Top Digital Marketing Trends to Look For in 2020

It’s hard to believe 2019 is almost over! The end of the year is always a great time to reflect on the changes of the past year and look ahead at what’s to come.

In the ever-changing world of digital marketing, there are always new marketing trends and tools popping up. As the digital marketing engineer at Atilus, I’m constantly trying to get ahead of the trends to make sure that we are making the best recommendations for our clients, and not missing out on valuable ways to reach customers online.

I’ve compiled a list of the top digital marketing trends coming in 2020. You may have seen some of these topics on our blog over the last few months as emerging trends, but they will continue to grow in the new year. Keep reading to find out more!

Voice Search

I’ve written about voice search before, and it is expected to be a top marketing trend in 2020. Studies from WordStream show that – 72% of people who own a voice-activated speaker say their device is part of their daily routines, 55% of American homes will own a smart speaker by 2020, voice shopping is set to jump to $40 billion in 2022, and most importantly 50% of all searches will be via voice in 2020.

When trying to reach your target audience online, these numbers show that voice search simply can’t be ignored in your digital marketing strategy moving forward. Optimizing your business for voice search isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy. Still, a good place to start is to make sure you have claimed and optimized your local Google my Business listing, and include conversation keywords that people will speak rather than type in your SEO and PPC strategy.

Podcasts

Another topic I wrote about in a recent blog post and will see continuing to grow in 2020 is podcasts. Podcasts have been around for a while but have started now to be utilized as a content marketing tool more than ever.

One of the main reasons are so effective at reaching customers online is because of their flexible nature of them. Audio as a medium allows your audience to listen to them while they are driving, working, doing errands, or multi-tasking in any way.

They can access them on their phone or desktop, and stream when they have Wi-Fi or download them to listen later. Not to mention, most streaming platforms are free. In today’s world where people’s time is valuable and convenience is very important, podcasts are a perfect way to reach them and provide them with valuable content that will make them want to work with you.

Influencer Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most highly effective ways to get people to trust your business and want to work with you. Influencer marketing has opened a whole new type of word-of-mouth that can magnify this to a larger market. While people used to get recommendations from family, friends, or people in their community, the world of social media has created “influencers,” who can sometimes be traditional celebrities, but most are internet personalities that have developed a large niche following that can help spread the word about your business through their online channels.

Influencer marketing can sometimes be more successful (and cost-effective) than traditional advertising. Studies from Ad Age show that 64% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products more than what brands say about themselves, and 58% of people have bought a new product in the past 6 months based on an influencer’s recommendation. By finding the right influencers that align with your brand and whose audience reflect your target market, you can efficiently and effectively grow your business in the digital space.

Video – Ads, Social, and Content

Video content will continue to dominate in 2020. There are many ways to utilize video content to reach your customers online, and it’s important to find a way to incorporate video into your digital marketing strategy.

Based on studies from Impact, 72% of businesses have said that video has improved their conversion rate. The same study says that 70% of consumers have shared a brand’s video and 52% of consumers say that watching product videos make them more confident in online purchase decisions.

Studies also show that using video on your site makes it 50x more likely to drive organic search results. On Facebook, the average engagement rate is 3.6%, while the average engagement rate for video is almost double that at 6.13%. This year, YouTube was the second most preferred platform for watching video or TV among 18 to 34-year-olds (after Netflix), so it’s a great way to reach customers either through video ads or organic content.

All these statistics show that video marketing is highly effective in growing your business, and you should find a way to make it work for your business in 2020.

SERP Changes

Changes in the search engine results page are less of a “trend” and more of a threat to be aware of in 2020. When you typed in a keyword on Google, the results used to be pretty straightforward – you would see PPC ads, organic listings, and Google My Business map listings on the search engine results page. Over the past few years, there have been a lot of changes to these search engine results pages, which is causing many businesses to rethink their SEO strategy.

Due to new features from Google like featured snippets, more than half of searches are “zero-click searches” – this means that the user’s query is answered on the search engine results page itself and they don’t click through to any websites. Think about if you were searching for a restaurant – if the business’s hours, phone number, and menu items are all available right there after you search, you probably won’t click through to the website.

Because of this, you may see decreases in traffic from organic searches in 2020, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Data shows that organic traffic has been down across the board across industries and different search engines. A great way to optimize for these changes is to make sure you are taking advantage of all the features Google has to offer – Rich and featured snippets, Google My Business, and Google Ads (the latter applies if you have the budget). Also, identify what keywords actually get you clicks-through to your website, and focus on those in your SEO and PPC strategy.

Work with A Digital Agency on A Comprehensive Marketing Strategy in 2020

With all the different opportunities digital advertising, social media, and content marketing online bring – it’s clear there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to digital marketing. Depending on your industry, goals, and target audience, there are different ways to develop the best digital strategy for 2020.

If you want to work with a digital agency that can help you grow your business online, contact Atilus today!