19/12/19 // Written by Samantha Beckham

5 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2020

As the 31st December rapidly approaches, it’s the perfect time to take stock. Digital marketing continues to evolve, bringing with it new technology and techniques to test. We’ve taken the chance to review forecasted digital marketing trends for the year ahead, helping to give you an edge as we enter 2020.

SERP Position Zero

Position Zero (P0) – also known as a featured snippet – refers to the first Google search result that appears even above organic listings. This feature aims to answer users’ questions without them clicking away from the SERPs, reflecting Google’s continuous efforts to provide searchers with quick, relevant answers.

But what does P0 mean to your 2020 SEO strategy? If you currently have an SEO strategy in place, you’ll understand the importance of ranking high in the search results, and with over 12 percent of Google’s search results being P0, their prevalence continues to grow.

P0 takes it a step further, allowing you to leverage the top-ranking position – above first position – to drive relevant traffic to your website. With P0s displaying more information than traditional search results, they also help push competitor results further down the page, allowing you to gain valuable territory and exposure. Brands are still trying to understand how to achieve P0 as it requires different SEO techniques than normal SERP listings. Brands should be aiming to understand what questions need answering to satisfy user intent and creating this content to help trigger featured snippets. If you can do this, you’ll gain a noticeable advantage over your competitors directing relevant and engaged users to your website.

Voice Search Marketing

The number of monthly voice searches reached a record figure this year of over one billion, and this growth is not due to slow down anytime soon. By the end of next year, it’s forecasted that 30 percent of web browsing sessions will be completed without a screen, while 50 percent of all web searches will be conducted by voice search.

Optimising your content for voice search and considering conversational tones in your keyword strategy needs to be a priority for the new year. Although voice search isn’t a new, recent years have seen a technology shift with the introduction of voice assistants such as Siri, Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa. The rising adoption of digital voice assistants have significant impact across search and SEO. As consumers change how they search for information, products and services, your website and content should be optimised for their behaviour. When asking a voice assistant a question, the answer is read from the featured snippet or P0 result mentioned above. Content should be well researched, written and structured to help Google better understand what it means. Rethink and adapt your content by:

  • Creating content to answer specific questions
  • Organising content in a question and answer format
  • Producing high-quality, authoritative content
  • Considering the difference between a search that is typed and a search that is spoken

This will help account for voice strategy in your marketing plans, ensuring the content your brand is offering is relevant and convenient for users to access. It’s important to remember that optimising your content for website SEO is different to voice search SEO to ensure your digital marketing efforts are always relevant to your target audience and business objectives.

Social Commerce

Did you know, interest in social commerce has increased by 38 percent in the last 12 months? Social media has become an increasingly popular advertising medium. As well as creating demand through strong creatives and impressive reach, social media is now enabling consumers to instantly purchase what they see.

The line between social media and eCommerce is slowly blurring. Gen Z spend 2-3 times more time shopping on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram than the average consumer. As this generation is on track to become the largest consumer generation on the planet, the importance of considering social commerce is imperative. Many brands run ads through social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest which provide a multitude of ad capabilities and targeting options.

As mobile commerce and omni-channel commerce grow in popularity, brands are under pressure to streamline their offering across devices and applications. Many users now expect a seamless buying experience and would prefer not to leave a current social platform for an external site to complete their purchase. Using social shopping, you can turn your eCommerce offering into a visually appealing Social Commerce platform, not only helping to drive conversions, but also positively impacting your SEO too through social media.

Visual Content

While advancements in voice search are key, you shouldn’t neglect your visual content. Branded the ‘future of storytelling’, it was reported that 62 percent of millennials say they are more interested in visual search than any other technology. The growth of image heavy platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram highlight the shift in consumer behaviour.

Visuals are more memorable than written content. Adding infographics, images and video to your text not only make it more engaging and interactive but can also help individuals better remember your brand’s messaging. 91 percent of users agree that visual content makes for a more engaging shopping experience, while 86 percent said it enhances discoverability. Images also account for 19% of searches on Google and over 600 million visual searches on Pinterest each month. These statistics highlight the growth opportunities, making it a powerful trend to use in your 2020 digital marketing strategy.

Personalisation

Today’s shoppers are inundated with marketing messages from many channels, so much so, it’s easy to tune out. Personalised marketing can help you forge a real connection between your brand and consumer. With 80 percent of consumers saying they are more likely to make a purchase when brands offers a personalised experience, investing in this method is an necessity for 2020.

Marketing personalisation is no longer limited to automatically changing the name of the recipient receiving your emails. Advancements in technology have increased what’s possible, allowing marketers to tap into individual customer needs and pain points. AI combined with customer intelligence collection and insights from marketing channels empowers brands to personalise and target consumers at a granular level. Tailoring messaging by individual will help you stand out from the competition and build customer advocacy, in turn helping increase sales and revenue.

As we move into 2020, its clear the focus is less on technology and more on your audience. Putting consumers at the centre of every stage in their buying journey should be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. 87 percent of marketers recognise the transformative benefits of customer-led journeys and it’s a key trend that will continue to grow and dominate the digital marketing landscape. Spotting and understanding the relevance of emerging trends to your brand and industry is a key part of making these tactics work. It is not guaranteed that each one will be destined to fit your objectives, target audience and industry, careful consideration is needed to understand the benefits. Contact us for guidance on how you can use these trends in the new year.