Explore 2020 trends for digital marketing. Is your company ready to integrate these trends into your digital marketing strategy for 2020?

1. Lifecycle Marketing

Creating a streamlined customer experience from the first point of contact to purchase to after-sales ensures customer retention. By reviewing the marketing activities and communication between business and customer throughout the customer journey you can see the points of contact with customers in your online and offline media across the customer lifecycle. Increasing brand awareness and health is as important as gaining new customers. Retaining customers improves brand loyalty and may generate user-generated content via word of mouth or reviews.

2. Conversational Marketing

Many big brands are now going to direct messaging to streamline customer services through messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook Messenger. Brands are also opening up to private messages on social media networks such as Twitter or Instagram to build strong connections with their customers. Brandings are finding direct messaging effective in starting connections, dealing with complaints and taking sales orders. This technique is best when the customer messages first rather than the brand contacting first.

3. Interactive Content Marketing

In order to spice up content, marketers are creating more inbound marketing content such as quizzes, polls, maps, 360-degree videos, and infographics. Interactive content works as it grabs the reader’s attention and provides them with value.

4. Personalised User Experience

To keep customers engaged with the brand, marketers are providing a personalised user experience that connects to customers on an individual level. 2020 will see smaller brands take advantage of personalisation through targeted advertising using recommendations and more one-to-one engagement with social media users.  

5. Voice Search

More users are using voice command devices such as Siri, Google Now, Alexa to gather information. Voice engine optimisation will be needed for this year and the future to cater for this change in user behaviour and technology trends.

Summary

This year sees more focus on customers and their journey from the start to after sales. By providing conversational/personalised marketing along the customer journey allows companies to have one-to-one touch points with consumers, thereby allowing a more customised customer service approach. By allowing those one-to-one touch points, companies can deal with pain points as they arise. Interactive content will keep consumers engaged with the brand and improving brand loyalty even after sales. Voice search will continue to be as important due to the continuing emergence of smart speakers.