2020 looks to be a promising year in marketing. Users have a plethora of methods to research topics and a number of devices that they interact with on a daily and weekly basis. To that end, marketing can be difficult to keep up with. Here are a few trends that are sure to grow in 2020 and beyond.
Voice Search
A recent Google study on voice search shows that 55% of teens and 41% of adults use voice search at least once a day. It’s clear that users are integrating smart speaker devices such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s HomePod. These devices respond to a user’s voice and attempt to answer questions such as “what’s the weather like today” via natural language. As users become more familiar with asking these devices for complex questions, the need to supply an appropriate response becomes a greater need for the providers.
All providers have a different way to qualify what is “good content” to answer questions, but most experts agree on a few strategies. One such point is that content must be conversational. Users may type “Atlanta weather” in a search engine, but are more likely to ask “what’s the weather like today“. This difference means content must be able to serve both voice and search engine audiences, and can require some already popular content to be rewritten to perform best.
This tip is more B2C than B2B, but experts agree that as users experiment with voice search, they are likely to incorporate it into their career lift as much as their personal life.
Zero SERP and Google Graph
Everyone wants to be ranked #1 in search engines for the terms that matter to their business, but there is now a new trend – position 0. Zero SERP means that your content is ranked more than just #1, but that search engines show your content directly on the search results page.
The Zero SERP strategy tends to compliment Voice Search mentioned above – having short, concise information that answers users questions tends to promote higher and higher rankings. This isn’t to say that long-form SEO is dead, but rather it means that search engines are beginning to understand and prioritize content that is in-depth, and extract information that is capable of answering short questions.
It’s a roll of the dice if a user will visit your website with content in position zero – but it’s clear that search engines see you as an authority, which is a great place to market from.
Social Shopping
Most brands are already active on social media, using the channel in a variety of ways from pushing news and content to showing personality through a brand. As social channels warm up to brands and listen to their feedback, social platforms are equipping brands for e-commerce without having to leave their feed.
Companies like Instagram (who is owned by Facebook) are bringing e-commerce directly to their app. The in-app e-commerce feature was launched in 2019 with a handful of brands. Previously, users would leave the app to complete the purchase, but Instagram and brands found that users would abandon both the purchase and wouldn’t return to Instagram. The hope is that users can seamlessly purchase a product and keep right on scrolling their feed – good news for both the brand and Instagram.
Personalization
This is a huge marketing trend, and in reality is less of a trend and more of an ongoing effort for most organizations. The easiest way to get started with personalization is to start in a small and useful fashion.
A good first step in personalization is to create the natural and obvious segments within your known customer base, and then performing an action on it, such as segmenting your customer email list. With a freshly segmented email list, either create new content or curate in-market content that appeals to one individual segment, and distribute it via an email campaign. Of course, this is a simplistic example but it shows how you can start small and learn from customers and prospects alike and can make your marketing more effective.
Personalization can become as granular and precise as your efforts demand, but the more you know about your customer, the better you can serve and anticipate their needs.
Ready To Grow Your Marketing?
Some trends are already in practice, and here’s the best part – now that you’ve read this, you have a chance to act on these trends and get ahead of your competition. The heart of marketing remains the same – getting users what they need, when they need it, where they are. These 2020 trends are just new ways to accomplish this.
At Venn Marketing, we want to see your organization succeed. To discuss any of these topics or if you have questions about any marketing efforts, contact us for a free consultation.
