With time, we are rapidly approaching new technological advancements and diverse business techniques, disrupting the working patterns of customers as well as marketers. The market is expected to evolve on a strategic and economic level, and there will be many trends in 2020 to look out for. Some of these trends are based on technology. However, there is also a pushback against the increases digitization and automation of interactions between the brand and the consumers and a desire to make marketing more efficient again.
While technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data-driven marketing will undoubtedly be significant trends for 2020, the focus will be more on people, not technology. Here is a list of such trends in 2020:
1.Customer Experience:
The customer is king, and 2020 will be the year of customers. A considerable shift in beliefs about what marketing is is being observed. It is no longer about trying to convince people to buy from or work with your company. Instead, the priority has shifted towards providing fantastic customer experiences that will keep people coming back for more. In a sense, when we focus on building a positive business culture and providing excellent service, marketing almost takes care of itself.
The growth of online content has given more power to customers. They are no longer a third party when it comes to learning about the products. The customers do their own research before buying the products. So we have to offer them something more than information.
Customer experience or CX is already a trending buzzword in the marketing circle, but it is more than just a passing trend. 73 percent of consumers say that customer experience is a vital factor in their purchasing decisions, but currently, only 49 percent of consumers say that the company provides a pleasant experience.
What exactly makes an excellent CX? Efficiency, convenience, knowledgeable and friendly service, and secure payment options are what people look for most in their customer experience. But some aspects more traditionally considered as marketing’s domain are cited too, such as trending technology, personalization, a smooth mobile experience, brand image, and design all add up to customer experience. In other words, CX should be considered as an essential marketing strategy. In this way, we can provide a great experience to keep the customers loyal to the brand and attract new ones.
2.Employee Engagement:
If friendly service is the cornerstone of great customer experience, employees are the pillars. Research has also found that 46 percent of customers will abandon a brand if its employees are not knowledgeable, and lousy employee attitude is the number one factor that stops individuals from doing business with a company.
The employees are the human face of the brans, so concentrating on interactions between employees and customers should be a crucial part of the marketing strategy. The key to this is building a solid foundation of employee engagement and taking steps to ensure every employee understands and is aligned with the brand’s mission and value.
3.Visualization:
While improvements in voice search are positively influencing the way that we’ll create content now and in the future, we shouldn’t ignore visual content either. Research has shown that people generally prefer visual content to plain text. Instagram and Pinterest are great examples of this. Visuals are also easier to remember than written content. Adding data visualization, infographics, images, and videos to the text not only makes it more exciting and attractive, but it can help the message to be absorbed better too.
4.Personalization
Increased data collection and advancements in technology have already had a significant impact on the level of personalization that is possible and on what consumers expect from their interactions with brands.
Today’s consumers are bombarded with marketing emails from multiple channels to the point where they have started to tune them out. Traditional advertising is losing its effectiveness. Therefore, personalized marketing messages that forge a real connection between the brand and the target market. As per a survey by Epsilon, 80 percent of consumers said that they would be more likely to do business with a brand that provides a personalized experience.
5.Strategic Marketing Transformation
Business Marketing is becoming increasingly complex. For companies to succeed in 2020, they’ll have to think beyond what they are doing and link everything back to the why of the business as a whole. The marketing goals must align with the overall goals of the business.
Strategic marketing transformation is the term used to describe the process when a business operating without a strategic marketing plan evolves by changing its fundamental business processes and procedures. Undergoing a marketing transformation can help companies to improve customer service and experience, boost brand awareness and reputation, and ultimately increase revenue and profit.
Businesses achieve these benefits through a combination of data collection, using modern technology, building customer relationships and engaging with customers online, publishing quality content, and improving their online presence. All of these things are part of the underlying strategy that influences every department and employee in the company, not just the marketers.
The strategic marketing plan defines goals and determines which marketing tactics to employ to reach the customers including content marketing, SEO, email marketing, social media, advertising, and offline marketing. It then lays out a plan for how every part of the organization will be involved in these tactics. To put in simple words, the marketing strategy is no longer only the responsibility of the chief marketer or CMO. Strategic marketing transformation recognized this and ensures that the brand, company reputation, customer relationships, and the customer experience as a whole are considered in every business activity.
6.Voice Search:
Voice search shows no signs of slowing down and will continue to be a major influence on how brands create content and market themselves online. The smart speaker business is booming, with around a quarter of US households now owning a Google Home, Amazon Echo, or another smart speaker. Consumers are also expecting to use voice search more in the near future.
Voice search brings with it new challenges, but also exciting opportunities. Even is the brand is not ready for smart speaker advertising, it is important that the content is optimized for voice search. Voice searchers use search differently. They use longer, more conversational queries, so slanting the content to serve these queries, as well as answering questions directly, can help to make it more visible to voice searches. This has the added bonus of making the content more likely to be picked up as a features snippet.
7.AI-based Automation:
We have already seen a huge advancement in AI over the last few years, and a great increase in the number of businesses using AI-powered technology and automation to assist their marketing efforts. It is one of the major technologies behind voice search and smart assistants. It has also made chatbots possible, which are now popping up on more websites than ever before.
AI technology and automation are helping to take some of the grunt work out of marketing so brands can concentrate on strategy and crafting a fantastic customer experience. Big data, supported by AI and predictive analytics is also helping brands to learn more about their audience and customers. It is enabling hyper-personalization of customer experiences and marketing messages at scale.
8.Focus on Customer Retention, Loyalty and Advocacy
A huge part of providing a great customer experience is making sure that CX is ongoing and focused on keeping the existing customers, rather than just attracting new ones. Recurring customers are more valuable than new customers. Studies have found that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep a new one, so it is definitely worth putting in the effort to keep the customers happy.
Loyal customers also help to increase the reputation and awareness of the brand as they will talk about the company and products with their friends and family. Happy customers make great brand ambassadors and influencers.