2020 Digital Marketing Trends
Hindsight is 2020, right? So let’s use the lessons learned of this past year to get an idea where Digital Marketing is headed in the future.
We all know what happened this year, so many of the trends we saw throughout the year are to be expected based on the changes endured during 2020. A LOT more consumers and businesses took their business online this year and the people who were already online saw some big changes to the landscape due to all of the new traffic. So let’s reflect.
5. Advertising Has Become Much More Competitive
More and more businesses and consumers were forced to shop online this year so the most obvious change we noticed was in the overall effectiveness and cost of advertising on platforms like Facebook or Google. Digital Advertising became a lot more competitive this year, so accurate targeting, proper funnel building and creative ads are all necessary to get results now. With the increased competition, every aspect of your campaign needs attention, making it more difficult than ever for DIY advertisers to find success.
4. Content Marketing Is King
As we saw in 2019, and more so in 2020 with increased competition, content is still king. Some would even say it’s the only effective form of marketing we have left.. I think that day is yet to come, however this year sure seemed that way with the absence of the event industry. Content can be entertaining, educational, or inspirational but to be successful, it has to be interesting to your audience. Expect more blogs, vlogs, podcasts, tutorials, guides, infographics, and overall imagery and videography. With the increase in online activity, businesses had to find a way to reach their audience, and also thanks to the increased activity, advertising wasn’t a realistic option for many. Enter Content Marketing..
3. Video Ads & Marketing
This one sort of combines the previous two. So of course we saw an increase in advertising activity, and content creation, but if we had to pinpoint a type that we saw reign all, that’s gotta be video. With the help of TikTok, Instagram releasing ‘Reels’ to compete with the new popular app, LinkedIn adding ‘Stories’ and other changes to popular platforms online, video is clearly being prioritized by the biggest social platforms and it’s definitely being used. Video is the future of Content Marketing AND Digital Advertising, so it gets its own place on this list.
2. Trends of 2020 Posts
Ya, we know it. We’re not gonna pretend this hasn’t become a trend in itself. Nonetheless, we still feel it’s important for our work and our audience. In the digital landscape, you have to be in the know and these reflective ‘Trends of’ posts help us stay grounded 🙂
1. Community Building
Finally, the biggest trend we saw in 2020 and expect to continue watch grow is Community Building. We’ve stressed this technique since the beginning, to be successful online you MUST build a community for your audience. This builds off our other list points, because to build a community you must have great content, know what your audience wants and be able to reach them so they even know about it. More and more businesses are starting to figure how they can do this for their audience, and due to other limitations brought on by this year, many were forced to focus on this instead of advertising or other avenues. We think that’s for the best, though. This is a technique that works, with or without a Pandemic but this year we learned that this is one of the few techniques that works especially well with a Pandemic.
We hope you enjoyed our take on the Digital Marketing Trends of 2020. Do you agree? Or have you noticed other things more prominent this year? We’d love to know your thoughts either way! 🙂
Steve Shearer
Owner
