Keeping up with these 6 trends will transform your marketing strategy in 2020

This is what will matter in 2020

Ashana Jha
6 min readMar 4, 2020
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Create,

Curate,

Replicate!

Is this how your life looks like? Yes? Congratulations, you qualify as a “Marketer”.

And what is important to be a great marketer? For me, it is being up-to-date so I can create better content and offerings for my customers. Let’s just agree that leveraging trending memes and content for our brand gives us a great viewership in general. Well, who doesn’t like free massive engagement? You, the marketer, do.

2 calendar months and a deadly virus later, the everyday marketing hustle is still not going away easily. You will be expected to charm customers even with your masks on because if you don’t, then your competitors will. So let’s see what else can we expect in marketing from this year since we are still 10 months away from the closing.

Mobile will continue to lead the game as compared to web

As of 2019, there are 2.71 billion smartphone users in the world, with every third person owning one. 52.2 percent of all website traffic originated through mobile devices in the past year.

Two things to note here are: usability and relevance. With growing mobile usage, the attention span of the user is also lessening; according to a Microsoft study, the average human attention span is only 8 seconds.

This data clearly shows the dominance of mobile users over web users. 2020 will be no different as the numbers are only going to go up. Marketers will be reaching out to the users through various modes of mobile engagement such as SMS, Push Notifications, Whatsapp, In-app messages & Email at scale.

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Content will have to be optimized for the users to consume while on the road. Understanding how your consumer uses their mobile or tablet will give you first-hand leverage. You can attain this data directly through Google Analytics.

Geo-locations will come into picture while offering recommendations and discounts. Two things to note here are: usability and relevance. With growing mobile usage, the attention span of the user is also lessening; according to a Microsoft study, the average human attention span is only 8 seconds.

Cross-channel marketing will continue to rise.

Cross-channel marketing is not a new word for today’s marketers — the results of conversing with the users on multiple channels in real-time increases the rate of consumer retention. According to Google, almost 90 percent of the time, shoppers use multiple devices while making a purchase.

Campaign analysis and tracking will help you craft more personalized messages while implementing cross-channel marketing.

At this point, funnel-optimization will come into full swing. Marketers will be devising strategies to identify the popular consumer channels + devices used while making the purchase decisions (Tip: reach out to the users on social media or email in case of drop-offs).

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Campaign analysis and tracking will help you craft more personalized messages while implementing cross-channel marketing. The data obtained from these campaigns will be enormous; it will be interesting to see how marketers will put these data points into action.

Chatbots will become more efficient with the help of data.

Usage of chatbots in marketing has been around for quite some time (primarily on websites). In the coming year, chatbots will become more prominent for behavioral conversations and data mapping. Chatbots will also increase efficiency while servicing the customer.

NLP (Natural Language Processing) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are teaming up to reduce the hassle of having a human to receive customer calls.

You can also deploy chatbots on business-critical website pages, such as your blog and pricing pages. Consumers love to have an instant, direct solution for their problem on online channels. In this instance, the answer could be the chatbot.

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For example, if a consumer is facing an issue while ordering a takeaway on a food app, a chatbot could quickly come to their rescue. NLP (Natural Language Processing) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are teaming up to reduce the hassle of having a human to receive customer calls. A well-executed chatbot could quickly become a lead generating and nurturing machine for the brands while providing the users with a fun way to interact with their beloved brands.

The gateway to winning consumer attention will go through personalized content.

Today’s marketers know why we call context as the king of every marketing strategy. With millions of information points accessible in seconds, brands will focus on presenting the consumer with more personalized content.

Keeping the data-privacy norms in mind, overdoing personalization might land the marketers in trouble

Offers, discounts, blogs, and even product recommendations will be hyper-personalized at an unprecedented scale, which will affect online behavior on a whole new level. Personalization is known to influence and generate trustworthiness among consumers.

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Personalization certainly figures as a critical investment in 2020 for every brand’s communication strategy. Through personalization, brands can eliminate bad communication campaigns and focus more on building brand loyalty.

Keeping the data-privacy norms in mind, overdoing personalization might land the marketers in trouble; hence it is vital to understand the right ways to leverage personalization while talking to users.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will drive seamless customer experience.

Understanding the challenges faced by consumers has become accessible through the integration of AI and ML in customer service processes. In the coming year, more and more companies will ditch manual processes and adopt artificial intelligence while servicing the customers.

AI will also help devise better user engagement strategies by identifying repeat behaviors as well as the context of the user action.

Machine learning will help businesses to identify potential frauds and threats as any change in the user action will instantly prompt enterprises to take preventive measures. AI will also help devise better user engagement strategies by identifying repeat behaviors as well as the context of the user action. It will also help businesses to predict the next move of the users, thus providing them with better brand interaction.

Companies will have to optimize for data privacy amid consumer-centricity

In 2018, the EU brought GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) into effect, which has affected the marketing data collection by giving the right to data in the hands of the consumer.

Tailor-made content, consistent cross-channel engagement, and dispute-resolution in real-time will come to the rescue.

Data mapping will become crucial for businesses, as most of the websites don’t give full access to users before they share their data. Companies will have to focus on asking for the user’s consent (to share specific data points) as their first touchpoint in their communication strategy.

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Brands will have to be very sure about the exact data points that are required from users for marketing purposes, thus reducing the friction. Consumer consent can only be achieved by creating high-quality experiences as the trust majorly depends on brand interaction. Tailor-made content, consistent cross-channel engagement, and dispute-resolution in real-time will come to the rescue.

As we step into 2020, this year will be no different in terms of relevance and seamless experiences. Consumers will be loyal to the brands only if they receive personalized interactions while also making sure that their data is not being abused.

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Ashana Jha

Goal Digger |Marketer at Airmeet| SaaS Marketing | Podcast Producer | Avid Reader | Backpacker |