Digital Marketing Trends and Predictions for the Year Ahead – Part 1

So, we’re off and in to 2020 with half of January already behind us. Now that we’re off the start line, what is it we feel the year ahead has in store for digital marketing as a whole? What are the big trends of the year going to be? What can we predict we’re going to see growth and focus on as the new decade gets underway?We all know that the digital world chops and changes at a rapid pace. Year on year trends can be dramatically different or they can follow an ongoing progressive pattern. The biggest shifts in digital trends often come from the arrival of emerging technologies or infrastructure changes. A great example would be the arrival and progress of mobile data connections 3g into 4g and beyond. In tandem with this and increased mobile wi-fi areas, we saw mobile internet browsing surpass desktop and a huge shift towards mobile friendly digital platforms and snackable sized multimedia.Here are the first three of the trends some of the big digital minds are predicting will take hold in 2020:

1. Growth of Snackable Video Content The world’s fastest growing social platform and one of the top downloaded apps of 2019 not owned by Facebook has gone and changed the game again. We have been adapting marketing for mobile for some years now with some brands having more success than others and eventually developed nations reaching the realisation that mobile first is the way forward with all digital communications.As marketers we have adapted to this in various ways and social media platforms tend to show a history of doing it best. Who remembers Twitter’s attempt at short video media formats with Vine? The short, stop motion style video format is not unlike GIFs. Vine didn’t last long sadly and was immediately overrun by Snapchat and Instagram’s inclusion of video formats and the Stories feature. But it was a prelude to things to come. As we all know video streaming is huge and this counts for mobile also. Tik Tok has gone and created a viral sensation in video using short video formats as the focal point of their social platform.Expect to see ‘Tik Tok famous’ become the new Generation Z aspiration and a big opportunity for brands to also get creative and express themselves on the platform and through other snackable short video features. 2. Growth in Voice Assistants and Usage You only need look at the hardware sales figures and predictions to see that the growth in voice assistant devices both at home and those used via mobile devices is going to continue in 2020. This brings with it an increased need for brands to consider voice technology and voice search in their marketing strategies.App producers will also need to start taking the potential for their functionality to be accessible via voice commands into consideration if they’re wanting to create something impactful and genuinely future proof. 3. Demand for Digital Marketing Transformation Services With the advancements in digital best practise becoming ever more sophistcated and occurring within an accelerated time frame, expect to see many brands stop and evaluate their situation and recognise they are well behind the standard in terms of their digital presence. This acceptance is a good thing, it is businesses realising that they have been too slow in adapting or perhaps have just gone in the wrong direction with their efforts in the digital arena which can start to drive a change in the right direction.What these produces is a need for a dramatic turnaround. Expect to see brands recognise their shortcomings and embark on a journey to transform their digital presence and digital marketing activity in order to keep up with the pack and address areas of failure or neglect by the way of a heavily focussed campaign.As such, you’ll see brands and businesses seek out assistance from senior digital consultants or agency intervention to help them transform the way they manage their digital. This will in many cases be both internal digital use as well as external communications, often seeing the two interlinked and achieve synergy.Brands and businesses who feel they are behind are best off recognising that reality sooner rather than later and starting on the path of transformation as early in the year as possible. While some items can likely be addressed and remedied fairly quickly to see improvements, a full transformation can take time.