Are you planning your 2021 digital marketing?

1.Messaging Goes Mainstream

While email will still be a crucial way for brands to speak with customers, other modalities will see sharp increases in 2020, especially SMS and Messenger/WhatsApp. While these communication methods are already massively popular in other parts of the planet, US and Canada will begin to catch up this year, as brands seek to spice up open and interaction rates by changing communication vehicles.

The long-standing avoidance of using SMS because it’s “too invasive” is falling away, and therefore the rumored merger or combination of Messenger and WhatsApp into a WeChat-style messaging powerhouse is going to be the catalysts for this trend. Already, DTC e-commerce brands are taking advantage of those opportunities. More organizations will quickly follow, as long as consumers are signaling a willingness (desire), even to speak outside of email, and as long as the technological complexity and price are relatively modest.

2. Brands got to Meet Consumers’ Continued Need for Immediate Information

The internet has given us the amazing ability to realize access to more information and data than ever before. Because of our beloved mobile devices, we will get that information anytime we would like, regardless of where we are or what we’re doing.

Unfortunately for brands, meaning they now need to provide immediate information and answers to each customer question, anytime they need, regardless of where they're or what they’re doing. That demand is merely getting to intensify in 2020, as seen by a recent Google report showing that “best” and “right now” mobile queries have grown by over 125% within the last two years, and “where to buy” and “near me” mobile queries have grown by over 200%.

3. Standards Are Being Raised in Privacy and Digital Wellbeing

Last year, people made 2.5 billion visits to their Google account pages where they will view or adjust how their ads are displayed. 1 in 3 Americans have taken steps to enhance their digital well-being within the past year, and 80% said this had a positive impact on their overall wellbeing. YouTube has delivered over 1 billion “take a break” reminders since the feature was introduced last year.

In 2019, it became evident that user privacy, trust, and well-being go hand-in-hand with effective advertising. To achieve success, marketers got to work to win people’s trust by raising industry standards and providing more tools and insights to assist them to manage their digital wellbeing.

4. Content Inclusivity Across Digital Touchpoints Is Gaining Momentum

Making the online more inclusive and accessible is gaining momentum. Updated web page Accessibility Guidelines released in 2018 began to get real traction within the past year as web developers and UX designers began to maneuver faraway from the “one-size-fits-all” mindset that has been pervasive until recently.

The WCAG standards are structured in four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. A framework that has 13 guidelines fall within these principles. Though not explicitly, these guidelines are moving beyond websites to incorporate additional content types, including the videos and graphics most ordinarily found on social media. Adding captions on all video content and descriptive captions as alt-text for images is already becoming commonplace for social media content creators — yet there are more steps to incorporate for creating and publishing new social content which will be inclusive and accessible.

More than 285 million people within the world have visual impairments, and, in 2018, Instagram made improvements to form it easier for people with impairments to use the platform. Creating all content, whether, on websites, email, social media, and voice, to WCAG standards helps makes content more accessible to a good range of individuals with disabilities. It also helps the older generations (and, truly, everyone) by making content more usable.

5. Teams got to Become Fluent in Interpreting and Collecting Useful Data

As we still move towards a more trackable and measurable digital marketing environment, marketing teams have the chance to find out, understand, and predict the behaviors of their audiences more accurately than ever. 81% of marketers expect the bulk of their decisions are going to be data-driven by 2020, consistent with Gartner’s 2018 Marketing Analytics Survey. The disconnect is that a lot of teams have found their skillsets misaligned with this new reality over the last several years.

As we enter 2020, the truth is that it's not optional for marketing teams to be good at understanding data. It's absolutely vital that each one marketing teams become well-versed in data storytelling and interpretation.

6. Gathering 1st Party Customer Data Is Becoming Increasingly Important

As Europe’s General Data Protection has given thanks to more Internet privacy regulations just like the California Consumer Privacy Act, brands will need to put even more emphasis on collecting and utilizing customers’ first-party data.

The paradigm has begun to shift within the last few years as, until recently, third-party data (for example, data like your MasterCard purchases that come from a knowledge aggregator sort of a DMP) was highly utilized both for media targeting and other marketing executions.

Privacy regulation is now increasingly forcing brands to place a greater emphasis on first-party data acquisition and utilization – which isn't only a requirement but also good for business and therefore the consumer.

In fact, consistent with a March survey of digital buyers in North America conducted by Vision Critical, 80.1% of respondents said they might be comfortable sharing personal information directly with a brand for the needs of personalizing marketing messages. But just 16.7% said they might be comfortable with sharing this sort of data through third parties.

7. Voice-Activated Content Will Increase in Popularity

Voice is that the new interface that soon will surround us in many places and lots of ways. Voice content for Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Samsung devices is being developed by brands large and little.

We’re building voice-activated content strategies for our clients here at Convince & Convert — helping them cash in of this fast-growing consumer interaction opportunity (for more on what we neutralize voice content, see Why The Time is Now for Voice-Activated Content).

Voice-activated content via smart speakers and other devices is an early-stage, emerging field. Yet, the rapid adoption of those devices suggests that voice will still grow as an interaction ecosystem.

To see an example of our own voice-activated content, inspect our Holiday Hit History. If you've got Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant devices, enable the “Holiday Hit History” skill/app for a special surprise from me and Convince & Convert. attend HolidayHitHistory.com if you would like instructions. I worked on this with our team and am super pleased with the result!

8. The Already Trendy Chatbot Will Get Trendier and supply Even More Interactive Options

According to Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Consumer” report in 2019, 77% of consumers say chatbots will transform their expectations of companies within the next five years.

Their usage has already begun to explode and therefore the depth of interactivity within them will imitate. Consumers will welcome having the ability to use their voice to speak with chatbots versus typing alone, and people who actually need to urge their message across using video will find they’ll have that option also. Here’s an excellent example of this technology already in use.

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