What have been the digital trends for 2020?

For me, 2020 has shown the need to be focused on customers’ emotional needs more than about the actual digital channels, technologies or techniques. Using digital marketing in 2020 has become about getting closer to people and listening to their wants – investing in conversations for longer-term gains in brand awareness and sentiment.

Here is a selection of observations, recognised by the usual industry commentators, that resonate with my thinking on where digital is heading through 2020.

Digital marketing trends of 2020

Shopping locally - thanks to mobile adoption rates, Google is increasingly showing local map listings for any search listing with local intent.

My take: This means that local businesses can increasingly take on national brands in the local search results. If you operate a local business, (or national brands with local outlets) then you should work on your local digital presence for search queries that show purchase intent.

Seeking brands - whilst working on local-intent search queries, don’t lose sight of the value of brand and recognition. Increasing the number of brand queries on search engines for your company affords you some protection from competitors in the search results and also an increased chance of converting the customer.

Reassurance in our decisions - shoppers commonly seek external validation that their purchase decision is the right one. Thanks to platforms like Amazon, we’re already quite used to scanning the review scores of products/services and reading a selection of user generated comments to look for pros and cons. The aggregation of customer review scores into search results provides us with confidence right from seeing the search result page. We still have some way to go in completely trusting the authenticity of the review platforms themselves, but they are getting better at weeding out fake and incentivised reviews.

Making ethical choices - more people are questioning where a product comes from, how it is manufactured and whether it is damaging to others or the environment.

My take: This sends a message to businesses that people want authentic experiences, to live consciously and shop ethically. Help them to be inspired by your brand's story; offer content and experiences throughout a customer’s interaction with your brand, across differing channels and digital touchpoints to build the number of times your brand is seen by people.

Seeking belonging - we naturally tend to seek those that are similar to ourselves. The internet offers both barriers to this and opportunities. Increasingly polarised by the world events of 2020, social media ‘key board warriors’ - hiding behind their online profiles - can be highly destructive, sensationalist and read way too much into correlation and causation. However, polar to the negativity that the internet can bring, is the ability to communicate with like-minded souls, show compassion and rally behind causes.

My take: Whether a cause is good or bad, real or fake, the stronger the feeling, the faster and wider a topic is shared. As a brand, be careful about your stance on topics; some causes are widely suitable and relevant to rally to. With other, more polarising conversations, it might be more prudent to go about the necessary checks and changes in a non-public, quiet way.

Fact checking - certainty around the validity of information has been a problem for some time. Covid-19 appears to have given some of the major gatekeepers the kick up the backside that they needed; they’ve sped up their responses to identify heavily debated and/or incorrect information. We’ve still some way to go but I’ve seen a massive movement in inertia.

Positive distractions - sometimes we need to escape reality, or we just want to feel better about things, more connected, or inspired. We need distractions. And what better way to be amused than flicking through Instagram or watching videos on TikTok? These low-attention, low-involvement activities have provided the small dopamine hits we crave.

Matching marketing to context - digital media consumption is at an all-time high. Which means there is plenty of ‘space’ for digital advertising and the media owners are always keen to place adverts on ALL ad inventory. A number of larger digital media vendors will attempt to show adverts to prospects based on a myriad of factors, including: the interests of the end-user, their browsing behaviour and the content of the webpage the reader is viewing.

Some advice from me: Be careful about the context of your advertising; there is a lot of negative news at the moment and I wouldn’t want your brands to be wrongly placed.

How have you seen brands reacting to the Covid pandemic?

Through my exposure to digital businesses during Covid, I’ve seen quite different reactions based on businesses ability to serve customers remotely or in new ways.

Opportunities - Brands that provide essential and day-to-day products have done well, especially where they’ve be able to deliver direct to a customer at home. I’ve seen situations where businesses were already set-up for home delivery, and others, where they’ve been able to adjust their business practices quickly to the situation.

Challenges - Conversely, I’ve seen brands that have simply not been able/allowed to deliver services (or the demand for services has evaporated). I have recommended that where possible, these businesses should utilise their team’s knowledge to double-down on their news, blogs and relationship building activities. I’ve seen a number of service businesses increase the volume of information they’re producing online. In my view, the successful ones deliver information that is practical and of use to customers.

Customer satisfaction - Towards the beginning of Lockdown, I saw customer-satisfaction ‘gaps’ creeping in; eCommerce platforms were as quick as ever to take customer orders, but the businesses then struggled to process, fulfil and ship. Items sold so quickly it seemed hard for some businesses to keep customers updated about delivery delays. These businesses subsequently felt an increase in customer frustration and anxiety via customer service channels. Painful as it is to fix at the time, there are definitely opportunities in these moments; if the customer is kept well-informed, there is always a chance to build customer loyalty.

What should brands be doing now?

Listening - listen to your direct customers, prospects and staff. Also monitor your peer’s and competitor’s brands website and social media.

Helping - if your business is able to, then try to help people. This doesn’t have to be a massive PR exercise to grab the limelight; do what you can and do what feels right in supporting your local community and businesses.

Investing in the brand - we will eventually get through Covid and I believe that businesses that have invested time in conversations with customers and prospects will see the rewards for those efforts.

Even If you feel incredibly hampered and aren’t seeing direct returns on your digital marketing efforts, keep going… the rewards will be revealed for those brands invested in the long game.

What have been the digital trends for 2020?

Digital marketing trends of 2020

How have you seen brands reacting to the Covid pandemic?

What should brands be doing now?

Recommended reading: