Get All Access for $5/mo

Five Tips For Improving Marketing Strategies In 2020 Developing a future-proof and digital-forward marketing strategy means keeping upcoming trends at its very core.

By Lama Abdelbarr

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Shutterstock.com

One of the key steps for developing a future-proof and digital-forward marketing strategy is to keep upcoming trends at its very core. Talkwalker and Hubspot have co-authored a report outlining the key trends for 2020 by consulting industry experts and social media gurus. Here are five tips to help you leverage these trends when putting together your 2020 marketing strategy:

1. Change your mindset about artificial intelligence (AI)

The AI fearmongering is widespread. Based on Talkwalker data, there have been more than 4.7 million mentions of artificial intelligence in the first half of 2019, and 50% of emotion around them has been negative. Understandably- as people are worried about losing their jobs to automation. However, this challenge presents an opportunity. If marketers start embracing AI, and integrating it into their marketing strategies, they can free up their time from a lot of the tedious tasks, and spend more time doing what humans do best. Interpreting the data that is collected and segmented by AI can make or break a marketing strategy. By having a deep understanding of how AI can be used to empower marketing efforts, then adding the human touch of leveraging data to engage communities using human connections and emotions, marketers can future-proof their strategies for 2020 and beyond.

2. Keep customer data privacy a priority

Social media has suffered a trust issue in the last few years, due to two major issues: data privacy and disinformation. If your brand has suffered a similar issue, your 2020 marketing strategy should tackle it, and center on rebuilding brand trust. If your brand hasn't suffered a data privacy issue, that certainly doesn't mean you shouldn't be focusing on data privacy either. Tread the line between data privacy and hyper-personalization very carefully. The privacy paradox shows that consumers have less trust in brands when it comes to data privacy, but are still more likely to give companies data in exchange for more personalized services. Harness the power of AI and advanced analytics when building your social media strategy to select relevant data that would resonate with your audience in a meaningful and non-intrusive manner.

3. Boost user experience through augmented and virtual reality

As Mariano Bosaz, Vice President of Digital Transformation at The Coca-Cola Company puts it, brands need to be relevant to a generation that doesn't see a line between "the online world and the offline, the reality and the augmented reality." Indeed, augmented reality and virtual reality are set to take 2020 by storm. AR will be integral technologies to boosting traditional retail experiences and engaging customers on-ground and VR will be essential for boosting these experiences online. Definitely a technology to consider investing in- in ways that are relevant to your brand and industry.

Related: The How-To: Marketing Your Mobile Game To The MENA Region

4. Understand that your audience changes. (All the time.)

What worked last year, won't necessarily work this year. Changes in the market and in the technological landscape are changing the way audiences are reacting to advertising. According to Talkwalker, the conversational data around advertising has dropped significantly in net sentiment over the past year, whereas new methods like voice search and social media e-commerce are driving more conversations (172,000 and 226,000 mentions respectively). Your marketing strategy needs to be adapting to these changes and changing with them. That could mean switching from search engine advertising to more social-led marketing or voice search. It could also mean harnessing the latest updates that social media platforms, such as Instagram, have introduced to facilitate in-app shopping.

5. Incentivize your community to create content

Building an engaged online community is only the first step and -arguably- the hardest one. Brands need to leverage that hard work by incentivizing their communities to create content for them. 90% of purchasing decisions are led by user-generated content (UGC). Consumers are more likely to trust a regular person that they can relate to more than the brand itself or a celebrity endorsing the brand. It therefore comes as no surprise that UGC generates 6.9 times the engagement that brand-created content does. When putting together your marketing strategy, think about the incentives you can provide to your community to encourage them to create content. Whether it's a product discount, a prize, an exclusive event invitation, or just the sense of community and belonging, make the incentive stand out, and make it shareable! Don't forget to then use the content, and share it effectively to further engage your online audience.

Related: Boosting Online Retail In The Middle East With Video Marketing

Lama Abdelbarr

Digital Communications Lead - Middle East & Africa, Talkwalker

Lama Abdelbarr leads on digital communications for Middle East & Africa at Talkwalker.

Talkwalker is a media monitoring and analytics company that empowers over 2,000 brands and agencies to optimize the impact of their communication efforts. Currently, they are the only media monitoring platform that analyzes videos- using Talkwalker, brands can get a 360° dynamic brand view with image, video, and text analysis in one easy-to-use, powerful platform. The platform provides users with access to data across traditional, social, and digital channels globally and covers regional languages, including English, Arabic, French, Hindi, Urdu, and Tagalog. Talkwalker’s proprietary image and video recognition technology gathers 250% more brand mentions than traditional print and online monitoring.

Talkwalker has offices in New York, Luxembourg, San Francisco, Frankfurt, and Singapore. It is also the home of Talkwalker Alerts, a free alerting service used by over 500,000 communications and marketing professionals worldwide.

Legal

The 10 Key Legal Documents for Your Business

Entrepreneurs are not paperwork-sorts of people but some things just have to be written down and signed.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Marketing

How to Meet Customers At Their Pain Points

The more you know why something's a pain point, the more you can tailor your marketing solutions.

Side Hustle

'Hustling Every Day': These Friends Started a Side Hustle With $2,500 Each — It 'Snowballed' to Over $500,000 and Became a Multimillion-Dollar Brand

Paris Emily Nicholson and Saskia Teje Jenkins had a 2020 brainstorm session that led to a lucrative business.

Thought Leaders

How to Identify the Pain Points That Make Customers Decide What They're Going to Buy

To know your prospects' emotional buying decisions and their pain points is to know success.

Side Hustle

At Age 15, He Used Facebook Marketplace to Start a Side Hustle — Then It Became Something Much Bigger: 'Raised Over $1.6 Million'

Dylan Zajac, now a 21-year-old senior at Babson College, wanted to bridge the digital divide.