The Top Marketing Challenges for 2020

I'm lucky. In my work as business advisor and fractional CMO, and with my network of really swell friends and colleagues, I get a lot of opportunity to gather up anecdotal data that might not be readily available to everyone. Let me share some of what I see might be the bigger challenges in Q4 2019 and into 2020.

Everyone Feels More Overwhelmed and Busy Than Ever Before

The crush of everyday life is upon us. With a looming economic recession, several areas of worldwide political unrest, undeniable global climate changes, it's easy to feel a lot of anxiety and stress. Add to this the media inundation and continued expansion of consumption opportunities. Do you buy Netflix, Hulu, NBC's Peacock, Disney+, or all of them? YouTube has 2 billion monthly users watching well over a billion hours of content on their platform every day! Podcasting continues to eat into terrestrial radio market share but with smaller audiences spread across multiple shows.

To reach through this noise is a huge challenge rolling into 2020. Potential customers will have to see the communications you send to them as solving an important (and specific) problem of theirs or they'll have to believe what you offer strongly reinforces a specific opinion and view they already have of themselves. In times of uncertainty, people tend to hunker into "village" mode, where they strengthen their beliefs (instead of try something new) and they look for salvation (when they've abandoned their beliefs).

Your marketing technology has to support this as well, with very tight segmentation and the ability to send custom content to specific people.

Customers Want to Make Fewer Decisions

Continuing with the theme of overload, customers are seeking a lot more "we guide you every step of the way" interactions as well as "we do it for you" products.

This leads to plenty of opportunities once your company attains clarity on who you serve, what you sell, how you do it, and the rest. Buyers don't have time for your long story. They want the thumbnail and they want it to be clear and easy. If you have to explain something because you're clever, you've probably already lost their attention.

Clean up your websites. Streamline your media making and communications. Make every step of the customer experience journey explicit, simple, and hand-holding good.

People Want to Buy From Companies They Trust

Customers --especially those 35 and under-- no longer purchase solely on price or features (did they ever?). They want to know that you support human rights, that you practice inclusivity, that you care about your environmental impact and that your business acts as a responsible global citizen.

Communicate this wherever you can. Use much more inclusive graphics on your site (extra points if they're not stock photos). Demonstrate it in your purchasing choices, your travel policy, your partnerships. Look for ways to marry your brand to causes that reflect the values of your business and your team.

And be explicit in your customer service dealings. Own up to mistakes. Apologize and take actions to resolve issues. And be clear every step of the way (see previous point).

Automation Needs to Be Backed by a Strong Human Presence

No one likes feeling unimportant. With advances in artificial intelligence, chatbots, voice activated computers and more, customers run into the canned and impersonal part of the customer experience more often. Worse, this tends to happen more around customer service, at a moment when customers feel most frustrated and could benefit from a human touch. (I'm not advocating against automation.)

For years, Rob Hatch and I have said "to automate is human." What we mean is simple. If you do automation well, it feels personable and it frees up more and more opportunities to do personal one-on-one level interactions. We have to get smarter and more personable and more interactive with our automations.

Dynamic content in email marketing is one example. Dynamic websites is another. Building a better customer experience workflow that uses chatbots in place of forms, for instance, is a good option. And seek out other ways where possible to create personalized interactions from the technology you use.

There's So Much More

I walked through a few of the most obvious challenges rolling into 2020. This didn't much talk about partnerships, didn't cover brand relationships, mentioned nothing about whether or not to try influencer marketing, and so much more. But then, that's why you can connect with me.

Grab my newsletter , my podcast, my YouTube channel, or just reach out to me if you want help with marketing or business. I'm always happy to chat!