Keeping up with the ever-changing digital marketing tactics and strategies, analytics, software and technology is essential. If brands don’t do thorough research and remain vigilant, they will simply be left behind.

Some years ago social media changed the digital marketing landscape but, today, there are several more powerful forces at work changing the future of digital marketing tactics and strategies. Time is ticking by as 2020 is not far away and there’s no better time than the present to make a change.

In Part One of Marketing Tactics we discussed some elements of local and International SEO, changes in Click-Through Rates, Content Marketing Funnels, Content Intelligence Platforms, Video Content and Chatbots. Part Two will mainly cover Voice Search and Visual Search with a brief overview of the Types of Online Content, Mobile and Desktop Optimisation and Personalisation.

Introduction To Voice Search

By now, many of you have seen numerous quotes stating, “By 2020, 50% of all searches will be conducted via voice.” Voice search was a hot topic of discussion in 2018 which is when this statement came to be. However, it has subsequently been confirmed that it only referred to voice search in China.

However, there were already many mentions in 2016 of voice search and natural language processing. It’s evident that Google was serious about handling natural language searches better which is where the Hummingbird update came in and that why this forms part of our marketing tactics discussion.

It essentially changed everything about voice search, especially looking at it from a keyword research and optimisation perspective. Not only is voice search capable of answering short, informational queries but it can also process more conversational and custom search queries.

Highly Recommended Article: ‘Tactical Research In A Rankbrain World

Voice Search Capabilities

Google has come a long way since the earlier days and they’re capable of a lot more. Thanks to continuous research and updates, Google understands questions better and can serve more accurate results. While voice search is by no means perfect or at a stage where it will replace desktop or mobile searches, it continues to advance at an impressive rate.

Using digital assistants such as Siri, Alexa, Cortana or Google Assistant, users can find accurate answers to various types of questions. The simple ones are easy like “Who is the actor in Dr Who?” or “What’s the weather in Bristol today?”

The more complex, local, conversational and customised searches maybe something like this:

  • “Where is a coffee shop near me that I can work from today?”
  • “What time do they close?”
  • “Do they serve flavoured lattes?”
  • “Do they have all-day breakfast?”

Marketing Tactics And Voice Search

With these sort of advancements and behaviour, brands must respond and change the way they compile their online content. Instead of focusing on Google’s manual search algorithm, marketers need to optimise their content around answering questions.

Implementing voice search in this way will empower users to get the answers they are after. They can simply ask a question in a conversational tone and receive a high-quality and accurate response. Visitors will get those answers quicker while being able to multi-task while asking questions.

Brands should stop only targeting keywords and start targeting concepts. Rethinking how we do keyword research is knowing the fact that we are no longer bound by exact-matches. Google understands plurals, synonyms, stemming, abbreviations and acronyms.

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Related Article: ‘Google’s Speech Recognition Is Now Almost As Accurate As Humans

What Is Visual Search?

One of the newer marketing tactics is visual search which uses images from the real world for online search queries. This can include screenshots, uploaded photos or Internet images. Today, visual search technologies use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand the content and context of images which enables them to serve a list of relevant results.

In a culture dominated by visual stimuli, it only seems natural that people use images to start an online search. Google, Amazon, Pinterest, Bing and several online retailers have developed their own visual search engines and in the future, we could see this technology be used even more. While the technology is still relatively new, recent trends reveal that it’s gaining ground fast.

Visual Search Engines

Visual search along with voice search has experienced an increase in usage thanks to several quality apps available on mobile. Although starting with simple reverse image search, the technology has now expanded and can provide much more information and context beyond finding an image.

Two leading examples are Pinterest’s and Google’s visual search technologies, Pinterest Lens and Google Lens respectively. Here are a few visual search engines you should try out:

Marketing Tactics And Personalisation

The reason so many visitors never convert into customers could be as a result of a poor marketing strategy. Consumers have become savvier and can ignore content or ads that are not appealing or relevant to them. Traditional advertising is becoming less effective and with that, personalisation will play an even bigger part in 2020.

A survey of 1,000 people indicated that 90% of participants confirmed that personalisation is more appealing. Another telling statistic shows that 80% admitted they would do business with a company that offered them a personalised experience.

Even though email lists have been around for some time, they are perfectly suited to personalisation. Segmenting email lists based on demographics or preferences and sending personalised emails have proven to perform better than generic emails sent to everyone.

Recommended Read: ‘The Secret Formula To Email Marketing
Success

Example Of Personalisation

Businesses are trying to personalise every online and offline customer experience with compelling results. A simple example is Amazon using their knowledge of your online patterns and buying behaviour. They use this data to display relevant information that you want to see which would increase conversions.

Try it out, especially if you’ve shopped online previously and forgot to check out an item. If you’ve purchased furniture or kitchen appliances, you will mostly see ads about those particular items. Same applies to products left in your shopping cart as abandonment emails or notifications are incredibly powerful. If it’s not already, marketing will become a game of personalisation and you need to be ready.

Must Read: ‘How Remarketing Works And Benefits Your Business

Online Content And Marketing Tactics

Creating online content is not only important in terms of knowing what to produce and the primary pain points of the target audience. In fact, you need to know and understand the importance of the content to your own website as well. Let’s take a brief look at pillar content and cornerstone content.

Pillar Content

Pillar content refers to the main sections of your website and is known as the foundation for content marketing. It generally forms part of the main navigation and is vital to the success of your business. In light of what we discussed earlier, pillar content provides a complete answer to any question that someone may have searched for.

Pillar content essentially solves a problem or answers a question combining trustworthy, useful or interesting information. As it relates to business blogging, pillar content is also defined as a series of posts that showcases your best online work. Common examples of pillar content include blog posts and articles but it can also be infographics, videos or other informative pages.

Cornerstone Content

Cornerstone content can be described as large pieces of content that you create to impact your industry. This type of content is as important as your Home, About and Contact Us pages. They are typically your top three to five articles that truly define the main focus of your website. Not only that but they should also be among the top articles you want new visitors to read.

Examples of cornerstone content include major research reports, ultimate guides, e-books, video series, podcasts or a comprehensive compilation of your “best hits”. These content pieces should represent a journey of “how to do something” or “how to make sense of a particular topic’. In terms of length, cornerstone content is usually long-form which means it can be thousands of words.



Mobile and Desktop Optimisation

Regardless of your business type, visitors access your online content from their desktop, mobile or tablets. While mobile-first web design is obviously vital in so many ways, don’t neglect the desktop experience.

Remember, mobile and desktop designs are completely different user experiences. Some elements may work on mobile but look terrible on desktop and vice versa. Instead of focusing on one or the other, put emphasis on creating the best possible customer experience that works on mobile and desktop.

A good example is the ease of scrolling on mobile devices but loading a new page can be an issue. Don’t be afraid to use long pages on mobile but avoid using massive imagery that increases page speed and load times. For desktop, don’t use the same navigation as on your mobile site as it will just cause unnecessary frustrations.

Marketing Trends Part Two Conclusion

Even though Part One and Part Two has now covered some of the marketing tactics likely to feature prominently in 2020, nobody knows exactly what the future holds. It’s an exciting prospect and therein lies the ‘beautiful uncertainty’ of digital marketing tactics and trends.

Just in terms of voice and visual search, a recent Amazon research study states that “by 2021, early adopters of voice and visual search techniques stand to realise a 30% increase in revenue compared to the market at large.”

And, when it comes to content, blogging can make up the cornerstone of your content marketing strategy but you need more content types to increase traffic, generate leads and drive sales. A diverse content marketing strategy is the best option for long-term and sustainable results from your campaigns.

Why Work With WSI eMarketing?

A reputable digital marketing agency can significantly help grow your business while making you stand out in a crowded marketplace. If you want to improve your brand online in 2020 and beyond, don’t try and do it alone. Get in touch with WSI eMarketing for expert digital marketing services to get your business ready for new challenges.

WSI eMarketing is part of a global team with local and international marketing experience. We specialise in several areas from PPC, content marketing and SEO to social media marketing and marketing automation. Our team can help you generate quality leads, put your brand top of mind while remaining up to date with all the latest marketing tactics and marketing trends.

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