The year 2019 has come to an end, and you know the drill. After you badger yourself over what goals you didn’t accomplish, you’ll probably move on to drawing up some new resolutions to work on this next time around.

Of course, in the midst of that, you’ll want to know what marketing in the year 2020 will look like for your small business.

Here’s the thing… Instead of new digital marketing tactics coming into play, 2020 brings us an improvement and increase in those that we are already familiar with. If you’ve been putting off methods such as AI or influencer marketing, now’s the time to get on the bandwagon.

What Will Marketing in the Year 2020 Look Like? 9 Digital Marketing Tactics to Consider

There are many digital marketing tactics that are expected to take the forefront in the year 2020. Let’s look at 9 of the most important ones.

1) The Continued Rise of AI

Now that artificial intelligence (AI) is here, it’s only going to grow and improve. According to alliedmarketresearch.com, AI is expected to have a compounded growth rate of 55.6% annually.

It’s being used in every industry and in creative new ways every day. When we look at it just in terms of digital marketing, we can see that it’s being utilized in the following ways:

• E-commerce transactions
• Product recommendations
• Content creation
• Email personalization
• Basic communication

AI is changing how we interact with our consumers. In turn, that is impacting our content, our marketing, and our understanding of our audiences.

Chatbots are probably the hottest topic in the AI world right now. In fact, it was projected that 80% of businesses would integrate some type of chatbot system by 2020. You’ve probably noticed that to be true as you browse the web yourself.

The right way to use AI in your marketing is not to try to replace the human aspect of marketing but to personalize and enhance the customer experience.

2) Decreased Importance of Guest Posts

On March 1, 2020, Google is going to be devaluing guest posts. They’re moving to a “hint” system for links and have opened up some new attributes (similar to the no-follow attribute) for sponsored and user-generated content. This means that guest posts aren’t going to cut it anymore for off-page SEO.

Diversifying your link-building approach beyond guest posting is going to be one of the most essential digital marketing tactics in the coming year. One way to do that is with content marketing that includes original research because it provides unique and fresh value on the internet, giving people a reason to link to it.

When you can provide real data that isn’t recycled, you’ll earn links and social shares. You can use the Google Marketing Platform to guide you in this practice.

3) Increased Importance of CTR

Google wants your content to catch attention; therefore, their algorithm is now rewarding higher click-through rates. Think about it from your own perspective… When you perform a Google search, you glance at the results that come up and you pick and choose which ones you are going to click on.

By discovering which pages on your website have a lot of impressions but not a lot of clicks, you can optimize the meta details on the pages that can benefit the most from an improved click-through rate.

4) Position Zero at the Forefront

As more and more people use voice search and the internet on the go, the way we search is changing. Admit it, we want the answers we are seeking now; we don’t want to comb through a list of results.

That’s where featured snippets and position zero come in. That’s why one of the most important digital marketing tactics is to work on getting your content to be that featured snippet Alexa spouts out when giving someone the answer to their question.

Optimizing for position zero is different from optimizing for position one. It takes a different approach, so it’s essential that you learn how to do it to be ahead of your competition.

5) Influencer Marketing on the Rise

Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to get in front of an audience that is chomping at the bit to learn about products and services like yours. The trust they have in their influencer turns them into raving fans, which is what makes it possible for them to be influenced.

If you aren’t already engaging in influencer marketing, 2020 should be the year you start. And don’t just look for influencers with the biggest audience. Sometimes influencers with smaller audiences are the ones who have a more intimate and well-developed relationship with their fans.

For example, micro-influencers (those who only have about 10-50K followers) receive 41.7% higher engagement rates than those who have 500K-1M followers.

6) Personalization on a New Level

We know, we know… You’ve been hearing about personalization for years now, and it’s getting old. While that may be true, it’s still more relevant than ever. The fact of the matter is that you need to be putting an emphasis on personalizing your marketing or you’ll lose out to those who are. It’s one of those digital marketing tactics that will probably always remain top of list.

Consumers have become so familiar with personalization that it is absolutely expected. In fact, 51% of consumers expect their needs to be anticipated. One of your biggest goals for marketing in the year 2020 should be to amp up the quality of personalization.

7) Remarketing Campaigns for Better ROI

If you’re doing PPC advertising but not using remarketing campaigns, you are spending more money to get lower results. In marketing, we know that it generally takes several touches for people to make a purchase, so showing your website visitors ads once they leave your site is one of the best ways to land new clients.

According to a Criteo study, website visitors are 70% more likely to convert when they are remarketed. Fortunately, remarketing campaigns don’t cost much and they are highly effective.

You can even set up remarketing campaigns in many email marketing platforms these days so that you can send contacts that perfect email at the perfect time.

8) Multi-Touch Attribution for Better Accuracy

If you’re engaging in multiple digital marketing tactics, then it is essential that you know which tactics are getting you conversions. Otherwise, you’re wasting a lot of money and effort on things that aren’t getting you results.

Plus, consumers are all over the place. They are jumping on their phones to research products they saw on TV and then completing purchases on their desktops. And then, there are voice search purchases.

Previously, this was a difficult feat and conversions were either credited to first-touch attribution, with all credit going to the first interaction the prospect has with you, or last-touch attribution, where the credit goes to the last interaction.

Fortunately, we now have multi-touch attribution, which is much more accurate. A total of 32.9% of multi-touch attribution users have twice the ROI of single-touch users, so it’s time to get on the bandwagon.

9) The Shift from Google Analytics to Google Data Studio

Online marketing and transactions are extremely complex these days. Here’s just a snippet of what it looks like…

• Numerous marketing channels
• Voice search & text search
• Upsells & cross-sells
• Repeat purchases & checkout bumps
• Ads on various platforms
• Cross-device interactions leading to single purchases
• Multiple revenue streams, including e-commerce, affiliate marketing, YouTube, etc.

In this landscape, Google Analytics can’t always keep up. Google Data Studio, however, does a much better job of integrating data from all of these different channels and digital marketing tactics so that you can get a more accurate picture of your online business.

In Conclusion

So, there you have it! The top 9 digital marketing tactics that are shaping marketing in the year 2020. Just keep this in mind: Although it’s important to stay relevant and up to date with regard to the tools and methods you use, you also need to be sure those you choose are in line with your overall strategy.

Instead of trying all the digital marketing tactics in this article to see what works, carefully consider which ones will work for your audience and budget. Then, implement those accordingly.

Want help choosing the best digital marketing tactics for your company? We do just that by first taking a deep dive into your strategy. Contact us for a free consultation today!