With each new year comes new opportunities — and this rings especially true in the marketing world, where the ways to reach and influence new customers are constantly evolving. Read on to learn more about six current trends our marketing experts predict will offer especially attractive opportunities to grow your business in the coming year.
Social Media Shopping
With the potential to drastically shorten the sales funnel from awareness to purchase in just a few clicks, in-app purchase capability allows e-commerce retailers to tap directly into the power of social media to boost sales. Social networks currently offering some form of in-app sales capability include Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter and TikTok — and the list will keep growing in 2020. Providing a glimpse of just how lucrative this functionality can be for marketers: 72% of Instagram users have used the platform’s Shoppable Posts feature to purchase a product directly from within the app.
Personalization
Today’s consumers have become so accustomed to incessant marketing messages — especially when online — it’s become second nature to tune out generic pitches. But personalization offers marketers the chance to cut through the clutter and connect to a consumer in a more meaningful way, with a message targeted directly to them. The opportunity is highlighted by a recent Epsilon survey, which found that 90% of consumers find personalization appealing, and 80% are more likely to purchase from a business that offers them a personalized experience.
One clear case in point that will continue to gain steam in 2020 can be found in email sends. Rather than sending impersonal email blasts to a brand’s full email list, marketers can create a more personal connection by using lists that have been segmented based on customer history, behavior and other data — a tactic that research has shown substantially outperforms mass email blasts
Google Ads Smart Bidding
Using advanced machine learning to help marketers optimize the performance of their Google Ads, Smart Biding promises to increase conversions and conversion value for marketers participating in Google’s ad auctions. The technology can optimize performance based on data from all of an advertiser’s campaigns, so even brand-new ad campaigns can see a boost in ad performance. We see this as a growing trend that will benefit businesses both large and small who advertise with the behemoth search engine in 2020 and beyond.
Interactive Content
With more and more content populating the web, it’s growing tougher to attract visitors to your company’s website — and keeping them there once they’ve arrived can be an even bigger challenge. One way to spur added interest in and engagement with your content is to add in elements of interactivity here and there, ranging from simple and fun features like quizzes, polls and infographics to more involved features like interactive video (for example, video with hotspots that offer more information when clicked), e-books and microsites. We predict these types of on-site content elements will see more growth in 2020, and those who add them will benefit from more time spent on their sites and more shares among impressed visitors.
‘Real’ Models
The late 2019 cancellation of the nearly two-decade-running Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was no coincidence — it can at least in part be credited to a growing trend toward body inclusiveness in marketing. Consumers have grown tired of being subjected to the impossible-to-attain physical standards that have long dominated the fashion world and fashion advertising, preferring instead that advertisers “keep it real.” In 2020, expect to see more “real models” in advertising, as consumers are showing stronger connections to companies that advertise using models they can actually relate with.
Voice-search Optimization
With the use of smart speakers on the rise in recent years (nearly 60 million smart speakers were sold in 2018 alone), more and more searches are being directed toward Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant. To put a number on the trend, ComScore has predicted that half of all online searches will be voice searches by 2020. As a result, if they haven’t started doing so already, the savviest of marketers in 2020 will want to begin optimizing their content for voice search — and making content more conversational is a big first step toward doing so.
Could your brand use some expert guidance to incorporate some of these powerful trends and navigate your marketing efforts into the future? At The Brandon Agency, our fully integrated marketing firm boasts a team of marketing specialists who can cover all the bases in one place — including brand strategy, creative, interactive, social media, analytics, SEO, conversion rate optimization and more. To get started with a strategy tailored to boost the performance of your online campaigns, contact us today.
Ed Lammon
Managing Editor of Agency Content
Ed Lammon is the Editorial Director of Blog and Long-Form Content for Brandon. A native of Enterprise, AL (home of the world’s only monument to an insect), Ed is a 1998 Journalism graduate of Auburn University (War Eagle!). When not working, he enjoys travel, hiking, telling dad jokes, and hanging out with friends and family (particularly around campfires, at concerts and at tailgates).