Marketing Trends 2020: What You Need to Know – Now

September 30, 2019

5 minutes read

Marketing trends 2020

Firstly. while 2020 may seem distant (after all, we still have Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas sales stretch), now is the time to start preparing. Marketing trends 2020 that will impact next year’s marketing strategy.

As a director, CMO or marketing manager, which trends will impact marketing performance in 2020? How should you adjust your budgets to get the most out of every campaign, channel or marketing action? To help you plan ahead, Think Beyond compiled seven marketing trends 2020 to watch out for. Our CIM qualified marketers distilled insights from across the worlds of content, digital and social.

Maybe need to talk marketing strategy with a member of the Think Beyond team? Call 01565 632206 for a no-obligation chat.

Seven marketing trends 2020

B2B or B2C, the following trends are predicted to impact the marketing landscape in 2020:

1. Data rules but personalisation is key

According to “The Path to 2020” report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, next year will see marketers use personalisation to drive engagement at scale[1]. This means combining data-backed insights with a prospect’s contextual situation to deliver the right marketing content, at the right time and to the right prospect.

Focus on understanding the customer to deliver greater personalisation shows that the role of marketing is expanding to include customer service, retention and sales. In short, marketing “will own the end-to-end customer experience by 2020[2].” Prepare yourself, 2020 is going to be busy. Make the most of your data to create personalised customer experiences and consider investing in neuroscience in marketing (neuromarketing) to boost your marketing ROI.

2. Get interactive with social and mobile

First of all, channels and devices that lend themselves to personalisation are tipped to grow in marketing popularity in 2020. Think social media, mobile devices and mobile apps. Gone are the days of advertising to the masses through tv or radio. 2020’s consumers prefer the small screen or no screen and will actively research their purchase options.

Assess how you will use social media channels in your marketing plan to enrich customer journeys. Additionally, ensure your website is optimised for mobile first. Finally, devote time to exploring how automation can help you engage with your audiences across devices.

3. Invest in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for position zero

Any digital marketing plan should include an element of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and this is no different in 2020.

What you should change, however, is how you optimise and structure your content because it helps position zero rankings.

Certainly, revisit your content strategy and focus on FAQ copy to help search engines pick up featured snippets to be displayed as the top organic result. An SEO plan primed for position zero increases your chances of ranking twice so you appear in both featured snippets and in the search results, therefore giving your business two bites of the customer engagement cherry. With an estimated 61.8% of search results in Google currently zero-search results[3], is it time that you doubled down on your SEO?

4. Look who’s talking: maximise voice search potential

Voice search, whilst not new, is shaping up to have a significant impact upon how prospects search and interact with a brand.

Latest statistics show that 71% of mobile users aged 18-29 use the voice assistant on their smartphone [4] and there are over 45m voice-assisted devices in use in the USA alone[5]. Creating content to match conversational queries and updating your pay-per-click keyword selection to include such variants are just two ways to optimise for voice search. Consider also how your business could tap into branded skills [6] for the likes of Alexa (think of Forbes “Quote of the Day”) and maximising the power of “near me” searches on mobile devices.

5. Technology is your friend: automate

We all need a little help from our friends and this extends to the world of marketing. Marketing automation technologies can engage and convert prospects 24/7.

The opportunities for automation are everywhere. From Google Ads smart bidding strategies to automated email campaigns and an ever-present social presence achieved via chatbots, AI has a lot to offer in 2020. How will your marketing budget reflect this?

Even B2B can reap the benefits of a 24/7 approach typically associated with B2C. Specifically, as the B2B buyer cycle and number of decision makers grows, clever marketing automations can nurture every lead at every touch point to reduce the time to sales won.

6. Content is not going anywhere

Content is tipped to remain firmly at the throne in 2020. Immersive mediums such as live video and Augmented Reality (AR) are set to soar in popularity.

Furthermore, if you are not already leveraging video marketing as part of your marketing strategy, start planning now. Research by Digital Marketing World suggests that live video will make up 13% of all internet traffic by 2021 [7]. Video is already prevalent across social media sources offering real-time engagement between brands and prospects. Similarly, consider how you could utilise AR to drive deeper product knowledge via product demos or trade show presentations. Adopt AR within your immersive content marketing plan and you can literally stand out away from the competition.

7. Growth of centres of influence and the “new native”

65% of multinational brands will increase their spend on Influencer marketing into 2020 [8]. An expansion of the centres of influence seems certain.

In what demand generation refers to as “democratised influence”, brands are expected to tap into more and more niche influencers. This includes employees, community members, customers and traditional influencers[9]. Founded on a “new native” of transparency, this expansion appears particularly pertinent to B2B as a result of increasing B2B decision-makers. More influencers equals more chances to engage with different (and often disparate) decision-makers.

Take your marketing further with Think Beyond

Ready to create your marketing strategy for 2020? Which of the above seven marketing trends 2020 will make your cut and grab a slice of your new year budget? Do you even have a budget or are you working to a zero-based marketing model?

Think Beyond is a Cheshire marketing management consultancy providing full marketing strategy support across the North West and beyond. We work with senior teams and business owners to deliver science backed marketing solutions with results that you, and the entire C-Suite, can measure. Think Beyond accelerates your marketing potential now, in 2020 and beyond.