It’s hard to believe that we’re already over halfway through December and soon, 2019 will be coming to a close. December always feels like a whirlwind, with the holiday preparations and Christmas parties, as well as seeing family and friends. A matter of weeks will not only mark a whole new year, but a whole new decade.
During this time of year, a lot of predictions surface for what will be trending in this next year. Let’s take a look at some marketing trends that are anticipated to be trending in 2020.
Social Media Is Not Going Anywhere
A lot of people have mixed feelings about social media. There are those out there who love it and see it as a useful tool for their business. Adversely, there are also those who fail to see it’s use and either stay away from it or post rarely.
If you are within the latter category and you were hoping that the social media platforms would disappear as soon as the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, I hate to be the bearer of bad news.
According to the CMO Survey, social media budgets are expected to double within the next five years. Nearly two-thirds of global internet users research products online before purchase, with most of the traffic coming from social media channels. Realistically, it’s no wonder that more and more businesses are using social media to market themselves. In fact, 86 percent of Canadians interact with businesses on social media, where they spend 80 percent of their time on social media interacting with companies.
And that number is only expected to grow. In 2018, there were 25.3 million social network users in Canada alone.
In 2023, that number is projected to 27.1 million.
Video Content
In an earlier blog, we talked about the benefits of video marketing. People love consuming video content for self-improvement, with 4 out of 5 people saying that digital content helps them learn new things or reduces stress and 80% of people say they switch between online search and video when trying to find something to buy.
Video content has become an effective way of connecting with audiences as a way of telling a brand’s story or to provide solutions to customer concerns.
Voice Search
With Google, Alexa and Siri, voice technology has really taken off. How much easier is to ask your Google Home what the weather is supposed to be like on the weekend, rather than look it up in your phone?
Voice technology marked a major shift in the digital world. Now, more and more devices are becoming optimized for voice search.
For businesses, it provides more opportunities to adopt and incorporate voice search on their platforms and websites.
Personalized Marketing
We’ve previously talked about the importance of making your marketing personal. To stand out in 2020, personalized content, products and emails will help your cause. These days, people find generic advertising annoying.
Personalized marketing is the practice of using data to deliver brand messages targeted to an individual prospect, which is a dramatic shift from the way marketing used to be. Personalized marketing allows you to get to know your customers a lot better: who they are, their interests and how to market your company better.
Augmented Reality
Wondering what augmented reality (AR) is? If you’ve ever used Snapchat, you’ll know what it is.
Basically, AR adds digital elements to a live view by using the camera on a smartphone. Pokémon Go used AR technology.
As a side note, AR is completely different than VR (Virtual Reality), as virtual reality is an immersive experience (think of it like: AR is adding elements to your world, whereas in VR you are in another “world” entirely).
AR technology is another trend expected to be on the rise for 2020. It is expected that by 2022, it is projected that there will be 3.5 billion mobile augmented reality users worldwide.
Augmented reality provides an interactive, immersive experience for potential customers.
Planning and Preparation is Essential
If you’re looking to get your marketing right for 2020, give us a call. We can help!
We’re looking forward to a new year and a new decade.
From all of us here at NetGain, happy holidays and cheers to a new year!