With 2020 around the corner, it is time to start working on our Marketing strategies for the following year. But before we decide on what our companies will tackle in the year to come, let us take a look at the top five 2020 Marketing trends we need to budget for now.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The search engine industry has seen some changes and updates to the search algorithms, all to cater to the needs of users. Snippets, ever since their introduction, have become the holy grail of SEO. Google stated last year that 54% of all clicks on Google come from featured snippets. And the snippet show went on to include rich snippets, which might be smart to focus on, since they are not only favorable for voice search but also quite convenient on mobile phones.

It’s important to remember that, since 2015, Google has been working on RankBrain, its AI-powered algorithm. So when it comes to SEO, we’ll see developments in SERPs, as Google will aim to have more relevant and quality results.

Even with new AI developments in the field, make sure that your content is still king and your visitors have a top-notch experience on your site. Optimizing for Voice Search.

The newest trend in search engine optimization, driven by ever-changing consumer habits, is voice search. While definitely a game-changer, voice search is still in its infant stage, although this will change very soon. Its trending status is why we are listing it as a separate item on this list.

With the introduction of Amazon Echo and Google Home in households, the opportunity for brands to advertise through this medium is on our doorstep. According to Google, voice search accounts for more than 20% of mobile queries, while 45% of Millenials use voice search for shopping, so this might be the time to focus more of our Marketing efforts in this direction.

However, before you are ready to put all your chips on a smart speaker and voice search advertising, brands should first optimize the content on their websites for voice search. To start, this means creating your content around longer and conversational phrases that people would actually use to search for what you have to offer and recognizing when and where people use voice search. (Usually, it’s to get up-to-date information about something that is happening geographically near them.)

Content Marketing

Speaking of content, content marketers are faced with quite a challenge. First, they need to create a piece of content that will stand out in the world of over-saturated online content. And second, they must keep their audience’s attention and actively engage them.

So far, quizzes, polls, contests, games, interactive videos, etc. have done the trick, but the audience is insatiable and they want more. More fun, more knowledge, more credit, and everything in under 8 seconds.

But the way we tell a story is changing. In the years to come, we won’t solely be focused on quick wins and specious engagement that will result from polls, videos and the like. Instead, the storytelling will move toward being more conversational and immersive. Rather than telling the audience what has happened or what will happen through a story, we will convey the experience gained through the process of that story. Think of it as a completely different approach to storytelling. Instead of delivering the story to your audience, make sure they are the center of the story: its main characters and protagonists.

One of the best ways to invite your users to be part of a shared experience is by communicating your values with your domain name. For example, .ME is considered a great choice for businesses that want to communicate their focus on the person or integrate a call-to-action into their website address. A great example is Spotify with www.spotify.me.

Influencer Marketing

Considered a yin and yang of today’s Digital Marketing, Content Marketing and Influencers go hand-in-hand. In the forthcoming year, Confluence is taking off, bigger, better, and faster.

This is not where the collaboration stops since the brandividual media has a new spin to it. The focus is on influencers with complementary domains, a place where they’ll be able to build their personal brands and connect further with the audience. With their own domains, influencers will gain trust and a larger publication scale, which will, in turn, help the brands they are working with, too.

Why? Because the research shows that multinational brands are willing to invest 65% more in influencers in 2020. But the selection of influencers is tough. Only those who are transparent, whose credibility, reputation, and quality of followers is adequate, and who is the right fit for the brand will be taken into account.

Personalization vs. Privacy

It might sound strange that Personalization – an effort to make your Services, Products, and Marketing suitable for the needs of a particular individual – is not already part of everyone’s Marketing strategy. According to research done by Gartner, it is predicted that by 2020 Marketing Personalization will be used by 90% of online advertisers. By 2021, it will be the core of all Marketing strategies.

In general, Personalization gives more control when reaching a specific group of customers. Having collected user data from studies, surveys or list segments, you are in a better position to reach your targeted audience and create campaigns that are more relevant and effective since they are based on the buying habits of your customers, their interests, and behaviors. However, Personalization is not only the focal point of our Digital Marketing efforts, but it also is the future of business as we know it. Going a step further from offering personalized purchase suggestions, businesses are now trying to create a personalized and immersive experience for their consumers. And one of the key concerns here is respecting and protecting the personal data of their users.

Contrary to the popular view on personalization and privacy of data as a dichotomy, meaning that we can have either one or the other, I firmly believe the opposite. Indeed, user data is what allows you to offer a personalized service or product in the first place; you can’t have one without the other. Without respecting the rights of your users and protecting their interests you won’t have their trust, you won’t have them as your customers, and you won’t have the opportunity to offer them anything.

The keyword here is respect. If you view the respect for the privacy of your users as an underlying value of all your efforts, the rest will come organically. This respect will determine the way you collect, store data and, ultimately, use user data in your business.

Marketers have learned to adapt quickly to the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing and its trends. As was the case with any other year before 2020, keep your eyes open to emerging trends. AI is making a considerable leap, we’ll be voice searching more than we care to admit, and influencers will become our go-to brand spokespeople. But with all the latest technology and Marketing trends at your fingertips, the most important thing for marketers to remember is to keep it personal, conversational, and immersive (at least until 2021).

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