Digital Marketing Trends in 2020: 3 Tips to Gain a Competitive Edge

It’s amazing how quickly time flies, isn’t it? It seems like just a few short weeks ago, you were preparing your small business for 2019. Maybe you were wondering which digital marketing trends could propel your business into stardom, or simply wondering how to gain your first customers.

Our hope is that this year has treated you and your business well. Hopefully you have utilized the trends to boost your SEO rankings or bolster your email list.

But if you haven’t had any luck with the digital marketing trends of 2019—or are just launching your business in the new decade—now is the perfect time to start looking into the trends for 2020.

So what will be popular? What will the major trends be? How will businesses utilize new and innovative ways to gain leads and customers?

Read on to find out.

1) Influencer Marketing on Social Media

Last month, Kylie Jenner sold a majority stake (51%) of her makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics, for $600 million. Yes, you read that right. What’s better is that the sale valued her company at $1.2 billion.

For a company that is exactly 4 years old, that’s quite an accomplishment.

And how did she do it? How did Kylie Jenner manage to get her makeup line to be valued so high? Sure, her celebrity family might have played a role in it, but she still utilized the one greatest marketing tool she knew: herself. She was smart enough to see an opportunity and she pounced on it.

Kylie Jenner was able to bring Kylie Cosmetics from a company valued at $0 to a company valued at $1.2 billion in 4 years’ time by using her status as an influencer.

So does influencer marketing work? We think so. And while you may not have the explosive results she had, you will certainly benefit from one of the fastest-growing digital marketing trends.

The influencer marketing industry is estimated to be a $10 billion in 2020, up from $8.2 billion in 2019 and just $500 million in 2015. Yeah, we’d say that’s some pretty fascinating growth.

2) Personalization and Retargeting

Have you logged onto Amazon recently? If so, have you noticed some similar products popping up on your home screen?

How about those Facebook ads you see and you swear your phone is listening to you?

Your phone isn’t listening to you. (Wait a second…we’re not 100 percent sure of that.) Those are actually retargeting ads—one of the most popular digital marketing trends. These are ads targeting items you’ve looked at and considered purchasing before.

The purpose of these ads is to target customers who have brought themselves into your sales pipeline based on their search history. And showing their interests in their Facebook feed, Amazon home page, etcetera will give them a personal feel…and will also give them a little nudge to move forward with purchasing your product.

3) Email Marketing

If there’s one steady in this crazy-fast, technological world we live in today, it’s email. People use email every day to conduct business, send quotes and proposals, initiate contracts, and to simply communicate with customers.

That said, more and more companies are starting to catch wind of email newsletters—one of the premier digital trends—and their capabilities. Because of this, potential customers are finding themselves with more and more newsletters hitting their inbox each morning. The danger: yours might be lost in the crowd.

So how do you make yours stand out from the rest? Strong subject lines are a must. But there’s much more behind it. The idea behind email marketing is to get clients to move forward with your product. After all, this isn’t an online advertisement displayed to the world; it’s a personalized message sitting in their inbox.

Have a well-rounded marketing plan to ensure success

The aforementioned 3 strategies will continue to grow in 2020, but it is important to have a diversified plan to ensure success and visibility for your brand. While these methods should all be incorporated into your strategy, we wouldn’t recommend them being a standalone plan.

The world of digital marketing is innovative and new and exciting methods are implemented every day. Simply said, your marketing plan should never be set it and forget it.

With this said, here are some additional 2020 digital marketing trends that should be paired with those mentioned above:

  • Podcasts: We live in a busy world and your customers are always on the move. Bring your message right to their phone!
  • Video content: Have you noticed the rise in videos on your social media feed? That’s no mistake.
  • LinkedIn: Have you reached out to engage with other professionals in your industry? Networking can be invaluable.
  • Instagram: The platform continues to grow and offer new and innovative ways to market.
  • Voice search: Is your SEO strategy focused on what your clients are asking Siri and Alexa? AI is important to consider.

Having a solid strategy focused on continually creating content as well as forecasting what the future holds—have you considered chatbots yet?—is key to the growth of your brand.

Do these digital marketing trends all seem complicated?

This post only scratches the surface of the many ways in which digital marketing trends can propel your business forward. If this all seems like too much to grasp and you’re worried you’ll fall behind in the quickly-moving world of digital marketing, worry no more. At Zenchange, we have experts in every facet of small business marketing and are ready to be your partner.

Watching your business flourish is what we love to do! Contact us today or call 305-702-0112 to learn more.