“Tis the season”! As 2019 comes to an end and 2020 is knocking on the door, it’s time to wrap this year up and plan for the next year - 2020, the beginning of a new decade!
Our marketing experts at Microswift have comprised The Biggest 5 Digital Marketing Trends of 2020 in this article so you can have an idea of what to expect this coming year and maybe, adjust your marketing game accordingly :)
Trend #1: Strong Demand for Digital Health Technology
There’s a growing expectation from consumers to have the same digital experience in all areas of their lives. Online shopping and banking has become the norm: we can manage our bank accounts online, order food delivery, and watch the latest TV series and movies without ever stepping outside our front door, so why should healthcare be any different?
Research from Global Web Index in 2019 found that 36% of consumers are using the Internet to research healthcare services and 66% rely on online recommendations to make decisions when it comes to choosing a healthcare provider. As a result, there’s a strong demand for digital health technologies: 51% of people prefer to find doctors and book appointments online and 49% want to complete paperwork online in advance of an appointment.
With that said, if you’re a healthcare provider that has your own business (e.g. dental clinic, surgeon’s office, or family doctor clinic), it’s time to make your healthcare business digital-friendly by offering your visitors the option to book appointments and fill out new patient registration forms online.
At Microswift, we have developed the technology that makes the whole process seamless and effortless for your potential clients. They can talk to an AI who can guide them through the whole appointment booking process in just under 3-5 minutes and you’ll receive instant notification for the appointment immediately after the booking is confirmed. This not only saves your receptionists time to focus on other important tasks but it will also create a positive first impression before your clients coming to the clinic for the first time.
Trend #2: Personalized Marketing - Break Through The Noise With a Creative Approach
The digital realm has never been more crowded. We are bombarded by hundreds and thousands of messages every day, thus, to stand out and make a statement about your brand and attract customers is an increasingly challenging task. How can you make a difference and remain in a customer’s mind? The answer is personalized marketing.
Personalized marketing includes customized content created by your own business that caters to your ideal customers. This may include personalized videography and photography for your products and services.
Customers want to feel related to a particular brand, they want to feel special. As a result, you can’t accomplish this task by using stock photos and footages all the time. Consumers will soon get bored with this approach simply because there are hundreds of thousands of other businesses that are doing the exact same thing. They want to see something different and unique because as humans, we are craving creativity and novelty more than ever before.
Our Creative Marketing Service can help you solve this problem and captivate your audience by creating personalized, creative media that portray your service in the way that resonates with your ideal customers and drive conversions.
Trend #3: Video Marketing Will Be King
Which is more captivating and memorable? Texts or Images? Images.
Which is more meaningful and moving? Images or Videos? Videos.
The short answer is that videos are getting more and more popular for brands to market their products and offerings and it will only increase in importance in 2020. Videos consistently perform better and catch more attention from the viewers over the years. If your site includes video, it’s 50 times more likely to drive organic search results compared to texts. Why? Because videos are more interactive and natural for viewers compared to static images, so Google pushes pages that include videos higher in the rankings.
If your site includes video, it’s 50 times more likely to drive organic search results compared to texts.
Here are some benefits of having videos in your marketing campaigns:
- Videos keep visitors on your page longer
- Videos, if done well, are immensely sharable. When a customer shares your video with their social network, it also creates more brand awareness for your business.
- Videos are more engaging. People are more likely to watch a video of someone explaining something other than just a blog post full of texts and images.
Trend #4: Shoppable Posts on Instagram
Starting in March 2019, this ingenious feature of Instagram has taken the online retail industry by storm. Thousands of brands have seen an increase in sales and profits when using the shoppable feature that lets potential customers purchased products tagged in photos directly on the Instagram platform. Customers don’t have to change tabs and application to complete the purchase, every touchpoint and transaction is completed on Instagram alone, with the hope that this would reduce the abandoned shopping cart rate amongst online shoppers.
We project that this feature will continue to assist online retail brands to market their products and drive their conversions even faster and easier in the coming years. So if you’re an online retailer but haven’t utilized this feature, it’s time for you to finally get into the game and start tagging, as much as you can!
Trend #5: Chatbots and Conversational Marketing
In 2020, chatbots will remain an important part of digital marketing. This AI-based technology uses instant messaging to communicate with your clients or visitors to the web in real-time, regardless of day or night.
According to a survey conducted by Single Grain, chatbots will power 85 percent of customer service by 2020. The top benefits of chatbots are 24-hour service, instant responses to inquiries and answers to simple questions.
63 percent of survey respondents prefer digital chatbots to connect with a company or product as chatbots are fast and effective at answering simple/ repetitive questions, always accessible, and never lose patience. By 2022, chatbots will help businesses save more than $8 billion per year.
With that said, chatbots or live chat needs to keep the interaction with customers conversational. The last thing a customer wants is to interact with a “robotic” chatbot the gives generic and unexciting answers to their questions. At the core, we’re still human craving personalized, engaging interactions, yes, even with a bot!
So if companies can adopt an AI technology that constantly improves on creating witty, creative answers and personalized interaction with customers, they will benefit from higher customer satisfaction and loyalty compared to those who don’t.
Are you ready to change up your digital marketing strategies in 2020?
2020 is certainly an exciting year for digital marketers who stay on top of the trends and make the most out of every new feature on digital platforms. We’re heading towards a more personalized and targeted interaction with consumers, yet at the same time, we’re striving towards accomplishing that through automation and technology. Here at Microswift, that’s also our philosophy -“Where marketing meets technology”.
We firmly believe that by taking advantage of the latest tech trends and understanding the intricacies of digital marketing and individual business’ needs, we can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our marketing efforts to bring the best results to our clients.
