Knowing the right marketing trends can make all the difference to your marketing strategy. Every year, customers and their preferences change. New developments and products come to surface. So businesses need to adapt to these rapidly evolving changes.
According to Brian Solis,
“ Each business is a victim of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behaviour when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it. Digital Darwinism does not discriminate. Every business is threatened.”
There is no denying that 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone. With COVID-19 sweeping across the globe, economies of many countries are on pause and all of us are feeling the pressure. But this is the perfect time to review your marketing strategy.
Have you found yourself asking the following questions:
What can I expect this year?
What new developments could impact my marketing strategy?
What should I watch out for ?
Looking at the latest trends in marketing will help you to answer these questions and, not just be prepared, but succeed in the coming year.
1. Artificial Intelligence will continue to grow
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can analyse consumer behaviour and search patterns, and use data from social media platforms and blog posts to help businesses understand how customers find their products and services. AI will soon be the driving force behind many services and we can already see it implemented in areas such as :
· Basic Communication
· Product Recommendations
· Content Creation
· Email personalisation
· E-Commerce Transactions
Chatbots – use natural language processing software to decipher what the user wants and responds as if it were a real person. Chatbots will continue to be an important part of digital marketing in the future, they are responsive 24/7, they can give answers promptly and can accurately recall your entire buying history. By automating repetitive tasks, these virtual assistants can offer outstanding customer service by meeting customers expectations.
2. Conversational Marketing
Dan Moyle from Business 2 Community says that when consumers have a question 82% want an “immediate” response. We live in an instant gratification world. Conversational marketing facilitates a one-to-one, real-time connection between marketers and consumers. This form of marketing is now available across multiple channels, allowing organisations to meet consumers on terms that suit them: on the devices and platforms that best meets their needs, unlike traditional strategies.
AI and Chatbots can leverage this opportunity to: start conversations, answer common questions, qualify leads and even set meetings in a way that your prospects will love.
3. Personalisation
In order to stand out in 2020, you need to be able to personalise your marketing.
Traditional means of advertising is becoming less effective, consumers are tuning out of generic ads that have no real connection. According to Forbes, segmented lists with personalised email blasts have been shown to perform better than generic emails sent to an entire list. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with your audience in a meaningful way.
4. Video
According to Hristina Nikolovska, a website which includes videos are 50 times more likely to drive organic search results when compared to text as users find video content more compelling, thus Google pushes pages that include videos higher in the rankings.
One of the difficulties marketers are faced with in recent years is the growing shift to mobile devices, however video can present the same information in a format that works perfectly regardless of the device.
Live videos are popular as they can be used for interviews, product demonstrations, and behind the scenes glimpses of the brand, such as life in the office, how products are made, company events etc.
Video is also becoming a major tool for training, allowing organisations to train more employees at a time at a lower cost.
5. Social Media Messaging Apps
Instant messaging is a type of online chat with offers real-time text transmission via the internet, since the appearance of smart phones and the subsequent explosion of mobile apps, free chat and social media messaging apps have proven themselves as a cheap alternative to operator-based text messaging via SMS. As of April 2020, two billion users were accessing WhatsApp messenger on a monthly basis. Statisa stated that 10 billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Facebook messenger every month.
Social messaging apps can be useful in sending messages to customers directly, as they allow personalisation and add value to the user experience.
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