Predicting Digital Marketing Trends in 2020!

Hello Marketers! Are we ready for 2020. By this time mostly all marketers have their marketing strategy ready for the year which can only be done with a clear goal and plan to achieve it. Proud to be living in UAE, as a marketer I cannot wait to see and experience Expo 2020. This cannot be actually called a trend but content marketing will be a dominant part of the digital marketing landscape in 2020. So I am about to predict the trends for the year where most of them are actually relying on content in someway or the other.

As technology continues to advance at a fast pace, some of the trends I would like to mention are focused around technology. However, I will not hesitate to say that there is definitely a push-back against the increased digitization and automation of interactions between brands and consumers and the desire to make marketing more human again. Yes, technologies like AI and data-driven marketing insights will be trending for sure in 2020 but the overarching focus in my opinion will still be on people and not technology.  

Traditional advertising is and will be losing momentum with Personalized marketing taking the lead.Consumers are more likely to do business with brands that offer personalized experiences which create a real connection. Increased data collection and advancements in technology has already had a huge impact on the level of personalization that is possible and on what consumers expect from their interactions with brands. 

Strategic marketing transformation will be essential, where we will be required to recognize and ensure the brand, company reputation, customer relationships, and the customer experience as a whole are considered in every business activity. 

Research has shown visual content is always preferred over plain text. Image focused platform will immensely grow and can prove to be essential in communicating and advertising. With the advancements in voice search, development of content and especially visual content should not be neglected. 

Customers will be ruling the market in 2020, as marketing now is no longer about convincing people to purchase from or work with your organization. Instead the priority has to move towards providing awesome customer experiences that will make customers come back for more. In a way, when you focus on building a positive business culture and providing excellent service, the marketing almost takes care of itself. The growth of online content is and will be giving more power to the consumers. As they are not waiting for you to tell you how great your products are. Instead, they are doing their own research. So the key would be to offer them something more than just information. 

As customer experience is already the hottest topic at any marketing forum today, but it is more than just a passing trend in 2020. Efficiency, convenience, knowledgeable and friendly service with easy payment options is what people value most in customer experience. Customer experience is not just all this but also includes having the latest technology, personalization as mentioned earlier, brand image, as well as the design all add up to the over all customer experience. 

AI technology has seen huge advancements, where some businesses will also adopt AI to assist in their marketing efforts. AI is one of the main technologies behind voice search and smart assistants or chat-bots that appear on more websites than ever before. Although we need to remember the human aspect is still important, so the idea is to use this technology to enhance the marketing efforts and not replace the real people behind them. 

Big Data, supported by AI and predictive analytics will also help brands to learn more about their audiences and customers. It will enable hyper-personalization of customer experiences and marketing messages. 

Lastly, I would like to mention Live Videos. Live Videos are now trending and have become extremely popular with people. Consumers will be spending more time on watching them versus watching pre-recorded videos and content. It is more engaging and makes the audience feel they are a part of it and they can influence the content. Live Videos will be a great medium to grab the attention of social audiences.