4 Digital Marketing Trends for 2020

Alright, you know these are coming. The “trends to look for” blogs. They are super popular at the end of every year. But listen, we can't help it. Google loves them, they actually provide some value and we're trend-setters ourselves, so here you go.

Let's start with the basics, digital marketing is the process of marketing your products, services or business digitally or online. Every year, new digital marketing trends emerge and attempt to change the landscape of the market. While no one can predict exactly what trends will take off and be game-changers, there are some indicators on which ones will have an impact on the market. Here are a few of the digital marketing trends we believe are coming in 2020. 

Community Marketing

Online communities have been around since the days of dial-up. From chat rooms to Yahoo Groups to Reddit the appeal of joining a space where people with similar interests could communicate is widespread and constantly evolving. Even the Facebook Groups feature has changed multiple times. The 2010 revamp highly encouraged brands to use Pages as opposed to Groups; now almost a decade later, brands are allowed to join Groups started by private individuals. We see this involvement affecting digital marketing in two ways.

Firstly, I don’t think we are too far off from Social Media Managers joining groups, acting as a brand representative and checking in daily. Combining their community membership with social listening tools, they’ll be able to instantly stay on top of conversations, bringing what they learn back to executives and influence overall marketing strategy. If they use their association with the group wisely, they’ll also be able to contribute to conversations and act as a trusted authority.

Secondly, don’t be surprised to see brands creating their own groups and inviting super fans and content creators. Not only will this be THE place to bring together like minded consumers, but it will create a space where brands will be able to integrate current topics with marketing campaigns. New influencers may even stem from these groups.

Marry Influencer Marketing to Buyer Personas

With ‘influencer’ being added to the dictionary this year, it’s safe to say Influencer Marketing is no longer a trend, but a mainstay in digital marketing. It’s even expected that influencer marketing will become a $5-10 billion industry in 2020. Large and small companies have found ways to make this celebrity-alternative endorsement work for them. So what’s next in the world of influencers? More!

Instead of using 1 or 2 influencers to support a campaign, we think they’ll match their influencers to a buyer persona. We anticipate brands to become laser focused and search for an influencer matching each of their personas in each of their markets. The success of influencer marketing is tied to relatability.  Creating personalized marketing campaigns and using local influencers can only increase the credibility of the product or business in the eyes of the consumer. 

Consumer Privacy Campaigns

Online privacy was a hot topic this year. Consumers want their personal information to stay private. While California and Vermont enacted laws in 2018, bills were filed in 25 additional states, including Texas, in 2019 regarding online consumer privacy.

Considering this, in 2020 we foresee businesses being even more intentional about sharing when they collect information, how they use it, and what they’re doing to protect information shared with them. Heck, we wouldn’t be surprised to see entire campaigns based on the theme of a company’s privacy plan.

Content Won’t Reign Alone

While Content is still King, Artificial Intelligence will be voted Prime Minister. The growth of ecommerce is perfectly suited for the incredibly large dataset needed for AI’s Deep Learning. Their collaboration will allow for messaging that is not only well targeted and highly personalized but ideally timed will greatly impact the digital marketing industry. After automation in content scheduling and analytics, this Content Intelligence is a natural next step.  

Now that you’re up to date on our forecasted trends, which do you think makes the most sense in helping you meet your inbound marketing goals? Contact us today and let's audit your progress this year and set you up with a 2020 vision!