5 Minute(ish) FriYAY Episode #32: The 4 Things You Didn’t Know You Need to Know About Digital Marketing in 2020
The 4 Things You Didn’t Know You Need to Know About Digital Marketing in 2020
Hey there, small business owners! 👩💼👨💼
We see you.
We hear you.
We get it.
You’re out there in the real world, running your business and doing your thing. And in the ever-changing digital marketing landscape there’s a plethora of changes happening on what feels like a daily basis. It can be dang near impossible to keep up if it’s not your job to do so!
If that’s not your job, no worries! That’s why we are here.
To relaunch our blog we are here to share the 4 things you didn’t know you need to know about digital marketing in 2020. These are emerging topics, considerations to make and tools to implement in your digital marketing strategy that maybe you’re using; maybe not!
Take a look at the list below and let us know in the comments how you are implementing these resources/tools and considering these factors in your small business marketing plan for 2020…
Privacy
In a “Big Brother” kind of world, we human beings are progressively getting more and more accustomed to signing the fine print and allowing companies to collect data and information from us and our internet activity. Those of us in the marketing world are privy to all the ins and outs of big data, data aggregation and tracking that companies both large and small are using to target us as consumers.
Don’t get me wrong here, I am a marketer and absolutely love that we have information to help us make data-driven decisions with our marketing dollars.
However, we should do so responsibly.
Let’s get extra real for a minute…
The Average Joe probably isn’t aware how website cookies work, how on earth after browsing an ecommerce site and not finishing the purchasing process an ad pops up in front of them when logging into Facebook or Instagram afterwards, or how big box stores know to send an email with a pictures of candles the day after they were in the store sniffing every single candle on the shelf and didn’t make a purchase.
But, we marketers/advertisers do. That’s our world.
This may not be a popular opinion in the marketing world, but IMHO it’s our responsibility to give the consumers we are targeting an opportunity (at the bare minimum) to be educated on this side of consumerism in our society.
So, from our little corner of the universe here at Create/Captivate, privacy is an issue we find extremely important! And that’s not going to change in the near future.
That’s why we’re paying attention to new laws like CCPA and ones in recent years like GDPR. These laws are in regards to data collection/tracking on websites.
While we are not legal experts, we do highly recommend that any business with a website puts a cookie warning up ASAP whether or not they fall under the stipulations of these laws or not. We’re fans of the CYA method around here for sure because at the end of the day, we would rather be safe instead of sorry.
Video
Did you know that 80% of all internet traffic was video in 2019? It’s true. We’ve been shouting about video (mostly in person at our workshops and in consults) for nearly a decade now and if you’re still not on board with implementing at least some level of video into your marketing strategy, GET. ON. BOARD!
Video marketing is such a force of nature in the marketing world. You can use it to share compelling stories, share helpful “How To’s”, demonstrate your expertise… the list goes on and on!
Why is video so compelling?
The combination of using both your hearing + sight is a dual sensory experience. It’s truly that simple. Other marketing media types might only effect one of our senses. But video comes rolling in HOT with two.
Voice Search
It’s predicted that in 2020 more than 1/2 of all online searches will be voice searches.
Think about it…
Who DOESN’T have an Amazon Echo (hey Alexa!), an Apple iPhone (hey Siri!) or a Google device (hey Google!) these days?! Or even multiple devices or a combination of all these devices in their possession?!
Knowing all of this information it’s probably no shocker that search engines such as Google are increasing the emphasis of a website being voice search friendly.
That’s why as marketers and small business owners continually workin’ on our SEO fitness, we need to realize something absolutely crucial about voice search:
Voice search doesn’t work the same as a typed search.
Humans speak differently than they type. We’re complicated creatures like that and that means our SEO strategy is now a bit more complicated. When you’re putting in time to include ALL the write SEO-friendly keywords and phrases into your website, blog, etc. you now also need to be thinking about voice search friendliness as well!
Extended Reality
Ever heard of XR?
Extended Reality is the umbrella term that covers a gamut of “realities” such as:
- Virtual Reality
- Augmented Reality
- Mixed Reality
So far, the industry dominating these categories has primarily been entertainment. Makes sense. Entertainment is always all about the experience. However, consumerism has definitely shifted in this direction over the past couple of years.
People want an immersive experience and big businesses have had the budgets to tap into this market, but we sure as heck won’t be surprised if the ability to use interactive visual media in marketing becomes significantly more available (through apps, software, and gadgets) to small businesses in 2020.
Privacy, video, voice search and XR are all things we are tuned into for our 2020 marketing plan but we’re curious… what are you seeing emerge or what do you have questions about in the digital marketing world? Leave us a comment below and let us know!
We may even feature your question on an upcoming FriYAY episode!