2020 Predictions from Ironmark

Capitol Communicator is running predictions about what’s ahead in 2020 and here’s what Ironmark predicts for next year:

Your business doesn’t stay the same, and neither do the marketing channels and tools available to help it reach its goals. If there’s one constant in business and marketing, that constant is change.

A RAPIDLY SHIFTING MARKETING LANDSCAPE

Think about the several significant marketing trends which have achieved dominance over the past few decades:

• the advent of the internet, and with it, inbound and social media marketing
• the exponential growth of email usage, and the marketing to leverage its ubiquity
• the preeminence of search engine marketing (SEM) and Google Ads
• the increased importance of data analytics (and the personalization it enables)
• the increasing need to fashion valuable content
• remarketing and retargeting
• programmatic advertising
• the emergence of augmented and virtual reality

The good news is that those marketing trends enabled a more effective marketing paradigm. The bad news is that the litany of available options can be overwhelming enough to keep even the most accountable and savvy marketers up at night.

The biggest challenge for marketers is to know what developments are important and which aren’t. As Forbes notes:

“With the speed at which modern technology is growing and evolving, it is no surprise that everything that relies on it must move at a similarly breakneck pace. Digital marketing is no exception. With constant updates, new techniques, and changes to algorithms, digital marketers are frequently scrambling just to keep up. Being aware of emerging or continuing trends is a vital part of staying on top of the game.”

SEPARATING SUBSTANCE FROM HYPE

Each year, HubSpot attempts to help marketers by identifying the top challenges they face in its “State of Inbound’ report. Those challenges vary slightly from year to year, but for several years, the top three have remained constant:

1. Generating traffic and leads
2. Proving the ROI of marketing activities
3. Securing enough budget

It’s important to note that two of those challenges point to the scarcity of marketing dollars. It means marketers need to get a bead on which marketing strategies are most likely to produce demonstrable results, and which are less important. In other words, you need to know what’s hot because lots of other marketers do it, and what’s trending because it works.

2020: THE YEAR OF VALUE AND ENGAGEMENT

What will work in the new year isn’t defined by marketers — it’s more about what consumers demand. Consumers are increasingly demanding a more valuable, personal, and engaging digital experience. The trends likely to dominate digital marketing in 2020 (those most likely to give customers the experiences they want) include the following four:

1.  FRICTIONLESS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Over time, consumer behavior and expectations change. Those changes can be subtle, but their impact can be huge. One such inflection point was the shift from traditional to inbound marketing practice, a response to consumers’ increasing frustration with intrusive, typically unhelpful advertising.

The strategies of inbound marketing are aimed at regaining consumer trust. In an effort to regain and maintain that trust, an increasing number of forward-leaning brands are placing greater emphasis on customer experience (CX), and specifically on making that experience as frictionless as possible, having removed the typical “disruptors” which make customer interactions less seamless.

These companies are going the extra mile to ensure their brands deliver an experience which makes it as easy as possible for customers to interact with them.  This new push for frictionless CX will require both a more nuanced measurement of the ways consumers interact with businesses and the eradication of any disruptions that make those interactions less consumer-friendly.

2.  TAKING A DEEPER DIVE: VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

For years, both virtual and augmented reality have established a firm foothold in the marketing landscape, but the uses for those technologies will increase and be substantially refined in 2020. Tools like IKEA Place (which allows prospective buyers to see how furniture will look in their homes) will become more commonplace, increasing user engagement and sales. You should also anticipate a spike in augmented reality uses, such as print mailers, trade show booths, product demos, and corporate events.

3.  BOOSTING ENGAGEMENT: INTERACTIVE CONTENT

IKEA Place is also an example of another important marketing trend: interactive content. Marketers understand that when consumers can customize their experiences interactively, those experiences will be preferable to non-interactive ones, and therefore more likely to boost customer experience and engagement, leading to increased sales. Again, an inflection in marketing practice is a reflection of consumer preferences, with more than 90% of consumers telling businesses that they want more interactive content.

4.  KEEPING THE CONVERSATION GOING: PERSONALIZATION

Every marketer knows that prospective customers want a more personal approach, one that knows who they are and what they like. But an increasing number of marketers are coming to understand that providing those personal experiences is a function of useful and accurate data, whether it’s used to enable more personal emails (for example, those that incorporate consumer behavior) or customized website experiences (such as those that leverage dynamic content). Beyond this, personalization is one aspect of conversational marketing, another trend which will ramp up next year.

CONCLUSION

There’s no avoiding the inevitable changes in marketing, next year and into the future. Although the nuances of things like augmented reality, social media marketing, and interactive content can be confusing, even overwhelming, there are experienced marketing agencies who make it their job to stay current and informed, who can give you the advice, guidance, and practical help you need to succeed.

To learn more about the ways our creative, web development, digital, print, and logistics services will keep your business on top of the latest marketing trends—and succeed—contact us today.