Marketing has changed a lot since the early days of “push marketing” which relied on a heavy dose of TV, Radio and Print advertising. Today’s more complex and digitally driven marketplace seems to be ever-evolving. Predicting the future has always been challenging as baseball philosopher and humorist, Yogi Berra, said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Nonetheless, there are some clear popular trends in marketing to pay attention to that will lead to marketing success.
10 Marketing Trends in 2020
Marketing has never been about magic. Principles of brand identity, consumer targeting and marketing strategy development still hold true. Yet, marketing technology is a growing force in many of these popular trends in marketing:
- Consumers are more responsive to marketing that is attuned to their circumstances and needs. Generic ads and broadly sweeping email lists are now things of the past.
- Content, especially targeted and personalized content is still considered to be “king.” Content should be high quality, authoritative and built for search engine responsiveness. Further, content that is interactive is even more appealing and is also shareable.
- Consumers respond positively to visual content. Using video content is achieving growing appeal, such as with Facebook Live and Instagram Live.
- Both virtual reality and augmented reality are emerging popular trends in marketing. For example, using virtual reality to examine a new suit, dress or piece of furniture before making a purchase.
- Social media is in use by almost everyone. Shoppable social media posts now make it easy for consumers to examine the merchandise and make an order directly from an e-commerce social media post.
- Optimizing for voice search using Alexa, Siri or Google Home is growing. According to Google, 20 percent of Google search queries are now made through voice search. Further, 71 percent of mobile phone users between the ages of 18 and 29 use voice assistants for search. Advertising on smart speakers is a growing opportunity area as well.
- Smart billboards are growing as marketers use innovative ways to connect with consumers in out-of-home locations.
- Real people are replacing models/actors in visual presentations as marketing grows ever-more targeted and authentic.
- Websites are increasingly oriented to the use of micro-animations to increase interest and interaction with the website.
- Pay per click (PPC) advertising is one of the key popular trends that has extensive consumer effectiveness. Campaigns can be run using Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Google Search Ads, Google Display Ads, Bing Ads and LinkedIn Ads.
Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2020
With the foresight to capitalize on popular trends in marketing, it is equally important to avoid some critical marketing mistakes:
- Not optimizing your website for search engines.
- Not optimizing your website for humans. In other words, having an appealing user experience on the site: good page-loading speed, good use of white space, well-designed and written headings, consistent design of website pages, not overly long page content with big blocks of text, and being mobile-friendly.
- Not utilizing well-designed calls to action.
- Not creating social messaging that resonates with consumers.
- Not employing the power of location.
- Not using analytics to effectively measure and improve consumer interactions.
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