2020 Marketing Trends & Predictions

In today’s podcast, I’m going to share with you all about my 2020 marketing predictions and trends. The digital marketing world is ever-changing and given the fact that this is an election year, I always feel the election has an impact in the online marketing world

INSTAGRAM STORIES 2020 Marketing Trends

Instagram stories aren’t going away, 68% of people are using stories three-plus times a week and 63% of those people continue to use stories more. What that says to me is get comfortable on Instagram Stories. one thing to be mindful of is most people do not listen with the sound on. It is worth the effort to take the time to put the text on the story, hashtags, and relevant gifs.

Create Quality Content

One of the principles that my team and I are really focusing on this year is to create less content but create content that is exceptionally well. My commitment is to do less but whatever I commit to doing, do it exceptionally well and optimizing that piece of content exceptionally well. One of the ways in which I am managing content and being able to manage stories and all of the different trends that are happening in 2020 is introducing an editorial calendar into my process. This is helping me organize my content, social media and what I am posting on what days. It is allowing me to keep the themes consistent with the macro content I am creating.

AUDIO & Podcasting Marketing Trends

Consuming Audio content is not going away and it is only continuing to grow in popularity. So if you haven’t started a podcast or you aren’t committed to creating audio content it might be time to consider it. Especially with all of the Amazon Alexa enabled devices.

Google Search and Youtube Marketing Trends

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google so I am really committed to growing my YouTube channel. Part of the reason why I’m introducing an editorial calendar is that I am committed to making three pieces of Macro content per week:  two podcasts and one YouTube.  Google is changing the way in which they do their search engine algorithm when it comes to getting found in 2020 marketing trends.

When I’m doing this research about marketing trends, I always look at what different industries are doing and what is working and what is not. With Google changing their algorithm again, I looked at what historically worked which was typically 1000 words to get found in search but this year when my own website traffic went down, I turned to the blogging industry to see what they were saying for 2020.

Many of my blogging associates are saying a minimum of 1900 plus words all the way up to 3000 words that are keyword rich which whatever topic you are referring too. For example in this article 2020 Marketing Trends.  1900 to 3000 words may seem like a whopper in terms of content but bloggers are saying 1 well researched (aka roughly 6 hours on average to create) piece of content along with an 8 to 10-minute video is best to optimize your SEO search on google for 2020 marketing. I look at it this way google and youtube aren’t going away so I might as well embrace the 2020 marketing trends.

People are consuming more and more content on their mobile devices. YouTube TV is blowing up. I would absolutely recommend getting comfortable on Video if you want to build a business in 2020 and beyond. Many of my blogging colleagues are also recommending embedding a video in with their 3000 words on the blog. I looked to the bloggers for these trends because they make a living off of the traffic on their website so I believe that’s something that’s really, really important to mention.

LIVE STREAMING Marketing Trends in 2020

Twitch is a live streaming platform for gamers or it was originally for gamers who were literally live streaming themselves playing games and live streaming is becoming more and more popular. I see a lot of people inside of their Facebook groups live streaming, building funnels, they’re live streaming, you know, all of this different stuff. I think live streaming is going to continue to grow in popularity, especially in the online business space.

TIK TOCK Marketing Trends 2020

I feel as though ticktock definitely has the potential to be a platform that can be useful for people in the online business even though right now it is skewed younger.  However, if you give tick-tock a quick Google, you will see there are lots of warnings from the United States government.

There are lots of concerns about security and privacy when it comes to that platform mainly because it’s, it’s made by the Chinese and inside of the user agreement there is some questionably ethical information with respect to the sharing. I love the concept but be sure to do your research to ensure you are comfortable with their user agreement so you don’t get caught off guard.

Facebook Groups Marketing Trends 2020

Facebook groups are not going away. I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not, but during one of the national football games that I was watching a nationally broadcasted football game and they had ads for Facebook groups on there. I am fortunate enough to have a client who’s actually part of a beta group for Facebook Groups and she gets to test out new features. I am quite convinced that they will be rolling out Facebook ads inside of Facebook groups. There will also be continued tools and resources for groups. I also believe Facebook Business Pages are going to drastically change both in part to the ads as they’re tied to them, but also just because Facebook only has so much advertising space in its newsfeed and they really want to make sure that that user experience is about the people connecting with one another not just ads in the newsfeed.

The newsfeed is getting quite competitive and reach on the business page from an organic perspective is going to continue to dwindle especially if you are not leveraging ads. What I’m seeing is they’re wanting people to build these Facebook communities where they can engage. Several months ago they rolled out on the Facebook app, a tab specifically for groups. There a newsfeed specifically for groups. You’ll still see information in your traditional newsfeed, but there’s one specific for groups on the app. If you are a business who generates a lot of business on Facebook, it might be worthwhile to commit to a community.

Facebook Ads Marketing Trends for 2020

Facebook is going to continue to be a pay to play game and that’s not going away. It’s only going to get harder and harder to run ads and more and more expensive. Let’s talk a little bit about ads in the election season. As I just mentioned, are going to get more expensive because they’re going to be more competitive because of said election season. What I want you to be aware of is whenever there’s an influx of people running ads that makes the news feed and the ability to run ads more competitive.

It becomes more expensive because there’s only a limited amount of space in people’s news feeds. Simply put, it’s supply and demand. It also happens during the holiday season. A lot of people get bombarded and they get super overwhelmed. So it’s just something to be mindful of as we go into this year especially if you’re solely dependent on Facebook ads. It’s time to diversify. NOW.

I think the other piece that ties into this is that there are fewer targeting options. Running ads today really requires you to know your, ideal client, really well. If you come to the table running ads and you already have data, you’re going to be a million times better than people who are running ads and they’re making their best guess around who, what, when, where, why, and all of that details around that ideal client.

Ad approvals are going to take longer than ever. Facebook is really cracking down on landing pages, copy in the ads and images. They are getting stricter and stricter so if you are doing a launch you will need to submit your ads for approval well ahead of time as it takes hours and days vs minutes as it had previously.

Pinterest Marketing Trends 2020

We’ve had a ton of success with Pinterest and we have barely even touched the surface of optimizing it and really making sure that we’re driving traffic from Pinterest to our website. We’re getting over 50,000 views a month on our Pinterest content, which I plan to scale up to over a hundred just by being strategic. It’s very, very easy to do and Pinterest like google is a search engine. The average household income on Pinterest is over $120,000/year. If you own a B to C business, Pinterest is a great place.

Instagram Marketing Trends 2020

The Instagram feed is becoming all about creating quality content. The key to continuing to grow in 2020 with Instagram is stories plus engagement. Engagement is the key to growth. So going on the platform and connecting, interacting, and being human. The more that you interact and connect and comment as you would on Facebook, the more that you are going to see growth and interaction and followers increase. Make the time, create the time, hire somebody to help you do it. An intern is a great way to do that.

Email Marketing Trends 2020

Email Marketing is not going away, but you have to get more creative about how you’re getting your emails opened. I always suggest to all my clients, you know, keep it text-based. Don’t make it beautiful. For example, those emails that you see from Gap or Old Navy or any of the store brands that have all those images embedded is going to get you put into the promotional folder.

When it comes to email marketing trends in 2020, I recommend making your emails text-heavy, really value-driven and only having one link in there. That is the way in which we have found we get the best open rates and the best engagement. Let go of the need to have it be perfect and beautiful and make the email seem as though you are having an actual email conversation vs a promotional buy from me email

Marketing Trends for 2020

I truly believe this is the year of being human. There’s a lot of people in the online space who are just not genuine. They’re renting for mansions and Ferrari’s and taking pictures in front of it. They’re just kind of like faking it. I really believe that this is the year where people want to connect with other human beings. They want to be told a story, they want to connect, they want to be engaged and they want to see an authentic human being.

They want to see the ups, they want to see the downs. I have always strived to show you the whole picture, both the good and the bad. I commit to continuing to do so. I feel that it is so important to just be real and raw and human. Long gone are the days of the perfectly curated feed and here are the times when it’s to be real and raw.