There is no doubt the online marketing is where it is at in 2019 and this is only set to become truer in 2020. Digital marketing is critical for all businesses, whether a local small business, a startup or an independent entrepreneur.
As technology continues to develop at breakneck speed and trends shift on seemingly a minute-by-minute basis, keeping on top of the latest developments is also crucial. If you want to be able to have a top-of-the-line marketing strategy which will allow you to stand out from your competitors, you need to up to date with the latest trends and ideas.
On that note, let’s take a look at the tips and hacks that need to know about to take your digital marketing strategy to the next level in 2020.
Make Use of AI Tools
AI has well and truly landed, and more and more AI-based technologies and programs are being developed all the time. This includes some great marketing tools which will help you to market your business in 2019. One of the key examples of this are chatbots. Chatbots are automated tools which use AI technology to create verbal interactions or chat windows in order to interact with your customers. This means that you can instantly answer their questions, as well as making custom offers and other useful marketing tactics.
As this technology develops it is becoming more nuanced and sepecific and therefore more effective in converting customers. There are countless other applications of AI which are valuable for marketing and customer service. For example, AI can gather information using sensors and human inputs and then store this information, improving the user’s experience the next time they visit your site.
Generation Z is Becoming an Important Consumer Group
In 2020, Generation Z will be 32% of the world’s population, the largest population group. With the oldest of the generation turning 25 that year, many of this group are now active consumers and some are now entering the professional workforce, meaning they have enough disposable income to be making major purchases. This means if you haven’t already, you should seriously be considering whether Generation Z are among your target customers.
Marketing to Generation Z involves a very specific approach, so the next step, therefore, is to make sure that your strategy accommodates this if you are planning to include this group in your target groups. In very general terms, this generation is attracted to products are brands which are purpose-driven, entrepreneurial, offer meaningful interactions and are personal and relatable in their communication style, so incorporate these elements into your marketing strategy if you are going this route.
Have a Specific Approach for Ecommerce Marketing
Ecommerce was one of the fastest growing sectors in 2019, growing at a rate of 23%, and is set to be even more important in 2020. Of these, a large number of Amazon-based business, and the large amount of competition on this platform means that you need a winning marketing strategy, which takes into account the very specific nature of this sector, in order to stand out from the competition. Amazon marketing systems should include an emphasis on ranking your products as highly as possible.
Although this is not the only consideration in marketing your Amazon-based business, ranking your products is the number one thing you can do to sell more products. In order to be able to rank your product you need to understand how the Amazon algorithm works: this is similar in some ways to Google, with one key difference. That is, Amazon is a business and has a vested interest in promoting products which will sell the most, and therefore make money for Amazon itself. This means it will rank the products it thinks are most likely to sell, those with the best reviews and the most interest, as well as those which are relevant to the user’s search because they contain the right keywords.
Embrace Hyper-Targeted Advertising
You may have noticed ads have already become more targeted in 2019, with programs and platforms tailoring the digital ads they present to consumers based on demographics and browsing history. In 2020 this trend is set to escalate and we will see hyper-targeted advertising, that is ads which are pretty much individually tailored to each user.
Hyper-targeted advertising does not just involve the ads which are presented to users while browsing websites or social media. This also refers to other marketing mediums, such as email marketing. In 2020 we will see more companies use hyper-targeted emails to reach new audiences from lists of high-integrity double opt-in subscribers. Gone are the days of flooding random email lists, as these messages almost all end up in junk email folders, unread and are a complete waste of businesseses’ time.