Digital marketing is an ever-evolving concept. Do you remember the days when business owners required copywriters to stuff the content with keywords that made no sense? Yeah; those days are gone. Today, we have to produce high-quality content, since Google’s bots became more sophisticated.
But the evolution is not done yet. We’re seeing marketers push new trends all the time. Their practices are driven by the search engine’s algorithm, but the audience still plays the main role.
Each digital marketing practitioner has a goal: stay ahead of everybody and set the trends in the industry. But there’s nothing wrong in following trends, too. We have to stay in touch with the new practices that drive great results.
Let’s see what they are.
We’ll list 5 important predictions about what will work throughout 2020.
5 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch
- Big Data
Big data started off as a buzzword that no one truly understood. We’ve been reading about the trend for years now. A data-driven approach to marketing means that we learn from our audience and we implement those insights into the daily decisions that we make.
But so far, most marketers and business owners haven’t managed to implement big data into their daily marketing activities. They perceive it as a too complex concept that requires tools, investment, and employees to yield results. So they continue using their old-school methods. That will have to change.
Without using insights and analytics, it’s hard to optimize your digital marketing efforts. If you ask any business owner or marketer what skills they would like to improve, you’ll get the same answer: “I’d like to get better at data-driven marketing.”
Red Bull gave us a nice example of how a campaign can get better when it’s based on big data. The Shopper Insights team helped the internal stakeholders to understand the behavior of the customers, make decisions with less risk involved, and drive more revenue.
The data showed that the target audience of people who consume Red Bull was changing. The Shopper Insights team also suggested the channels that the company should use more in order to attract its audience. Red Bull is still redefining its relationship with retails at this point, as a result of the goal to improve in-store tactics of promotion.
- Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing is an approach focused on feedback. It’s based on the concept of listening to the customer’s praise and critique, as well as the needs of the potential customer, so you can craft a better offer for them. Brands are doing their best to mimic human dialogue, so they can bring their products and services close to the audience.
If we look at some of the finest UK essay writing services, we’ll understand what conversational marketing means. Before the era of full-on customer support, customers were forced to fill in forms and wait several days to get a response. Today, they can use intelligent chatbots or direct live chat features to get in touch with an agent ASAP.
The team listens to the complaints all the time, and they do their best to solve the issues without delays. When you check the websites of these services, you’ll see that they guarantee 24/7 support and free revisions upon request.
This is all part of the digital marketing process. You can’t attract today’s audience by convincing them to buy something. There’s always a question in the background: “What if I don’t like it?” Answer that question before you lead them to the purchasing process. It’s a great way to drive them through the sales funnel, since you’re offering a risk-free experience.
- Consumer Confidentiality
Facebook’s data privacy scandal shook the online world. It reached the peak in 2019, and the network still hasn’t recovered from it. In July 2019, Steve Wozniak warned Apple users to get off the platform. That’s how serious things got.
Since that happened, people are more aware of privacy issues than they’ve ever been. They will read the terms and conditions before providing any of their private information. If you don’t disclose the way you use their details and you don’t guarantee full confidentiality, your brand is doomed.
Every marketer should learn how the General Data Protection Regulation works. Then, they can hire legal experts to create their privacy policies. An essay writer can help them convey the policies in the most readable way possible. Writers can also help marketers to make the confidentiality policies part of their promotional campaign. An paper writing service can make sure that the content is suitable for the specific target audience.
- Realistic Storytelling
We live in an era of edited lives.
We all follow Instagram influencers, who showcase their perfect selfs and perfect lives. That kind of marketing no longer works. We’re constantly seeing brands and influencers trying to infuse more reality into their publications.
The audience wants to see rawness, so marketers have to provide it. If you’re promoting a makeup brand, publishing unedited photographs won’t make you look worse than competitors. A realistic touch will make you look different and closer to your audience.
Check out this post by Lauren Rudick, an influencer in the yoga niche. She has been using Instagram to promote her yoga school for years. In this particular post, she expresses the truth that we’ve all secretly known: most of our publications are unrealistic. Digital marketing is unrealistic. We have to change that. Do you notice how in this particular post honesty is used for marketing purposes? It got more attention than over-edited photographs.
Showing the raw reality behind the scenes is a good start. You can connect with your audience if you share some of the struggles that your business faces. And stop over-editing images. People are getting tired from that.
- The Marketing Approach Is Free from Gender Stereotypes
We already entered the era of pansexual marketing. The trends in advertising move away from setting a target audience based on gender.
If you look at the MAC Cosmetics campaigns, you’ll notice that this brand’s success is practically based on pansexual marketing. They have never promoted makeup as something that only women should use.
It took a long time for other brands to start following this method. We all need to move away from harmful stereotypes that put men, women, and children in gender roles.
Making your marketing campaign more gender-neutral will extend your target audience. You’re moving away from the risk of offending anyone by showing a person in a stereotypical gender role. However, you’ll still specify your audience by interests, location, and other factors of identification.
Always Go Forward!
What’s the worst thing you can do when trying to promote a brand through digital marketing? – Getting stuck with the same old techniques. They might have worked in the past. Maybe they still work. But if you never try something new, how will you get better?
Improving your knowledge and keeping up with the trends – those are two essential rules in the world of digital marketing.
The above-listed trends are worthy of discussion. Have you already implemented some of them? If not, it’s time to start making some changes in your 2020 marketing plan. It will take some time and a lot of effort before you notice results. But when you get those results, you’ll realize it was all worth it.
