With Christmas and the end of 2019 only a few weeks away, I thought what a perfect time to start looking at some of the digital marketing trends we will be looking to leverage for our clients in 2020. In addition to these important trends, I want to touch on an underlying movement in our marketplace that has been developing and will only increase due to these trends and rapid technology growth. That is, our movement from a complex and technology driven marketing approach to one that is more customer focused.
I consider a customer-focused marketing approach to be targeting to a minimum viable market segment as we prioritise how to market an experience to our customer before we market the product itself. Delighting this segment will have flow on effects via positive word of mouth and viral spread.
People want to buy into a brand’s story and their relationship with it, and where they can receive an exceptional user experience. We believe you’re likely to capture an audience’s awareness through offering a simpler and more targeted user experience with a strong message conveying strong values and you’ll see leads and prospects as a result of this. In 2020 it will be more important than ever to offer your services in a friendly, knowledgeable and approachable manner to increase the value of your market offering. Be sure to communicate your brand values and look towards reaching your users on an emotional level. This way you will be likely to present to your users a solution to their problem that is clear and simple.
In 2020 consider the following in your digital strategy to enhance your reach and customer’s experience.
Marketing to your audience: segmentation and metrics
Understanding your audience and creating content that is suited to a developed persona will become even more important in 2020. This will require looking beyond regular data platforms such as Google Analytics, which provides metrics that reflect your marketing effectiveness on your website . Google Analytics is extremely important to measure your conversions and underlying digital marketing success but doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to bringing the experience of your brand, product or service, to your customers. This requires richer data.
In 2020 we reccomend using data visualisation tools such as Google Data Studio to develop a stronger business intelligence approach. It enables you to draw together metrics from across a variety of digital marketing platforms allowing you to view who, where, and what your users are doing with your content, how they are reacting, and whether it is leading them into your marketing funnel to a conversion. It allows you to gain a deeper understanding of the consumer and the specifics relevant to developing the ideal persona based on a number of factors such as their age, geographic location and what platforms they are using most. If you combine this information with the “why” of your business, you’ll be more likely to capture their awareness and interest to then convert into a purchase.
Data visualisation that allows you to channel into your audience on a deeper level will generate more positive results as you can use the data to develop a more refined marketing approach on an ongoing basis. It will help understand what type of content you should be publishing and on what platform your users are spending most of their time on.
Delivering a clear and authentic brand story
Users are wanting to understand your company, your values and the experience they are likely to have before they are drawn to the product itself. Once you know your audience based on market segmentation, you can be more clear about who you are to them. Communicating an authentic brand story with absolute clarity and simplicity will be likely to drive engagement.
In 2020 your customers are the heroes of your marketing strategy, not you. The story that you communicate needs to focus on helping your heroes to solve their problems. Your brand story should be so clear that it identifies who the hero is, what you can do to help and why your marketing strategy will be better than that of your competitors. Think about the way a good story resonates with you, it often has an emotional appeal. As well as using emotion to solve the problem, 2020 is going to be about simplicity and offering a service that is consistent across all channels to remove any confusion. This will enhance the chances of solving your heroes problems. Create your content with a call to action that solves the problem, because don’t we all love happy endings.
Personalisation of marketing
Personalisation of your message and marketing efforts is important, particularly if your audience is a part of Generation Z or Millennials, as written in my previous blog post about how to reach these audiences. Something you should consider focusing on personalisation at a deeper level to achieve a sense of connection and create a lasting impact. An example of personalisation is creating a number of EDMs with different content, appeal and presentation that has been constructed to appeal to different segments. Take the time to understand your consumer and keep your content relevant to their changing needs and wants.
Humanisation of your content through a voice of consumer (VoC) approach will continue in 2020. VoC will not only allow you to understand the how’s and the why’s of your target audience it will also make your brand and achieve growth through your users own social media channels. Listen to comments on social media and interact with them you’ll find yourself establishing meaningful insights. Your content will be created based on what they want to see and communicate your brands message more clearly. Allowing your consumer to use their voice will also trigger the creation of more user generated content, reusing this will add to your authentic business approach and shows you are listening to your customer.
Video Content and Tik Tok
Research as shown by Venngage suggests that 65% of us are visual learners. Posts with imagery produces 180% more engagement. People are 85% more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. These statistics are massive and support the idea that utilising video in your marketing plan will allow you to convey your message in a more authentic and humanised approach as mentioned above.
One recent platform worth investigating is Tik Tok. This platform will be of benefit if your company is taking a B2C approach and marketing to a younger Generation Z audience.
Further, the use of live video is important as it will drive FOMO (fear of missing out) for your consumers. Use videos to contain snippets of information that will have users actively feel they need to tune into the video and likely to generate higher awareness, again leading to a higher conversion rate.
Voice Search
Voice search will be getting widely used amongst consumers in 2020 and therefore making your content optimised for voice search will become important. As previously mentioned in our blog post on voice search, BERT will be a Google tool introduced to understand this conversational language better. When developing content include more conversational queries and answer questions in a direct approach.
As I said at the start of this article it is important to remain aware of changing markets and how they respond to your content. I believe that to be successful you need to look at what you’re doing with your marketing strategy when implementing the above trends and remain attentive to your business values. Think about the overarching why you’re implementing these trends and how they relate to the message you want to deliver to your audience. You can do this by using a range of data, understanding your market on a more personal level, understand and tell your brand’s story, use more video content and present your content in a more natural and authentic way.
Your ultimate goal is to deliver a message to the consumer in a simple way, that communicates overall business values and message, whilst still being effective toward converting into repeat sales and ongoing customer relationships. You want to present a solution to your users problem on a more emotional level in a way that communicates your values on a consistent basis.
Don’t let your marketing plan stay untouched in 2020. Contact us today and let us help you kick your marketing goals for the coming year.
