Sharing information has become more seamless than ever, making it much easier to generate brand awareness or promote your service(s) to the masses. And with the Internet being such a powerful tool that can be used to generate ROI, investing in digital marketing should be a no-brainer. Digital marketing is made up of a lot of moving parts – website SEO, social media activity, marketing automation, PPC, and more. New technologies, techniques, and ever-changing Google and Facebook algorithms make keeping up with trends crucial for your campaigns to be effective.

As we enter a new decade and tech continues to change at a rapid pace, here are the top 5 digital marketing trends we’re excited to see more of in 2020!

Voice-triggered Search

In 2020 we will start to see more people using the voice assistant on their smartphone. Features like Google, Alexa, and Siri can be useful in your digital marketing strategy. Voice assistants can search, read text loudly, and even voice dictate text messages for you so that you can be hands-free. It is estimated that in 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches. That will make voice search one of the biggest online marketing trends of 2020. This is the year that digital marketing agencies can no longer ignore voice search. There are a lot of things you can do to optimize your site for voice search, but the most important change involves using long tail keywords like “how to make red velvet cake” instead of a shorter keyword like “red velvet cake.”

Focus On Video Content

In our last blog post we shared 5 types of videos that will boost your social media engagement. At Virtual Image, we recognize how important video content when it comes to taking your digital marketing strategy to the next level. A high quality video attracts attention faster than an image or text. Video is the brightest and most effective tool to convey information to the audience. Among the younger generations (21 and under), online video has completely displaced watching TV.  Most importantly in 2020, your video content should be able to communicate a message to the target audience even when on mute. It’s been reported that 85 percent of Instagram/Facebook videos are watched without sound. Make sure your videos are embedded with subtitles and convey your message and the emotional response you want–even if your viewer is watching in silence.

Chatbots

Chatbots were a trend in 2019 and they will only continue to increase in popularity and use in 2020. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, chatbots are becoming more sophisticated and capable of handling more complex requests. In the new decade, this technology will continue to be perfected and incorporated into many company websites. Customer service via the web is becoming faster (almost instant) and more efficient every day thanks to these new and enhanced chatbots, so don’t overlook them in your web presence and digital marketing strategy.

Shoppable Posts

60% of Instagram users say they discover new brands and products on Instagram and in a survey of over 4,000 Pinterest users, 70% said Pinterest helps them find new products. These platforms have realized that people are using them to shop and have made it easier for merchants to sell via social media. Over the past few years, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook all have ways for ecommerce stores to create shoppable posts using a native integration that makes it easy to tag and shop products directly in your posts. For e-commerce stores, this is a great way to drive traffic to product pages.

AR & VR Marketing

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have exploded in popularity over the past few years and are quickly becoming one of the top marketing trends. By 2020, even more brands are expected to jump on the bandwagon. In order to remain competitive, ecommerce businesses will have to create interactive shopping channels, further enhance user experience, and add new levels of personalization to the customer journey. Ikea is a good example of a company that uses AR to enhance their customer journey. Using their app, customers are able to see what a piece of furniture would look like in their space before going to see it in person and making the purchase.

If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency that is committed to keeping up with the latest trends in online marketing and web development, look no further! Contact your digital marketing experts at Virtual Image to start planning your strategy for 2020 today!