We’ve seen a huge amount of growth and change in the digital marketing field over the past decade. To give you a little perspective of where the digital world was when we started the decade, in 2010 we were all anticipating the iPhone 4’s release that summer, there were 1.97 billion internet users globally, and a little less than 500 million Facebook users. As we enter the new decade, we just saw the release of the iPhone 11, there are now 4.39 billion users globally, and there are 2.3 billion users on Facebook.
It’s exciting -and a little scary- to think of where we will be in another decade…so let’s take it one year at a time and look at the predicted trends for 2020:
Conversational Marketing
Many of us have already experienced a conversation with a Chatbot at some time or another, and we will only see this tool grow even more in the next year. More and more companies will integrate Chatbots into their marketing mix to save time for both the customer and the company. By having all the information they need to be programmed in front of them, and the fact that they’re available 24/7, we can expect to see an estimated 85% of customer service being made up of bots.
Influencer Marketing
Brands cannot just rely on their own digital posts when it comes to their marketing mix. We cannot stress this enough — influencer marketing is a growing area and needs to be taken seriously. Influencers vary in their size of followers. While some have millions of followers and charge for posts accordingly like Danielle Bernstein of WeWoreWhat (one of my personal favorite influencers), others have a few thousand close followers that are dedicated to the account’s advice. Each of these influencers can provide value to a company. No matter how many accounts brands choose to partner with, it’s more important to think about how the partnership makes sense to the influencer’s followers, not solely on the account’s vanity metrics.
More Focus on Retention
Throughout the past decade, companies have focused heavily on gaining new customers online. This tide is turning in this decade as we are now seeing brands shifting their focus onto existing customers. This, in part, is due to the fact that it is cheaper to retain a customer than it is to gain a new one. But it is also because more technologies, referral programs, and a focus on the customer experience, are being created for this very purpose.
Video Marketing
Of course, video marketing isn’t new to 2020 but the rate at which it’s growing is something that we have to adjust to in the new year. Videos aren’t just limited to YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok but they also do well on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions. Brands like The Ordinary have videos for each of their products to explain their use to potential customers and are a great example of how we should all be following this lead by adding more videos to our websites.
So, as we said, looking into the new decade doesn’t seem quite as overwhelming when we take it year by year and trend by trend. Let us know if you think we left off anything and check out our website to see how we can help keep you in the loop with what to expect from digital marketing in 2020!
Hope Perri
