The Top 10 Digital Media Trends for Spring 2020

The digital media landscape is constantly expanding and evolving. With all the noise out there in 2020, how do you find unique ways to reach and connect with your ideal buyers?

 

It is hard to imagine a way of marketing that does not involve ideas such as personalization, immediate gratification, and abundant social media use. In fact, these digital media trends are what drive consumers to engage at the forefront of your business.

In today’s bustling world of instant communication and social platforms, using the digital sphere to market has become almost second nature. It is vital to be able to effectively connect with the community. The world of digital marketing is changing every single day, and it is important to educate your business on how to form a strategic and successful campaign.

The following are the Top 10 Digital Media Trends of 2020 that Fungi Marketing has found to be beneficial through research and observation:

 

1. Personalization: Increase trust between consumers and businesses.

When you think of traditional marketing and advertising, your mind may resort to billboards, cold calls, or random pamphlets in the mail. However, personalized marketing has taken over, and businesses can benefit from its ability to connect with consumers and make them feel valued.

According to Instapage, an Epsilon survey of 1000 consumers aged 18-64 reports that:

• 80% say they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences.
• 90% claim they find personalization appealing.

Examples include rewards programs, personalized advertisements, and utilizing browser history to engage with the consumer. For example, if a consumer buys a product and is later reminded via email chain that they may be interested in a similar product, that is the digital media trend of personalized marketing.

Keys to doing so effectively involve knowing your consumer’s wants, needs, and desires, as well as what personal information they would be willing to divulge.

 

2. Chatbots: Make consumers feel tended to and cared for. 

Offering the ability for consumers to gain instant gratification is an effective customer service tool when marketing through digital media platforms. Many sites have 24-hour chatbots with built-in answers to questions a visitor may have. This tool provides reliability and credibility for any business because of its efficiency.

According to Learning Hub, artificial intelligence presented via chatbots present the following benefits:

• Chatbots will power 85 percent of customer service by 2020. (Innovation Enterprise)
• The top benefits of chatbots are 24-hour service (64 percent), instant responses to inquiries (55 percent) and answers to simple questions (55 percent). (The 2018 State of Chatbots Report)
• 63 percent of the people prefer messaging an online bot to communicate with a business or brand. (Mindshare)

These advantages not only pertain to the business but the consumer as well. Not only do chatbots make it easy for consumers to express their needs, but they can do so quickly and on the go- a common need in today’s bustling world.

 

3. Video Marketing: From screen to screen.

How often do you see video advertisements on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat? Chances are, your answer is every day. Businesses are utilizing the engaging quality of video marketing in order to best connect with consumers and market their brands. The concept helps to create a solid brand identity and a sense of relatability towards a business.

According to Impact, video marketing is an essential part of marketing today and exhibits many benefits including:

• 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video
• 72% of businesses say that video has improved their conversion rate
• 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions
• 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video

These stats are so important because they prove that video marketing is flexible and most importantly, it works. Videos are the key to storytelling and can be manipulated through all different sorts of platforms. Not only this, but videos are evolving into experiences.

Recently seen on Facebook, new technology allows for the 360 views of a video to enhance the consumer experience. Therapy websites such as Psychology today are having physicians record personalized messaged to their clients. All in all, video marketing is the key to storytelling and creating trust through the screen.

Check out this video below to learn more about how to use video marketing to grow your business.

 

4. Influencer Marketing: Who are consumers looking at?

The biggest element consumers look for in a business is authenticity. The more likely they seem relatable and authentic, the more likely a consumer will engage with their brand. A key way to ensuring authenticity is through influencer marketing.

According to the Edelman report and AdAge,

• 63 percent of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products “much more” than what brands say about themselves
• 58 percent of people have bought a new product in the past six months because of an influencer’s recommendation

Businesses can benefit from influencer marketing by partnering with influencers on popular sites such as Youtube and Instagram. SeatGeek is a mobile ticketing platform that is often seen sponsored by Youtube bloggers that have purchased products and tickets via their site.

Influencer marketing is not only a great tool to reach a wider audience but to reach a wide range of demographics and age groups through varying products and platforms.

 

5. Voice Search: The power of the voice.

Voice search is an evolving concept in regard to digital media marketing. The introduction of products such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home have inserted themselves into family homes. The breakthrough 2018 Super Bowl ad, “Alexa Loses Her Voice,” generated millions of views on Youtube, and dominated the social sphere with its use of humor to advertise the product- revolutionizing the impact of voice search in the home.

The following research by WordStream exhibits the impact of voice search and speakers:

• 50% of all searches will be via voice by 2020
• 55% of all American homes will own a smart speaker by 2022
• 72% of people who own voice-activated speakers say that their devices are used as part of their daily routines

Not only can voice search positively influence the customer experience but provide them with suitable and personable experience as well.

 

6. Social Media Stories: In a snap.

Sendible.com expresses that

• 57% Female, 48% Males, and 61% teenagers (18-24) in the US use Snapchat Stories (source: reelnneel.com).
• 52% Male and 43% Female in the US use Instagram Stories.
• There are 450M daily active users on Snapchat, Instagram Stories, and WhatsApp Status combined (source: sociallystorted.com).

According to this research, it is evident that social media stories are vital to consumer engagement in the digital sphere. Stories influence digital media marketing and storytelling because of their ease, consistency, brand identity, and increased traffic to a business page. The more a business post, the more likely a consumer will be to click on their website link, therefore increasing their optimization.

 

7. Content Marketing: Distribute, distribute, distribute.

Content marketing is the process of creating, publishing, and distributing content online for the purpose of connecting with a target audience. Its traditional and reliable approach is one that serves many benefits in marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute,

• Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 3x as many leads.
• Content marketing has lower up-front costs and deeper long-term benefits than paid search.
• 615 million devices now use ad blockers, which means your ads are not being seen by as many people.
• Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those without blogs.
• Content marketing rakes in conversion rates 6x higher than other methods.

The benefits of content marketing are evident in today’s world. Businesses can benefit from this approach because of its ability to reach wider audiences, generate content quickly, and promote brand awareness.

 

8. Branding: All-encompassing.

Branding is the most all-encompassing element of digital media marketing today.

According to SEOptimer, “Brand positioning is “the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market”.

Whatever business you may operate, the most important is solidifying your brand and your place in the niche you belong to. Search engine optimization is beneficial when sites write quality content that shows expertise and knowledge, authority, and trust. The quality of the content as well as keywords are very important to successful branding. With such a formula, consumers will be more likely to be compelled to engage with a business due to identity and consistency.

 

9. Push Notifications: Simple yet effective.

Push notifications are a simple and effective way to market to consumers. It is important to note how beneficial they can be. According to Push Push Go, at least twice as many people sign up for web push notifications compared to a newsletter. This is most likely due to the fact that push notifications can be easily viewed, especially via mobile devices. They can be controlled in frequency through settings, and consumers have the ability to opt-in or out of receiving them. Newsletters, on the other hand, are not as controllable by the user, or as personalized.

 

10. Analytic Tools: A data-driven approach.

Measuring the performance of your marketing (including the strategies mentioned above), is the most effective way to optimize demand. Some of the most common tools we use include:

• Google Analytics: Allows you to see what channels are driving traffic/leads/customers to your website, what pages they land on, and their on-site behaviors.
• Facebook Analytics: Provides a more detailed breakdown of your users’ demographic and psychographic data, purchase behavior, and buying journey based on thousands of other websites using the platform.
• Moz SEO: Allows you to research and monitor keyword rankings/search volume for specific terms. See what search terms your competitors rank for and gain an understanding for what you can do to rank at the top of Google for your target search terms.

Using multiple analytic tools to measure digital media performance helps you to build a more complete picture of your ideal buyer’s journey. Each stage (from initial awareness of your brand through to their first purchase) can be visualized. Then it’s just a matter of testing, measuring, and refining your approach to increase performance.

Marketing has consistently evolved over time into a powerful tool that can elevate any business or brand. Whether it be through social media approaches such as stories or video advertisements, or through website enhancement features such as chatbots, these marketing tools have proven to be most effective.

We at Fungi believe that client-focused approaches whilst paying attention to marketing, design, and sales will help achieve success. Interested in learning more about our approach? Contact us today to talk more about how you can connect with your buyers with a cohesive strategy.