Top 5 digital marketing trends of 2020

The landscape of Digital Marketing is volatile - the competition gets fiercer every day, and the efforts needed to stay on top of the competitors just get more robust. Keeping this in mind, we are going to look at five emerging trends that will help your business stay on board of the ‘trending train’ and also help you stay relevant in 2020.

1. Zero-Click Search Rankings:

It is getting tougher to rank on Google organically, and every marketer and SEO professionals will agree to this fact. The space available on Google pages is decreasing drastically, thanks to the increase in paid searches and Search Engine Results Page features. These are affecting the websites, and there is a decrease in organic clicks while paid clicks are steadily increasing.

Adding to this, zero-click searches are rising. According to a recent study, more than half of Google searches end without clicking on other search results. A zero-click search is when you land on a search result page, and Google answers your query; therefore, you do not need a click-through.

If you want to make the most out of these searches and zero-clicks, you should be focusing more on optimizing your Voice Search, Google My Business, and improving your local presence. You need to focus more on voice search optimization as the trend to search through voice assistants is at an all-time high! Devices like Amazon, Alexa, and Google Home have paved the way for voice searches. The voice assistant available on your mobile phone has made it obligatory to include voice search optimization for your brand in 2020. Here’s how you can optimize for voice searches:

Making use of long-tail keywords, keeping it specific with the exact question your customers are asking
Using conversational language. For example, using words like “near,” “how-to,” “buy.”
Local content creation, like location pages and blogs, can help drive traffic to your website.

2. Marketing Automation :

The process of automating your marketing activities during the different parts of the marketing funnel is called Marketing Automation. Marketing Automation helps you optimize your time and learn more about your customers’ behavior, which can help you bring better results. This automation enables you to automate repetitive tasks like sending emails, follow-ups, reminders, etc. Thus, the entire process becomes faster and more manageable. Some examples of this marketing automation software are Ontraport, SendinBlue, ActiveCampaign, etc.

Benefits of marketing automation include:

1. Better lead management due to automation of cross-sells, up-sells, and promotions; thus, resulting in increased sales
2. Automated campaigns help you reduce costs and save time.
3. Ability to target customers with highly personalized content across different platforms.
4. More time to focus on other areas of business.

3. Hyper-Targeting and Personalisation:

Generic ads are now a thing of the past. In 2020, it has become critical to get the right message to the right people on the right platform at the right time. Personalized advertisements have become crucial to meet customer's demands. Big brands have paved the way for personalization and targeting, and now customers also expect the same from their brands. Here’s how you can personalize your customer’s experience:

1. Using Facebook’s advanced targeting features, you can focus on people who engaged with your brand or website.
2. Offer product/service recommendations based on their previous purchases.
3. Provide personalized offers, promotions, and coupons.

4. Reputation Management:

In today’s world, online reputation is very vital for all businesses. Potential customers take the help of Google, Glassdoor, and other industry-specific review sites to learn more about the company. You could be losing out on potential leads and sales if you are not managing your business’s online reputation. Therefore, in 2020, Online Reputation Management is mandatory. With online reputation management, you can:

Manage your online presence to be positive
Respond to client queries and resolve them quickly to maintain a healthy relationship with the audience

5. Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial intelligence in marketing is where customer data is leveraged, and AI concepts like machine learning are used to anticipate the customer’s next move and improve their journey. The evolution of advanced analytic solutions has made it possible for marketers to build a clearer picture of their target audience. The benefits of using AI in marketing include:

1. Take sales forecasting to the next level
2. Gain a more in-depth understanding of consumers
3. Optimize advertising campaigns
4. Create detailed consumer profiles

If you are focusing on getting to the top, then you should definitely work towards enabling these technologies and techniques into your digital marketing game. The future is interesting, and you need to make the most out of it.