Lifestyle, Mom Life and everything under the sun.

Business Entertainment Lifestyle

Digital Marketing Changes: 2020

Have you ever wondered, why after you’ve mentioned a specific product or topic, It starts popping up everywhere? It’s like suddenly you start seeing all these ads about that product on your phone, smart tv, apps, etc. That’s a little something called Digital Marketing. Along with a slight breach of privacy but that’s not the topic of today’s post. The topic of Today’s post is: How Will Digital Marketing Change in the 2020s? What should we anticipate seeing in the near but slightly distant future?

Written by: Rachel Pereira. This is a really popular post from my other website. It’s also pretty well written and I’m quite proud of it as well. I wrote this to apply for a scholarship that unfortunately, I didn’t win, (but that’s okay!) I still thought this post was a great example of what you can expect to find here on Rachelpedia.com. It is also a post that is well aligned with my hopes, desires and goals here on my new website. I’ll be making some minor changes to the written content. My new beautiful Yoast SEO plugin has been making some suggestions for my writing. 

Since it’s not one of my normal topics of course I did some research. And I figured I’d start off by talking about the basics as if we are all beginners here. Let’s make sure were all on the same page and have the same understanding of this.

“What is Digital Marketing?” This is something a lot of you might be asking at this point. And well it’s surprising that more of us don’t already know considering how much it’s present in our lives already. I’m shocked myself because I didn’t know either before researching for this post. There is a wide range of topics that fall under Digital Marketing.

It’s pretty straightforward really.

Digital Marketing is marketing via the internet, social media, search engines, and emails on mobile devices, tablets, computers etc. It’s even being done through our smart tvs and smart home products too. It’s how companies reach us, consumers, quickly and efficiently sometimes with an added personal touch.

Do you ever hear some people talking about “how the government is spying on us through our cell phones and digital devices?”

I’m here to tell you they’re not. Our phones and digital devices ARE listening to us and picking up on our algorithms. But, it’s just for digital marketing purposes. Not because the government is actually spying on our everyday life. They want to be able to market products you’re already thinking about and interested in. They will often suggest similar products as well. I feel like they do this because if you’re already thinking about it. The more ads you see in regard to said product the more likely you’re going to buy it.

Digital Marketing in the 2020's

But don’t get it twisted. This isn’t the only form of digital marketing out there. Digital marketing has a wide range of advertising categories.

Now that we have learned that digital marketing is practically everywhere. Annnnd that it’s how information is being shared with us consumers from companies etc. Let’s look deeper into the different types of digital marketing.

Categories of Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

This is how companies and brands obtain a high average of clicks and views. They do this by diverting traffic through paid and unpaid ads. We now see them all the time in our search engines like Google. When we click on those, someone’s getting paid. Even if our click was just accidental. They do this by covering two separate areas of marketing. PPC Marketing which is the paid portion and SEO Management which drives organic traffic through common interests.

Search Engine Optimization

This basically means setting up your website to optimize the best results. The aim is to be recognized by as many search engines as possible. It means using keywords and relatable topics, making sure your website keeps climbing the status quo ladder. Most people don’t scroll past the 1st or 2nd page of their search results so make sure you’re as close to the top of the list as possible. That is key to driving steady click traffic.

SEO is something that involves consistency throughout your website and for long amounts of time to see results. But if you keep consistent with SEO Optimization, then you should see a steady climb. Making sure you keep up this practice ensures you stay peaked at higher views. The more long-term you decide to invest in this the more long-term you will see desired results.

PPC (Pay Per Click)

This is used mostly by larger companies like Walmart or large brands like Lysol and Tylenol. These companies use keyword optimization to achieve a spot in the top ads (which on google are the top four search results returned.) Each time a consumer clicks one of these advertisements that company is charged a fee (which is determined by the popularity of the keyword, website rank & competitors I believe) this whole thing comes down to a bidding war and whoever wins the spot for advertising goes into either a long term or short term contract. Each time the ad has been clicked the company that the ad belongs to is charged for the click.

SMM Social Media Marketing

This is a winner for every business small and large. Heck, I even use some social media marketing for my website which is more of a hobby than a business at this point in time.

The great thing about social media is that there’s a certain type for everyone no matter what your business. Through targeted ads, free trials for products and campaigns, more companies are able to reach us, consumers, where we spend most of our time.

Social media platforms like Facebook collect our data so that way people using business profiles can use this data accordingly. This allows them to figure out what age groups to target and plan how they want to do so. Basically, if you & your business are not already on social media then you might wanna think about joining the party sooner rather than later.

Content Marketing

Different from the types of marketing we’ve talked about so far, this type of marketing involves a lot of background work. Typically this is seen when a company has a blogging side to their website. So they both sell and promote products through Content Marketing. Popular examples of this are Fab Fit Fun’s “Magazine” which let me tell you is so helpful and I myself as a consumer really enjoy exploring their content. Another great example is the blog at Socially Infused! It’s content-rich and super user-friendly.

A lot more goes into content marketing than it takes to create just a few different ads for one product. Content Marketing is for the benefit of the consumer. It is more about creating content that enriches and engages the lives of its readers. It’s about creating content the readers want to see, about their products, their stories, other customer experiences and their editors too. Consumers love seeing images and videos about people using products and seeing how they relate to other people out there. It’s human nature to be a little nosey sometimes.

It’s a great way to engage with such a wide audience of consumers very quickly. You’re promoting your brand without the expectation of an incentive and that’s what consumers these days are all about. They want to test drive as much as possible before making the commitment. It’s what really sets apart a business from a brand. Through the blog aspect of a business, you can create and establish a loyal consumer base that continues to come back.

Content Marketing is a long-term investment and needs to be worked on constantly to see the desired results.

Email Marketing

If you’ve already come to the conclusion that this type of marketing involves Email then you are correct. Let me elaborate more specifically on how this is done though.

This type of marketing has a more direct approach and is also very competitive too. Email Marketing is done by creating shareable content, newsletters, promotions, and blog posts. Anything really that you want to share with your consumer base gets composed and sent out through an email. Essentially you’re competing with the swarm of other emails already flooding people’s inboxes.

Email marketing itself is an easy concept. Creating content that captivates a viewer enough not to get lost in a flooded inbox is the hard part. Make sure you’ve created this consumer base with integrity so as to not end up in people’s spam files. This can also be done as a long-term plan or a short-term plan too. Just make sure that you aren’t over-sending to your consumer list. I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell don’t like 20 different emails from the same company in the span of a week.

Influencer/Affiliate Marketing

Ahhhh Influencer and Affiliate Marketing. Bloggers, YouTubers and Insta Famous people, or anyone that is popular enough on Social Media hold great power over their large following. They possess the ability to influence decisions in an industry that reaches so many different people from all ages, places and walks of life.

To break it down for you, this works best through collaborations. Usually, companies or brands will contact their influencer of interest and offer some type of commission or incentive for promoting their brand through the influencer’s social channels. The deals made with the influencers are usually short-term as their audience disengages after about a week at most. Finding the right influencer for your needs is important as well so choose wisely.

Viral Marketing

So we know how quickly the word spread about Coronavirus Right? Or what about the Recent Protests to support the Black Lives Matter movement (which should be so much more than just a movement in this day in age.)

How quickly did the fire spread about these topics?

In a matter of Minutes, Hours, Days and it was all over the world. Everyone was talking about these topics and still is.

These two exact topics are examples of Viral Information Around the world which is somehow relevant to potentially every human being. The internet has given us the ability to have messages cross the planet in a matter of seconds. This is called going Viral.

Much like news that goes viral, almost anything can become viral. From infections to a new hair care product. Or even a new dance move. Everything has the potential to become Viral. The idea behind Viral Marketing is to create some type of content that is so compelling, and so share-worthy that people simply can’t resist hitting that share button. Achieving this is done by looking at the trends. Making it funny or purposeful, and a hot topic everyone is either already talking about or is about to be talking about.

A business that markets to Consumers (B2C) will likely have the highest success rate in viral marketing.  It’s the millions of us consumers needed to be reached to ensure Viral really does become Viral. As challenging as this type of marketing is the possibilities are really endless. So you can make this work however possible for whatever possible. The potential is in the eye of the beholder.

Radio Advertising

Once upon a time Radio used to work through radio waves and frequencies. Fast Forward to today, it’s now gone digital. So somewhere over the years, Radio Marketing became another form of Digital Marketing. There are many options depending on your business needs. You can choose from local and national options too. Whichever one meets your needs the most. This even includes advertising through popular music apps like Spotify and Itunes!

Television Advertising

Ohkay, so by now, we all know what a commercial is. These have been around for ages. But, as consumers, we have shifted our traditional ways of watching TV from cables and cords to apps like Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, and more. This means that they had to find others ways to make sure we consumers are still seeing there thus all informing adverts. No wonder we now have commercials all over Youtube every time we try to watch something. (Facepalm)

Mobile Advertising

While Mobile Advertising is probably the most challenging because there are so many different factors to consider. It is quite possibly the most important form of advertising across the planet right now. Everyone is on their mobile devices. So brands and companies are now focusing most of their budget on creating ads that are mobile-friendly. Compatible with all the different types of mobile devices too. The main goal is to make whatever type of ad they want to convert into mobile ads to enforce our awareness of their products.

It’s pretty crazy to realize how much goes into Digital Marketing and how much it surrounds us even more. Who would have known it was so prominent? So, now that I have briefly explained to you what each category of Digital Marketing is, let me now entice you with all the exciting new things to come. Yep, there’s so much more in store for the next Decade.

Does anyone need a refill on their coffee before we move on?

Let’s get started!

Shoppable Posts/Social Commerce

I feel like this is something that’s climbing at a steady & fast pace to being the most popular way to meet the shopping needs of consumers. Let’s face it, we consumers have become quite lazy. With online shopping and basically a taxi cab service for food deliveries, we keep finding ways to make our lives just that much easier. We have also learned to rely a little on the experiences others have with products that we’re interested in before making a final decision to purchase.

We have reached an era where social media is merging with online shopping. Suddenly, we are gaining all this inspiration for items we absolutely must have. As well as this need for instant gratification. Companies love the way we feed off of each other’s likes and wants. They use it to market exactly what we wanna be seeing. They do this in many different ways by creating things like shoppable photos & videos, shoppable articles, digital magazines, and social media pages. Even though companies like the British brand retailer ASOS which has a page/website that connects user-generated content with shoppable links which leads to the desired Marketing.

The links you see that pop up in photos allow you to easily purchase products with minimal steps involved. It will either take you directly to the shopping cart at the website the item is sold on or show you the price, then prompt you to their website. This will be a big game changer over the 2020 decade.

Mega, Macro, Micro, and Nano Influencers

Something I’ve mentioned earlier was Social Media Influencers. Even though they’ve been around for quite some time, now we’re able to break this category up into smaller categories. This allows us to further tailor our advertising needs. The way to determine what category you fall into goes by your social media following. The larger your following is, means the higher level of influencer you are.

Highest Ranking Category, Typically over a million followers, usually more famous than influential, distant relationships with followers but followers are more diverse in their interests. Not usually experts but provide a lot of reach with one hit. Think A-List & B-List celebrities like Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Drake & Eminem.

The easiest way to identify a Macro Influencer is again obviously the following. Their followers should lie somewhere between under a million followers but over 100,000. Besides follower total, not much is different between these two levels of Influencer.

However, Macro Influencers usually gain their fame and identity from the internet and their social profiles. Rather than Mega Influencers, who are usually famous for something other than influencing. You’ll be able to reach a large demographic while enticing those who really want a piece of your pie.

You can determine this by “following” the size of 1000 to 100,000. These influencers are very underrated influencers. They usually have a strong impression on their very loyal following. This usually leads to having a moderately close relationship with them. They usually specialize in a certain topic or niche. Some of the popular niches are Food, Beauty, Fashion, Lifestyle, Travel, Personal Development and so many more topics which are going to be popular in the next decade.

New to the game, with less than 1,000 followers these babies are coming in hot. This type of influencer has a strong following based on their community and neighbourhoods. Think of someone like a community Leader or Government Leader. The big benefit here is that these influencers have the highest level of engagement in turn giving your company and business a very trustworthy reputation.

It has been discussed that companies that use Nano Influencers, are also viewed as more authentic brands. This happens due to the real-life relationships these influencers have with their following. It allows for an almost seamless word-of-mouth marketing strategy, on the downside even though they are strongly involved with their following. It’s still small meaning companies would have to find more of them and the task can quickly become time-consuming.

Voice Search

It’s predicted that by the end of 2020, 50% of searches made will be by voice via smart speakers and smart products. With the anticipation that voice search shopping will increase by over 37% (as per my own guesstimation), it’s critical for companies to start thinking of ways to use this to their advantage. Voice search plays an important part in consumerism. It’s how we receive important information we use to make informed decisions when purchasing products.

It also drastically changes the game professionals have been playing by using SEO Optimization. The entire game is headed into the unknooooooown direction. Sorry, Had to sing that in my Frozen voice! We will have to find new ways to steer organic traffic in our direction. We now have to take different things into consideration like the differences between voice and typed searches. As well as having to think more in-depth about intent and context. To grab more spoken queries it’s ideal to focus on more natural language patterns, as most voice searches are in the form of long-form questions.

Digital Marketing in the 2020's What's to come?

What’s to come?

Another great thing about chatbots? Much like the evil machine in the kid’s movie The Incredibles, it learns as it goes. The more intricate questions received allow for a more involved response from the chatbot. They have slowly been emerging within the last year. In fact, I have had a couple of experiences with chatbots myself and I must say I’m quite impressed. It’s amazing how user-friendly chatbots are without compromising their ability to achieve a helpful result.

Neuromarketing

This has got to be one of the most interesting topics in my opinion. It’s crazy to think about how this actually works. It’s also a lot harder to summarize and explain than I thought it would be. Let me refer you to this fantastic article I’ve found written by Clifford Chi on Hubspot. I find his article absolutely mesmerizing. I hope you enjoy it too.

Conversational Marketing

Please enjoy this compelling article written by Alicia Collins. She gives a great breakdown of what Conversational Marketing is, and the benefits it can give you to help your business flourish. As well as plenty of examples of how to achieve conversational marketing.

Social Messaging Apps

The goal is to meet consumers where they already are. This mixes conversational marketing with chatbots and uses them to their highest potential. This ends up creating a more intimate connection with their customers. More and more of us have turned to using messaging apps as our top form of communication with others and companies. This suddenly looks super promising for marketers. These apps don’t just have benefits for the consumer though. These apps come with analytics helping you select and target your demographic quicker and easier than ever. This is a party you don’t want to be late to.

Micro-Moments

Micro-Moments are all around us, we just have no clue what they are or that they exist. To put it simply, a micro-moment is a moment in time when we are turning to our smart devices to aid us in a task. We are acting on a need and fulfilling this need by either learning something new, discovering something, purchasing something or simply watching something. These moments happen so quickly we don’t even notice them (making them micro) and are rich in content and information we then use to help us make decisions and shape our preferences.

This takes us further down the path of instant gratification and allows us to meet the needs of consumers as quickly as their needs arise. Think of things like, “Hey Alexa, what’s the weather in (insert your location here) today” well, at that exact moment you wanted to know something. The demand to find out the weather was met in an instant, and you were satisfied. If this sounds familiar to you, then you’ve definitely experienced firsthand what a micro-moment is.

Browser Push Notifications

This isn’t quite something that’s new, push notifications in general have been around for quite some time. But over the next decade, it will really blossom into something that is vital for a brand to use if they wanna stay afloat. Neil Patel writes a great informative article on browser push notifications, if you’re interested in learning more I encourage you to follow this link and indulge yourself in his article.

It’s so crazy to think of how quickly things can change. These few categories I’ve mentioned are only the tip of the iceberg for digital marketing changes to come. It really makes me wonder what other possibilities are out there. What inventions are lurking in the shadows?

My best advice to you all going forward is to get in touch with a digital marketing agency. There are some really great ones out there. For Example, Socially Infused is a digital marketing agency that aids companies and social media influencers in getting not only a step in the right direction but a step ahead of the game to with their digital marketing strategies. With a future full of endless possibilities I would wanna get them on board ASAP.

Thank you so much to everyone who has stopped by. I’m super excited to share this post with all of you. I wanna hear all about what you think is in store for digital marketing during the decade of 2020!

Digital Marketing in the 2020's

Sources:

https://revive.digital/blog/the-11-types-of-digital-marketing/

https://www.singlegrain.com/digital-marketing/digital-marketing-trends-2020/

https://www.sociallyinfused.com/news-press/melissa-weekes-scholarship/

Recommended Articles

[instagram-feed]