As 2020 gets rolling, marketers across the globe are looking ahead. From why direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies are moving away from social media marketing channels to how voice search will influence customer experiences and buying decisions to the critical role of AI. Find out which trends will shape the future of marketing. Here’s your way into a super successful 2020:
1) IDENTITY-LED DATA PRIVACY SOLUTIONS WILL SET THE GOLD STANDARD
The industry at-large is experiencing a watershed moment, brought on by evolving data privacy regulations, and the evolving role of third-party cookies. These two things will underpin the industry’s evolution over the next five years, setting the pace and tone for new tools, technology and innovation. I think we can expect three primary trends to emerge as a result:
• Identity-led, cookie-less solutions will become the gold standard in addressability and data privacy.
• There will be a confluence of data and dynamic creative. A symbiotic relationship between the two will be the only way for brands and agencies to achieve enhanced, meaningful consumer experiences across audiences, mediums, devices and more.
• To stand out in their competitive industries, brands and agencies will create their own second party data partnership ecosystems powered by identity resolution technology. This will enable them to reach and engage with new audiences in a transparent, privacy-centric way.
2) INTENT BASED MARKETING WILL AMPLIFY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
We will see an increased realization among organization for the need to engage more deeply with their customers. Customers will demand that relationships with organizations feel less transactional and more mutually beneficial. It will be important to look
intent based marketing to deeply understand customers behaviors and their intent to purchase. Organizations will need to be more in tune with who customers are, what they are doing and why.
3) AI IN EMAIL MARKETING WILL EXPLODE IN 2020
When it comes to the emergence of
AI in email marketing, there are many forms and practical use cases where AI can be leveraged including automation, personalization, segmentation, send-time optimization, content and even subject lines. AI’s most valuable benefit is in helping email teams improve efficiency and as the technology becomes more scalable, intuitive, and easily accessible to existing workflows, AI will become an area more marketers dip their toes into in 2020.
4) THE CUSTOMER CARE OFFICER’S (CCO) AND CMO’S ROLE WILL GROW IN 2020
Digital transformation initiatives will end as we know it, and in its place will come targeted, solutions-oriented programs that work backwards to identify data, processes and technologies required to make it a reality. This will require more agile approaches and business leaders owning customer experience (CX) more strongly.
CX leaders will have to prove return on investment (ROI) more concretely, and CX initiatives will have to tie more closely to financial results, such as reduced churn or revenue growth. As such, CX will move towards business unit leaders and the role of the CCO will grow in prominence.
In 2020, the valuation and competitiveness of companies will increasingly be linked to intangible assets of
customer experience and brand valuation. This requires CMOs to take greater ownership of the customer journey, product innovation, sales enablement, corporate values, and employee experience. Marketers must ensure brand promises are met across the organization, responding to the needs of an increasingly diverse, demanding and global customer base.
5) IDENTITY MAPPING WILL BE CRITICAL TO ANY CONVERSATION ABOUT PRIVACY IN 2020
Respecting consumer consent will continue to be the third rail for brands and publishers through 2020. What to watch out for, however, is how these conversations begin to fuse with those around identity. As technologists know, for consumers to “own” control over how their data is used, you need some mechanism in place to consistently persist the choices they elect across every instance of their digital identity. The connective tissue that ID mapping provides is critical to any conversation about privacy. As more states follow California’s example with CCPA, brands and publishers will need to find / develop / partner with others to put in place those mechanisms to address both privacy and identity.
6) INFLUENCER MARKETING WILL MATURE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
Consumers are increasingly less responsive to traditional sales and marketing tactics, and instead are prioritizing research, recommendations, and referrals. To align with this change in consumer behavior, enterprises will shift budgets and resources to optimize their partnership channels. Influencer partnerships, for example, will mature as a result with an increased focus on tracking and crediting, commission-based payment models will replace vanity metrics and then Instagram influencers, content creators and the entire long tail can be measured and rewarded for the traffic and sales they actually generate.
