From voice search to artificial intelligence, here are 7 digital marketing trends to watch in 2020. Read to see if you’re prepared for everything to come.

Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2020 | Union

Top 7 Digital Marketing Trends to Consider in 2020

Retailers finished strong in 2019. Holiday sales <a href="https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/holiday-spending-increased-in-2019-especially-online/">went up</a> by 3.4% during the holiday shopping frenzy Nov. 1-Dec. 24 while ecommerce sales saw an 18.8% increase in relation to the previous year. Let’s be honest. As adamantly as your family members may say they have everything they already need in life, we know they still really want that pair of noise-cancelling earbuds for their workout sprees.Want to see your own brand’s numbers inch higher as we continue into this new year? Here are seven digital marketing trends to keep in mind for 2020.

From Amazon’s Alexa to Apple’s Siri, voice search capabilities continue to grow in popularity. About <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/21/5-things-to-know-about-americans-and-their-smart-speakers/">25%</a> of U.S. adults own a smart speaker and use it regularly at home. Juniper Research <a href="https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/digital-voice-assistants-in-use-to-8-million-2023">estimates</a> that by 2023, about 8 billion voice assistants will be used, with a growth rate of 25.4% occurring between now and then. Clearly, Alexa’s <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/03/07/alexas-weird-random-laughter-freaking-people-out/404476002/">episodes</a> of random, creepy laughter in 2018 haven’t diminished the desire for voice assistants.
How can you make your brand more discoverable through voice search?
If you’re doing really good, <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/performance-media/search-engine-optimization">ongoing SEO work</a>, you’ll be priming your website for voice search. Focus on structured data markup and inverted pyramid writing. Plus, be sure to develop content with a solid readability score and a focus on long-tail, question-based keywords that you know your customer base is asking for.
The more aggressive approach with voice search, which also requires more investment, is building out Google Actions and Alexa Skills that pertain to your brand and help users answer certain questions (check out <a href="https://assistant.google.com/services/a/uid/0000007325cc270a?hl=en-US">The Home Depot Tutorials</a>). This gives brands more control over brand-related questions and even allows them to create more awareness.
Why this all matters: <a href="https://voicebot.ai/2018/02/09/voice-commerce-tried-22-percent-smart-speaker-owners/">About</a> 22% of U.S. smart speaker owners have made a purchase when using their devices. And you want to be more competitive.

1. Voice Search

Live video, also referred to as live streaming, is the <a href="https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/thenow/what-is-live-video/1/">broadcasting</a> of a live video feed to an audience online, in real time. Vimeo <a href="https://livestream.com/blog/live-video-strategy-marketing-statistics">calls</a> live video “a must-have for marketers,” with 80% of customers preferring to see live video from a brand versus social posts from that brand. With this tool, customers can get a look behind the scenes of your business, follow your brand during an event, ask questions in real time and more.It’s easy to join the game, with almost every major social media platform now supporting live streaming video (methods include the TikTok app, the Instagram Live feature and the Facebook Live feature). And people are watching. During Q3 of 2018, ad views by audiences on live streaming <a href="https://livestream.com/blog/62-must-know-stats-live-video-streaming">rose</a> by 56%.

2. Live Video

The options here are vast, and audiences want to take action and feel immersed in an experience. Start by keeping an eye on augmented reality, <a href="https://union.co/services/performance-media/social-media">shoppable posts on social media</a> and 360-degree videos.
(a) Augmented Reality
When we shared the<a href="https://union.co/articles/augmented-reality-apps"> launch of our AR office tour app</a>, we also reported that the economic impact of AR and VR is expected to hit $29.5 billion by next year. Companies like Aircard are <a href="https://www.aircards.co/">creating</a> app-less AR campaigns that make messages appear on print flyers, while companies like IKEA are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/03/top-marketing-trends-for-2020/#690440dd13d5">launching</a> apps that enable users to see how a piece of furniture would look in their home before purchasing it. Reports show that 42% of shoppers <a href="https://www.shipstation.com/blog/augmented-reality-try-before-you-buy/">believe</a> the try-before-you-buy option of AR would help their decision process. As for virtual reality, its cumbersome headset requirement can be a deterrent for audiences, so just keep it on your radar for now.
(b) Shoppable Posts
Pay attention to what you can do beyond just pushing out messaging on social media, now that users are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/03/top-marketing-trends-for-2020/#63d8840d13d5">regularly shopping</a> on these networks. For instance, 72% of Instagram users have bought a product on Instagram. And a survey of Pinterest users revealed that 70% of them use Pinterest to explore new products. For marketers, these posts are about as easy to build out as they are for users to click and shop.
(c) 360-Degree Videos
These videos, in which 360-degree views are recorded on a device like a GoPro, feel more accessible to audiences than virtual reality at the moment, since all they need is a screen to experience them. Additionally, viewers can use a cursor to choose the angle they’re viewing as the video plays. Hubspot <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-360-degree-video">reports</a> that the most popular videos in this category showcase travel destinations and various unique experiences. Expect <a href="https://medium.com/omnivirt/360-video-vr-performance-statistics-from-1000-campaigns-2f7343ecfe13">higher</a> viewer engagement with 360-degree videos than with standard videos.

3. Interactive Content

People want to feel seen, even in the digital realm. Make a point to connect with them on a personal level. With generic ads getting stale, personalization is already key. Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/03/top-marketing-trends-for-2020/#77372b8c13d5">reported</a> that 90% of audiences are drawn to personalization efforts. Those can range from the common email blast, to Starbucks’ gamified mobile app that’s boosted drink sales with personalized content, to Amazon’s personalized recommendations on their ecommerce website.

4. Personalization

Now that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has come into effect, it’s time for retail brands to update their data strategies in order to ensure that these new privacy regulations actually work to their benefit — while protecting consumers. The benefits can work two ways. First, brands are <a href="https://martechseries.com/mts-insights/guest-authors/customer-experience-in-the-age-of-gdpr-privacy-vs-personalization/">prompted</a> to improve their own accountability process by ensuring they pinpoint why they need consumer information and exactly how they intend to work with it. Then they can grow customer enthusiasm toward their brand because they are able to use that information to personalize their messaging. Luckily, stronger <a href="https://www.adweek.com/partner-articles/the-next-decade-of-data-why-retailers-will-need-to-rethink-their-data-strategies-in-2020/?mvt=o&amp;mvn=bdc94cae87f244da91a0635cb96f7436&amp;mvp=NA-ADWEEKRESPSITE-11238673&amp;mvl=homepage-grid-placement-large">customer trust </a>could be the result.Meanwhile, adherence to privacy standards benefits consumers, because they’ll receive content from brands that is <a href="https://martechseries.com/mts-insights/guest-authors/customer-experience-in-the-age-of-gdpr-privacy-vs-personalization/">relevant</a> to their needs and that offers value.

5. Consumer Privacy

Let’s face it, even in this age of ecommerce, there’s a special sort of satisfaction that comes with walking into a store and checking out a product by hand. The Online-to-Offline marketing strategy gets customers to make the jump from online interaction with a brand to a purchase in physical stores. Also called O2O, this approach <a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-us/blog/7-ways-to-optimize-online-to-offline-marketing">ensures</a> that a brand’s online and offline marketing channels complement each other, rather than compete with each other. It supports audience behavior, as 76% of consumers who search for products or services locally tend to visit a store in the span of one day. For brands, this can <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/15/a-year-after-amazon-announced-whole-foods-deal-heres-where-we-stand.html">reduce</a> the costs of returns and delivery (consider Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods).

6. Online-to-Offline Marketing

Artificial intelligence, a system that handles tasks that typically need a human mind for completion, is a game-changer for automating processes. Popular applications in marketing today <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/08/21/how-artificial-intelligence-is-transforming-digital-marketing/#6a7df7d621e1">include</a> content generation, <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/performance-media/paid-search-marketing">PPC ads</a>, <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/branded-content/web-mobile-app-development">web design</a>, chatbots for <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/data-brand-strategy/customer-experience">customer service</a> and <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/performance-media">optimization of campaigns</a>. For <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/performance-media/content-marketing">content generation</a>, AI programs are capable of generating news headlines based on articles, topics to consider and even full articles.
But one of our favorite applications in the AI marketing realm is programmatic advertising. With this <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/performance-media/programmatic">automated buying</a> and selling approach for digital advertising, our strategists can set up client ads to be served to the right target audiences based on algorithms and data, reaching people when they are <a href="https://www.acuityads.com/blog/2017/12/15/what-is-programmatic-advertising/">more likely</a> to convert.

7. Artificial Intelligence

Does your brand need a marketing lift as you move into this new year? Our team at Union is here to talk through any of these digital marketing trends for 2020, and more. <a href="https://union.co/contact">Contact us</a> today.

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Valtech Union is a creative &amp; performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results. Obsessed with data-driven performance, we believe every marketing dollar should be viewed as an investment. Our clients expect a meaningful return and we prove the ROI of our work with quantifiable data.