With 2019 now behind us, 2020 is a fresh start for brands to identify digital marketing trends that will futureproof their business. Here are 3 key digital trends that will help improve your presence online right now.
Hello, how can I help you?
Chatbots are available for interacting with website users quickly and naturally, answering questions and addressing needs in real-time. As technology has progressed, customer service bots have evolved to collect data that is beneficial for analysing user behaviour, along with advancing their ability to seamlessly communicate with the user. Many chatbot services now have natural language processing capabilities and continue developing in order to speak longer phrases.
Assessing user behaviour and patterns extracts crucial information for marketers, determining what they should target towards to that individual customer. For example, if a customer buys a product from a site, the chatbot can look at customer engagement and send follow up messages to make sure they are satisfied with the purchase. This effortless process ensures customers receive a good user experience and encourages repeat business.
Chatbots have many other benefits including the time saved for the user and the reduction of operational costs attributed towards managing live chats through customer service agents. Customers themselves appear to be fans of chatbots, as according to research, 57% of customers preferred using live chat to get their queries answered.
Chatbot integration on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook Messenger help to quickly answer customer needs and queries without risking a drop in customer satisfaction levels. For example, if the customer sends a price query message the chatbot can provide a link to the FAQ section on the relevant website, a speedy reply with the added benefit of boosted website activity.
This post is sponsored by …
According to Digital Marketing Institute, 49% of consumers currently depend on influencer recommendations and 40% admit to having purchased something after seeing it on a social media platform in 2019. The long-term shelf life of influencers remains unknown, but some demographics are clearly willing to engage with this type of advertising in 2020.
Users are drawn to the characters and authenticity of influencers, often idolising them and trusting their opinions explicitly. Consumers today demand real content from influencers that will help them make decisions on what to buy or what services to use. If the right influencer praises a product it is more than likely going to see a sharp boost in its sales figures.
It is important to choose the right influencer to work with and must be someone who shows a genuine interest in what you have to offer. To make a successful collaboration, research into audience statistics is essential as well as establishing who has a strong reputation for providing useful advice to their consumers whilst complying with ASA’s rules of ad transparencies. You must disclose partnerships with influencers or else you will breach ASA regulations and risk a negative backlash from audiences.
You must also take into consideration however that although audiences enjoy a perceived ‘real’ person’s opinion, influencers are often controversial figures and your brand may become linked to the controversies that influencer faces; along with the unpredictability of their future actions.
Alexa, what is the weather like today?
Devices such as Amazon Echo, Google Home and the iPhone allow us to interact with various voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Cortana. These assistants can search for things, read aloud, book appointments and even place shopping orders.
As such, the development of BERT (from Google’s Deep Learning department) will benefit search enquires for its users. Google claims BERT will “consider the full context of a word by looking at the words that come before and after it—particularly useful for understanding the intent behind search queries.” Moving forward, it will become imperative to understand colloquial language and semantic intent, rather than using simple formal language or words devoid of context. The keywords and phrases used in web content in 2020 and beyond must include long-tailed keywords that relate to the topic to help engage natural flow of speech.
Overall
These are but a few of the developments lined up for 2020, which will aid with boosting sales, increasing presence and ensuring customer satisfaction within current strategies. If you are still considering how to improve your digital presence this year, the key takeaways are:
- Chatbots can interact with users based on historical data and help you to identify what marketing opportunities exist
- Younger consumers demand for influencer content may determine the success of certain product sales
- Voice search is evolving and growing in popularity, so content must be optimised with long-tail keywords and questions.
