Digital marketing best practices for 2020 and beyond

2019 was a year of great challenges and rewards for digital marketers.

Tons of new changes and trends flooded the digital marketing landscape, keeping business owners and marketers on their toes.

Few tactics, such as the importance of SEO remained the same, but other groundbreaking strategies changed the course of the flow like companies using panels customers get paid for online surveys, to provide valuable feedback.

If you don’t keep yourself updated with the latest digital marketing trends and practices, you will fail to take your business to new heights. That’s why we explore the exciting new trends along with some old, yet effective, ones that will help you thrive in your venture.

As a business owner, it is important to understand these trends and integrate them into your current digital marketing strategy.

Here is a summary of the best practices in digital marketing that will help you succeed in 2020 and beyond.

1. Personalized user experience

Consumers naturally prefer personalized content, so it becomes an excellent way for marketers to engage their audience and convince them to make more purchases.

Consider Coca Cola’s “share a coke” campaign, for instance. The campaign started in 2011 and allowed consumers to get their name or a friend’s name printed on the drink. It was a huge success that led to the company’s sales growth for the first time in ten years.

The consumers loved the personalized experience and took to social media platforms with their personalized drinks.

In addition to personalized marketing campaigns, brands are also exploring ways to take conversations to DMs (direct messaging).

Messaging apps such as Viber, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, brands are trying to build connections with their customers. Direct messaging is considered useful for taking sales orders, addressing complaints, or directly engaging your customers.

Personalization is important because it provides consumers a sense of involvement with the brand and putting control in the hands of marketers at the same time. Digital marketers can no longer ignore this trend as they consider their 2020 strategy.

2. Interactive content

Content has always remained a crucial element of any digital marketing strategy. However, content marketing will experience a shift in focus in 2020 and beyond. Shoppable posts that enable users to purchase directly through ads and social media posts will get more and more attention.

Similarly, interactive content in the form of polls, quizzes, and contests will be in demand since 91 percent of buyers want more interactive content online.

Interactive content will be a key digital marketing practice for 2020 because it provides a level of interactivity that is new to retail and ecommerce. This type of content cuts through the noise and links the customers with their favorite brands in a more engaging way.

3. Marketing automation

Marketing automation refers to the use of software and tools to perform repetitive tasks and save time and effort. By automating tasks like lead nurturing, visitor tracking, and content management, brands can provide the right user experience to the right audience and the right time.

Automation is a burning topic in digital marketing discourse, and it will continue to be a trend in the coming years.

Leading brands are already making significant investments in algorithms and automation software that could replace the human brain. According to Forrester, the annual spending on marketing automation is estimated to surpass $25 billion by 2023.

4. Customer privacy and security

With the massive amount of customer data on the web, security has become a hot topic. Consumers want their personal data and credit card information safe when purchasing a commodity or service online. It is crucial than ever for businesses and digital marketers to ensure that their websites keep up with the latest security updates.

With the heightened concerns for identity theft and data breaches, brands need to invest in cybersecurity and make sure to secure customer information. Regulations like the GDPR and CCPA have been enacted to ensure customers’ privacy and data security.

Even large businesses such as British Airways have experienced security breaches resulting in a proposed fine of £183 million.

T-Mobile experienced a similar breach last year that compromised phone numbers, billing addresses, names, and account numbers of over 1 million accounts.

Concerns like these reinforce the need for marketers to work with security experts and mitigate the impact of breaches and security frauds.

5. Featured for position #0

The constant algorithm updates in search engines like Google and Bing is the main reason why digital marketing practices evolve so rapidly. As the search algorithms change, businesses need to adjust their marketing practices to stay afloat.

In 2020, more and more search queries result in featured snippets, which gets a lot more clicks than other results on the search engine result page (SERP). Featured snippets are blocks of text that appear on top of the SERP, also called position #0, to provide direct answers to customers’ questions.

Marketers need to craft quality content and optimize it for featured snippets. The Real Wealth Network, for instance, optimized their real estate market report for featured snippets and topped top the SERP for real estate market reports with their local SEO Orlando.

However, it is essential to keep in mind that in the bid to gain position #0, you must not ignore the users. The content must be written for humans and search engines alike.

6. Video marketing

Video was an integral part of digital marketing in 2019 and will continue to be a major factor in 2020. As per the IAB’s report, 74 percent of U.S. consumers watch online videos, while 78 percent will view ads in exchange for free content. Video marketing is also effective since it increases purchases by 144 percent.

It is reported that almost half of internet users search product or service videos before purchasing it in a store. Hence, appealing video content can be an excellent way to attract new customers and drive conversions.

Parting thoughts

These are the top 6 digital marketing practices that dominated the digital landscape in recent years and continue to gain importance. It goes without saying that these practices, if implemented consistently, will help you achieve your goals by staying ahead of the competition.