Top Digital Marketing Trends in 2020 & What You Should Do

Happy New Year & Happy New Decade! As business owners and entrepreneurs you head into the new year hoping to start on the right foot, and as far as digital marketing is concerned, this post should help you do just that.

The top trends we'll discuss indicate how digital marketing - social, search, web - have been moving in a very particular direction. Overall, more personalized, more visual, and mobile-friendly experiences have been the most successful. Read on to see what else will help you make the right impact with your digital marketing efforts.

1. Snackable Videos

Videos achieve the highest engagement rates on social media. And 2020 onwards, the video will continue to rule the platforms. Adapting is not a choice but an obligation at this point. What’s great is that contrary to popular belief, creating videos that get good engagement is neither difficult nor expensive. Short snackable videos created for very specific audiences is the way to go in 2020.

Facebook says these are the most important things when creating a video:

• A good hook: The first few seconds of a video
• Story: A good story increases recall value
• Muted videos: Add subtitles or create a video that gets the message across with or without sound
  

What you should do:

1. Invest in a good phone or camera that you can record videos with on the go.
2. Start using easy video making software like Lumen5, Adobe Spark Video to make instant video content for any channel.
3. Schedule at least one video a week to your channels using a scheduling app.
   

2. Dual Strategy Public / Private

We’re increasingly seeing a dual approach to marketing strategy; The general public and the individual. So on social media and other digital channels, there is the content and message that you should create for the general public that puts brand awareness at the core.  

And then there is a more targeted strategy where you create more specific messages and calls to action for individuals getting in touch with you.

What you should do:

1. Define the messaging for the general public, and individuals getting in touch with you.
2. Use industry trends and relevant content to build a content stream for brand awareness.
3. Start using simple chatbots on Messenger and on your website to capture the audience and push a more targeted message and call to action towards them.
   

3. Community / Niche

Social media and google search are becoming more competitive. But social media algorithms are already adapting to help the small content creator. As we saw towards the second half of 2019, Linkedin and Facebook introduced changes to their algorithms to reward content creators with engagement and reach instead of influencers.

What this means

Relevance and closer connections will see your content more often. On Facebook, a simple scroll of your Newsfeed will show you that Groups have become the focal point. Engagement is also higher in Groups.

What you should do:

1. Think about existing communities you can be part of on Linkedin and Facebook. Use community hashtags on Linkedin. Post in relevant Groups on Facebook.
2. Create relevant, valuable content for communities. Interact with them.
3. Build your own Group on Facebook. Ask people to join.
   

4. Voice Assistants

How many times in this past week have you caught yourself shouting at your device to answer a question, buy your grocery, make an appointment, tell you what the weather is like, or to play a song? 50% of all searches this year are set to be done using voice.

That should tell you something. Voice assistants are here to stay and their influence on how you reach your customers will only grow further in 2020.

What you should do:

1. Create content that answers people’s questions. Share useful content that you and your customers are interested in. Find that sweet spot.
2. Use complete sentences as keywords in your blogs.
3. Keep your Google My Business listing updated.
   

5. Making Statements

In the past few months we have seen brands standing up for causes that are close to many people’s hearts. Some were very successful, others not so much. The focus was not just taking a stance on a particular issue, but clarifying what role the brand was playing in the society. This will continue to be the case in 2020. But this time brands will be more transparent

What you should do:

1. Define where you stand on important social issues that the world is facing today and what role you play to help solve them.
2. Communicate that on social media, join the discussion.
3. Don’t use socio-political issues as a blatant attempt to sell your product. It is irresponsible and people can see through it.

Willow can help you start achieving these goals, especially if you are an SMB with little time to work on your visibility online. Take a look at how we can help.

We hope these tips help you hit your targets and make it big in 2020. Share this with your network with your focus for this year! Good luck :)