Top 3 Digital Marketing Trends of 2020
Digital marketing is constantly evolving. Search algorithms change and so do the way that people view search results and what they constantly see on social media and other channels, which means brands have to get more innovative to get noticed. In 2020 and beyond, brands will be focusing their marketing muscle on these three methods to take their digital marketing strategies beyond PPC advertising and content alone.
1. Voice search is taking off.
25% of Americans own a smart speaker and many people can’t live without Siri or Alexa to make their lives easier. Brands and search engines need to start making moves to adapt to voice searches since it’s estimated that 50% of all searches will be voice searches by next year, and this means needing to account for different languages and regional dialects and differences (anyone looking up pictures of hoagies late at night needs to land on that page about grinders).
2. Brands are looking to integrate streaming video, eyeing Twitch streams in particular.
Video marketing has become crucial for brands in recent years. Tutorials, short videos that tell a story about the product or founders, and even entertainment has garnered a significant amount of engagement with social videos garnering 1,200% more engagement than text and image content combined. Live video takes this concept to the next level by showing the real people and processes behind the brand, as well as keeping people engaged in a manner that traditional video can’t replicate. By providing value in real time, such as asking beauty influencers questions about make-up techniques and having them answered in minutes, brands are holding the viewers’ attention.
Twitch streams, whether working with influencers or starting your own gameplay channels, also aren’t limited to game developers and players anymore. With 15 million daily active users and a bevy of superstar influencers whose viewership exceeds several primetime TV shows, promotion and community-building through gameplay hasn’t gone unnoticed.
3. Video games themselves as content are experiencing a resurgence.
Games as content dates back to the 1990s such as Coca Cola’s The Lost Isles of Alanna then the concept of “adver-games” came about in the Macromedia Flash era, which got a facelift by the 2010s to go to work in mobile advertising for ad-supported apps. But with the recent furor surrounding the KFC dating sim, marketing professionals are finding the buzz impossible to ignore and are considering standalone games to add to the content repertoire.
This spells incredible opportunities for independent developers to get their work noticed and complete small agile projects in less time than traditional publisher-funded games, and for brands to create long-lasting legacies that go beyond videos and blog posts.
Exciting technological shifts are making digital marketing management faster and easier than ever, and new mediums are growing and evolving in tandem. Games and games-adjacent media in particular will be seeing major growth in the 2020s while voice search, AI, and chatbots will change how people interact with brands and their content.