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1. Vlogging
With the ongoing popularity of Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram, video marketing is becoming more widespread. More importantly, there will be a surge in video production subcategories such as vlogging. Compared to short films and explainer videos, vlogs are direct and personal. A vlogger speaks directly to their viewers, leading to more direct and personal connections. It’s also a great benefit to marketers who are trying to form stronger relationships with customers.
In case you’re on the fence about videos, consider the following stats:
– 78% of video viewers are willing to watch video ads in exchange for content
– 74% of American consumers aged 13 years and up, watch online videos at least once a week.
Vlogging isn’t just about expressing your complaints about how a restaurant messed up your delivery order. Vlogs can be strategic and practical. They can be used to post home-grown content such as celebrity interviews, new products that are launched, or even local events like marathons and drives, user experiences with services, etc.
By learning to post meaningful vlogs or any other type of video content, you will quickly adapt to future trends.
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2. Interactive Emailing
Emails continue to be a fruitful channel for digital marketers. In 2020, this channel is getting a fresh coat of paint. This trend will replace newsletters and plain-text emails! Their new replacement is pixel-perfect, gorgeous emails that look like they stepped out of a website design portfolio.
Email marketing in 2020 will function and look similar to web pages. They will include a variety of interactive elements like clickable buttons. Meant to do more than impress, interactive emailing will increase conversions. Visitors will be more inclined to click on stylized icons with images than plain-text links.
To stay ahead in the game, you need to use more than simple web page-based email templates. Take the extra step of hiring a Website Development team to come up with UX-centric designs and stunning visuals. Considering the impact interactive emailing has on ROIs, it’s worth ensuring that your emails are attractive and engaging.
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3. Shoppable Posts
There was a time when businesses were concerned about how to prompt social media followers to shop at their online stores. Since the dawn of social commerce, this has changed! When a customer purchases products through a store’s social media advertisements or posts, it’s called social business. Shoppable social media posts aren’t a new invention, but after Instagram Checkout took off in 2019, the social business started increasing in popularity.
Considering that nearly 54% of users rely on social media to research product purchases, the launch of shoppable social media posts just makes sense. Its main advantage is that it eliminates many steps for shoppers by selling directly to them via social media. This reduces the chances of sales rejection.
It’s easy to include shoppable posts into your branding formula. You need to sell products through social media platforms to see good returns. An app and a web site will be additional tools in your arsenal to reach larger audiences.
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4. Micro-Influencers
Everyone knows about the value of influencer marketing. It’s such a fruitful marketing strategy that big-time influencers now call all the shots! Sending free samples to influencers in hopes of reviews isn’t enough. There are pricing lists and payment tables involved. Influencer marketing is a commodity- albeit an expensive one!
If you’re a start-up or an SME, getting a top-tier influencer might put you over your operational budget. The solution: opt for small to medium-sized influencers. Here come the micro-influencers!
These are influencers with authority in narrow niches. They’re capable of reaching out to individual followers.
Apart from being affordable, micro-influencers have better engagement rates compared to their big-shot counterparts. A study conducted by Adweek revealed that micro-influencers achieved 60% more engagement. They were also 6.7 times more cost-effective than influencers with a large following. Since micro-influencers have fewer followers, they’d be able to provide more time to each follower. Besides, micro-influencers usually represent niches themselves, so it would be easy for your company to specialize in a particular niche.
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5. Programmatic Advertising
Perhaps the hottest digital marketing trend in 2020 is the use of robots to optimize online advertising campaigns. Machine-learning algorithms and AI will make this task much easier. Everything from media buying, customer targeting, ad placement, to performance tracking will be handled by ‘intelligent’ software. Not only will companies get better results, but allocating these tasks to bots will free up employee time to handle other crucial tasks. Programmatic advertising is the best kind of automation.
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6. Sentiment Analysis
Also called social listening, sentiment analysis is the art of studying customers’ and users’ reactions to a particular service or product. This occurs in any online place, such as on a social media platform.
Customer posts and reviews are usually black-and-white “I like” or “I dislike.” There’s always a large grey area with many varying degrees in the middle. Perhaps the customer likes the overall product but has issues with certain features such as the packaging, color, size, etc. Sometimes the product is great, but it didn’t meet the customer’s expectations.
In sentiment analysis, several algorithms and data-collecting tools are used to search for online responses to your company. It also presents opportunities for evaluation. This isn’t a new digital marketing strategy, but a novel technology that is gaining fast momentum. Advancements in natural language processes enable computers to comprehend the meanings behind what is said online. This includes emojis and slangs too.
Sentiment analysis tools can help unveil what consumers really think about your company and brand. Use this data to assess and fine-tune your strategies for social media, app development, marketing, product, and content development.
