The world is moving faster than ever. Keeping pace with changing marketing trends is becoming more difficult. Understanding how people search, interact with products and services are key for businesses to thrive.
As a small business, keeping your finger on the pulse of change is crucial. So what are the key marketing trends to keep a close eye on:
The growth of voice search is unparalleled. More people are purchasing voice activated technology, like smart speakers. According to Statistica, in 2019, 36 million people bought smart speakers. That’s an increase from the year before where 34 million people purchased voice activated devices.
72% of smart speaker owners use them daily to look for information on products and to place orders. Quora Creative shows that users will happily receive personalized event invitations, product promotions and tips through their voice activated speakers.
Voice activated technology is improving all the time and devices like Google and Alexa are making less errors.
Other statistics worth mentioning are:
Here are examples of how companies are using voice in their strategies:
In recent years, video marketing has become a staple of any marketing strategy. Research shows that video is the most popular way for customers to learn about new products and services. Nidhi Dave writing for Singlegrain Digital Marketing says that video could be the most important marketing trend in 5-10 years. Proof that is in the following statistics:
(cited from“10 Video Marketing Statistics That you Need to Know in 2020 [Infographic] https://www.oberlo.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics) (Cisco cited in https://www.oberlo.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics “10 Video Marketing Statistics That you Need to Know in 2020 [Infographic].
HubSpot cited in Biteable’s article “55 Video Marketing Statistics for 2020” (https://biteable.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics/)
With more people using mobile devices, long form sales pages and emails aren’t as useful as they used to be. People don’t have the time to read long web pages or emails.
Marketers can share the exact same content on video in a way that’s much more digestible.
Having a video on your website is crucial to drive more traffic. It’s all about the user experience. Videos engage more than text does, which means people will be drawn to a company’s website that has a video. In the end, Google will rank companies with a better user experience higher.
There are various types of videos that are popular today including but not limited to:
Visual search has and continues to take user experience to a whole new level. It’s as simple as uploading an image, click, and hey presto, you have specified results that you’re looking for.
Here’s an example of how visual search is used:
Google Lens: Google Lens is a visual search engine that recognizes landmarks and objects using a camera app. Here’s some of what it can do:
Social media is a crucial way to reach your customers. What many people don’t realize is social media is a great platform for customers to shop.
This presents a great opportunity for online businesses, particularly retail and clothing stores. Research shows that 72% of Instagram users purchased products using the app. A recent survey of 4,000 Pinterest users, shows that 70% used the channel to find novel products.
Using the power of social media platforms give businesses the opportunity to reach new audiences. Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest want to make it easier for online stores to create shoppable posts.
You can create a shoppable post by tagging a specific product in an unpaid post. The customer sees this post and clicks on it. They are then directed to the same product on the company’s landing page. Shoppable posts make it easier for customers to shop directly from a social media post.
Neuromarketing is fast becoming a reality thanks to advances in technology. And one day soon it could be a viable tool for marketers.
The main neuromarketing strategy is to measure brain and nervous system activity to find out which types of content users find more engaging. The idea is to design your website, content, ad and email campaigns “to evoke specific neurological reactions that trigger emotions or responses connected with purchasing”.
You then use this date to optimize your website, change your strategies to ramp up your marketing efforts. An example of a company working in the neuroanalytics space is Spark Neuro.
They measure emotion and attention to improve advertising efforts. Spark Neuro combines complex algorithms with neurometrics and biometrics to assess emotion and attention levels. This helps marketers to work out what type of content to concentrate on what to avoid.
Research shows that in 2020 only 30% of companies use Automation and AI in their sales processes. When considering automation and AI vast potential, this figure is far too low.
You can use automation for various things including:
Today, we live in an increasingly connected world. A large number of us have laptops, smartphones and other devices. The Internet of Things is making our lives even more connected to technology with smart cars, wearable devices and more.
In exchange for convenience, our devices collect data on what we share, where we go, what we buy, what we do, and even what we believe in. This means companies and marketers are using this data to optimize their marketing and advertising efforts.
Examples of this in action:
SEO Split Testing essentially involves taking two similar parallel web pages and you’ll pick a variable to test on one against the other. This could be anything, even just a CTA on a webpage. It also could be headlines and meta titles. The web page that gets the most visitors or conversions will determine which is more useful.
There are several benefits to A/B tests including:
In the last few years voice search has revolutionized search engine optimization. One of the noteworthy rises is the featured snippet, also known as SERP Position Zero. It’s given that name because it provides a direct answer to a search query.
By the end of 2020, at least 30% of searches will have been conducted without a screen, and 40.07% of voice searches will have resulted in a featured snippet. This presents a competitive advantage for brands that optimize their websites and content for voice search.
Interactive content comes in many forms such as quizzes, infographics, and calculators. Customers that see businesses that go the extra mile to create helpful engaging content will be more likely to share their details.
Quizzes: quizzes are the most simple form of interactive content. They also generate tons of engagement.
One example of a successful quiz was Women.com’s 2017, “Can You Pass This Advanced Grammar Test?”which gained 3.7 million shares. Encouraged by the success of this quiz, they created another 200 quizzes in the same year, of which 19 of them generated 1 million shares each.
There are two main types of quiz. The outcome quiz which is basically” a diagnostic that predicts your management style,the decade you were born, and even your most suitable Hogwarts House” (remember Harry Potter?) to quizzes that work like assessments.
They are quick and easy to make, help people feel good about themselves and are very sharable.
Polls are an easy way to get an insight into how your audience feels about your services and products. An example could be to ask people which of your products or services they prefer or which do they feel could be improved, and why. By using polls company’s establish a bond of trust with their customers.
Calculators: these tools are underused by marketers. The reason could be that they take more time to create, but they are well worth it because they drive engagement and shares and have a lifetime value too. One great example of a calculator is the one created by CoSchedule. They claim that their calculators show how much time is saved by using their suite of tools.
For more on interactive content read this great post by visme.com.