As technologies get more sophisticated and the modern customer gets more tech-savvy, we can expect that the digital marketing realm will continue to remain competitive in 2020. Moreover, growth in digital marketing translates into the speed in which new products and services are developed and distributed to meet customer’s needs.
Check out these facts for a better understanding of the importance of digital marketing:
- by 2020 and through the next few years, the global digital software industry will grow by $74.96 billion
- by the year 2020, around 87% of marketing budgets will be spent on digital marketing.
To help you stay one step ahead of the game, here’s a glimpse at some of the trends that will shape the digital marketing landscape in 2020.
Visual shopping experience
To improve user shopping experience, online retailers began exposing browsers to content from other shoppers “just like them” who wore that top, bought the exclusive candle holder, or booked that vacation to Maldives. The fact that user-generated content (UGC) was never generated with the intent of commercialisation makes the images inherently authentic which in turn helps build consumer trust and engagement. In fact, 71% of consumers say that (UGC) makes them feel more comfortable when buying a product.
To illustrate this, let us take a look at Jette Frölich Designs. They had connected that very moment of visual inspiration derived from UGC directly to the opportunity for a purchase to be made. More specifically, they used their customer photo from Instagram and displayed it on their website.
In addition, common visuals that are provided to customers as inspiration or as the first point of the payment process, can reduce the volume of steps a customer must take to buy the product. Essentially, every step that can be removed via visual commerce ensures that visuals on your site are truly shoppable and is a key step towards improving customer’s shopping experience and the likelihood to make a purchase.
Voice-powered search
Introduced by Google in 2011, voice search was initially more of a novelty than a feature that users relied upon at the time. However, as voice recognition technology gets more advanced, we can expect that more and more people will utilize the voice search on their smartphones in 2020. According to Lazzaweb, 20% of all searches are voiced search and by 2020, 200 billion searches per month will be done with voice and we are in midst of a massive change in user behaviour.
Therefore, businesses should focus their outreach on using voice engine optimisation. What is voice engine optimisation (VEO)? VEO entails optimizing your content, location, and brand information to increase your ranking in Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Marketers must think what their target audience may use in their voice queries as well as focus on conversational long-tail keywords, because searches are likely to be more specific when asking a question. For example, a shopper may request information about time, price, location and other details which sound heavy for written queries. Additionally, we suggest to create content that answers questions (i.e. FAQ page) to optimise your voice search.
Customer service chatbots
Many companies will continue using a chatbot, the effective software programs that interact with website visitors and customers. Chatbots can answer questions from real people in real-time. The communication via chatbots can be done either verbally or through chat windows to help users find what they are looking for.
It can be quite expensive to hire a person to monitor and communicate with visitors, but a chatbot saves costs by answering questions on your behalf. Based on our own experience, we know that customers tend to appreciate the personalized experience and getting a personal touch on the questions being answered. Moreover, unlike humans, the chatbot is always available and responds more accurately. For example, Telia uses a chatbot to resolve many common customer issues on its own.
Personalisation
What is personalisation? Also known as one-to-one marketing, personalisation is a marketing strategy where businesses leverage data analysis and the digital technology to deliver custom experiences to their target market. In the e-commerce industry, personalised content has a good impact on consumers. According to Econsultancy, 44% of users who have a personalised shopping experience are likely to become repeated buyers.
The main benefit of personalised marketing is having the opportunity to reach a specific group of customers and drive sales. For example, you can personalise e-commerce by redirecting visitors to the right store – so called geo-targeting, or show product recommendations below the product as it is illustrated on the photo below.
Digital marketing is constantly changing and we think the above tactics and ideas are going to be essential in 2020. We strongly recommend you to improve your users shopping experience by implementing UGC strategy and optimise your voice search to rank higher in SERP. Finally, personalise your offerings to connect with your shoppers in more meaningful ways.