It is too early to take stock of the year, but it’s time to take a closer look at new tools and approaches. In this article, we’ll talk about the marketing trends of 2020. I specifically omit the part about nano-technologies and solutions that are difficult to implement for small and medium-sized businesses.
Trends and hype: do you need to follow anything at all
When someone talks about another trend, we pass it through a conditional filter:
• what statistics in this direction say;
• as it is used already in the west;
• how we use it and what results;
• how we ourselves can apply it and for what.
Last year everyone buried email marketing and said: “You need chatbots and instant messengers, drop these letters, everything is gone.” In fact, email marketing remains one of the most effective tools. The guys from McKinsey determined that $1 investment in it brings $42 of income.
Does this mean that instant messengers and chatbots are ineffective? Not. It’s just that it’s convenient for specialists in a certain niche, for marketers, to present their decisions as a trend and the only right option. If you come across something that you are already using, it’s awesome. You are on the right track.
2020 Marketing Trends: Global Approaches
Most brands still live in their own world, divorced from reality. Old-school companies believe that money from Internet marketing comes by the principle of banner-click-site-purchase. Units work on the real path of the client, loyalty and other aspects.
Approach No. 1: Marketing – a complex, non-point solutions
The bottom line is reduced to the global goal – to become a brand number 1 not on a store shelf, but in the head of people. Therefore, all activities, trends, chips become only a tool to communicate with the audience for a big purpose.
Approach # 2: Customer Orientation
Despite all the technological stuff, services, easy integration, CRM, many brands work in the old way. Think of the category: “offer-sale-goodbye.” Focusing on selling is the wrong strategy. You will not have a chance to sell to a person again if:
- you did not solve his problem – you did not select the right product, service;
- he was dissatisfied with the service – communication with the manager, delivery, service, etc.;
- You haven’t done anything so that the person becomes interested in other offers or remembers you at the next purchase.
In 2020, we need to focus more on the client:
- implement CRM not only for sales but to better understand customers, analyze their requests, frequency of purchases, reasons, etc.;
- to improve the service endlessly – delivery speed, the convenience of pickup, document generation and sending to the client, technical support in a convenient messenger;
- integrate customer focus in the corporate culture – give your employees not strict instructions “it is possible, but this is impossible”, but values and guidelines, how it is possible and necessary to improve the life of the client.
Approach # 3: Digital in Marketing and Beyond
It is necessary to maximize the potential of the digital environment and automate all possible aspects. Already no one says that digital is a panacea. Rather, it has become easy to make friends offline and online through convenient tools, services, and integrations.
Today, a seller in an offline fur and leather store can easily get data from a customer’s card in CRM, look at the purchase history and offer something that is more likely to “fit”. An online cosmetics store can easily analyze the history of purchases and even views on the site to send you a selection of fast promotional products that are really interesting to you.
Marketing Trends 2020: Tools and Chips
It seems that all this express format may not show real numbers. But we have already seen that in 1-2 weeks you can get a completely adequate, and most importantly, real result: the project is entering or not.
The key advantage of the Telegram channel is its high reach and engagement if you give the audience decent content in an interesting format. This tool has already become a hype, and users are moving from the “delight” stage to the “damn it, it’s simply impossible to watch something there” stage.
I think that competition among channels will only grow, and users will begin to switch from a subscription model to everything and immediately to a more selective and accurate selection. I judge for myself, and I regularly unsubscribe from channels according to the principle: “Over the past month I have not read anything here, I just flipped through to remove the notifications.”
A business can use Telegram in different ways:
- Chatbot for support, sales, support;
- Chat for customers, community, private club;
- Copyright channel of the owner, leader;
- Funnel chatbot: newsletter, offers, segmentation, repeat sales.
- General brand channel for announcements, communication;
The previous content was just about corporate blogs. It is more about the approach and domestic cuisine, but content marketing is not limited to this.
It is worth using the complex:
- Distribution of content from the blog to groups, communities, social networks, newsletters;
- External publications: an article in the media, an interview on the YouTube channel, a column in the profile blog, etc.
- Own a blog;
Content Marketing
The power of content marketing will never fade in 2020. We managed to make sure of this using our own blog as an example.
At the same time, we did not buy links, did not run advertising traffic. Just high-quality, useful content for different segments of our audience. Of course, in order to get into the TOP on targeted requests, you need:
- Minimally make announcements on their sites, and better – also an external, partner.
- Optimize the content itself;
- Technically optimize the site;
Game mechanics in business processes, corporate development, marketing, sales significantly increase engagement and other indicators. I believe that gamification will become one of the main marketing trends in 2020. There are more and more simple services and solutions to implement similar mechanics on Instagram, on the site in the form of a survey, test, accumulation of points.
You can use this tool in almost any niche, but it will become especially relevant in the niche of education. Satisfied with different courses, online programs users become more selective. Moreover, there is a problem in the market: people do not complete their studies or are not very involved in homework. Because of this, they do not get the result; in fact, they cannot remain super-satisfied and loyal.
Conclusion
It remains only to realize that any 2020 marketing trends are about landmarks and directions. They need to be systematically integrated into their marketing strategy. Check on different segments, test approaches. The key here is to look for opportunities where your competitors are still inactive.
