Marketing

Are You Ready for These Marketing Trends?

Have you heard the buzz about all the digital marketing trends coming down the pike in 2020? From augmented reality (AR) to shoppable social posts, marketing technology (MarTech) is evolving at record speed. Brands want more opportunities to delight customers and increase sales, but not all of these trends are a good fit for every business. We are seeing some really innovative new ideas in the MarTech world, but if these cool tools don’t create meaningful connections between your customers and your products, you won’t see any return on your investment.

Most of our clients are small businesses and nonprofits, so we strive to concentrate on the trends and traditions, that get more marketing results for the people we serve. To that end, we thought it would be helpful to walk through some of these forecasted trends and zero in on the ones that make the most sense for the small business or nonprofit marketer.

Here are our four most important 2020 marketing trends for small business and nonprofit marketing.

1. Video Content

If content is king (and it is) video content is its crown. Online video consumption is at an all-time high. 85% of internet users say they are streaming video daily and 62% of that content is consumed via mobile devices. What that means for small business and nonprofit marketers is that your 2020 marketing strategy and spend should include a healthy investment in video content. Not to mention, a substantial commitment to great video content will help you rank higher on the number 2 search engine in the world—YouTube (btw, it’s owned by the number one search engine—Google). Furthermore, in the last 12 months, video has significantly increased in demand from our own clients. If you’ve been dragging your feet on video content or don’t believe it would make sense for your business, let’s talk. We can provide specific ways that brand videos we’ve created for our clients increased their marketing ROI.

2. Personalized Messaging

Online shopping is the clear leader in the world of personalized content. Thanks to brands like Amazon, consumers now expect a similar level of customization in all of their online experiences. In fact, 72% of consumers say that they only engage with personalized content. Email services such as MailChimp and Constant Contact make it relatively easy to segment audiences and communicate custom content to smaller groups. Chatbots are not only popping up on websites but have also made their way into our social media messengers. A year from now, personalized content will likely be one of the top differentiators in digital marketing. If you want to understand more about how this applies in your specific context, we can conduct an audit and make recommendations to help you get started.

3. Interactive Content

Interactive content can take on many forms, it’s not only virtual or augmented reality. Think of it like this: branding is all about creating delightful customer experiences. Interactive content takes that in-person customer experience into digital spaces. Video is a great example of interactive content, but let’s think outside the box for a minute. Perhaps you’ve used services like leadpages to communicate with your website visitors. This typically includes a free download in exchange for an email address, allowing you to build authority and your email list at the same time. However, consumers are onto us and they’re wanting more. For example, a short quiz engages online customers more than a pdf download. Change out a pdf checklist for a two-minute multiple choice quiz lead offer that gets your customer thinking more about the problem your business solves for them.

4. Overall Website Performance and Rank

While this is more of a marketing mainstay than a trend, we list it here because website performance is essential to a winning digital marketing strategy. Don’t let the rise of social media tempt you to believe that websites are losing their value—they’re not. In fact, as more consumers rely on mobile devices over desktop or laptop computers, the speed and responsivity of your website could make a significant impact on your bottom line. Whether that impact is positive or negative depends on two things: your website’s performance and your search engine ranking. When people need a product or service, they either ask their smart device’s artificial intelligence (Siri, Alexa) or they type their question in Google’s search bar. While you may have a handle on traditional SEO, it’s crucial that you understand how voice search impacts your SEO results. We strive to stay on top of the ever-changing SEO algorithm game to help our clients stay well-positioned in the rankings.

Some of this may not be breaking news to the seasoned marketers in the house tonight, but for the small business owner or nonprofit director who’s trying to keep all the marketing irons in the fire, this can start to feel a bit overwhelming. We don’t want you to feel like you’re scrambling just to keep up. Let’s schedule a call and review your current digital marketing strategy to see where we can help you make the biggest impact on your 2020 marketing ROI.