limitless and encompass a variety of new mediums.

However, if you’re in the ecommerce space, you’re also going to have to contend with Google and Amazon. That’s why it’s more important than ever to diversify your ad portfolio and get creative with online shopping ads.

Shoppable social posts

Shoppable social posts will be big in 2020 as more and more consumers are becoming aware that the possibility even exists. A seamless customer experience is a necessity, and what could be more seamless than seeing a product on Pinterest or Instagram and being able to buy it then and there?

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

If you’re an ecommerce retailer, shoppable posts will be your best friend. They’re pretty easy to create, and most social media ad platforms make it simple to set up. The only caveat is that you need high-quality photos.

Shoppable content marketing

Other than shoppable social media posts, you’re going to have to contend with shoppable content as well. What do I mean by “shoppable content?” I mean videos, online magazines, and even print ads where consumers can hover over (or scan, for print) any item and immediately see or purchase the product they’re seeing.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

While shoppable content used to be restricted to enterprise businesses and those with big budgets, now it’s pretty darn affordable and easy to do. It can be as easy as embedding online photos with a link to a product page to creating videos with an online service like Wideo that has shoppable features built into the platform.

Marketing Trend 5: Experts Predict a Recession

Experts and economic advisors have been warning of an upcoming recession, which you should be prepared for. During the Great Recession of 2008, more than 400,000 small businesses went under, and unless you want the same fate for your business, you should craft a contingency plan now.

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR 2020 MARKETING PLAN:

We recently wrote a blog on recession marketing strategy, which distilled recession marketing down into five main rules for you to follow:

1. Don’t arbitrarily cut your marketing budget
2. Do a deep dive of your target audience’s recession behavior
3. Analyze and track everything—now
4. Focus on existing customers
5. Increase conversion rates by testing, tweaking, and repeating

Need Help with your 2020 Marketing Strategy? We Got This.

If you’re not sure where to go with your marketing strategy next year, give us a shout. We’d be more than happy to take a look at your strategy and help you get those results you’ve been craving.