Digital marketing resolutions for 2020 - five steps ahead of the competition

The 2020 trends at a glance:

• User Centricity
  • Respect the user
• Data & Customer Insights
  • Think with data
• Agility and iteration
  • Never stop evolving

The year 2020 has only been upon us for a few days. Some of us have made good resolutions. Others were more realistic and let it go right away.

Not so long ago, virtual reality and voice marketing were pretty crazy ideas, far from effective market deployment. Technological trends are difficult to predict. They often only change certain industries and sometimes disappear as quickly as they appeared. But there are also more long-term developments that will determine the success or failure of companies in 2020.

The most important digital marketing trends 2020 at a glance

User Centricity

We are all becoming more and more critical, our attention is declining, and we are forgiving less and less in view of the countless alternatives. Those who take their customers seriously and manage to establish User Centricity in their organization will be among the sure winners in 2020.

Data & Customer Insights

Data is the gold of the future, because with it we can rely on more than just our gut feeling. Whoever has reliable and unique data and manages to combine, evaluate and enrich it most profitably will win the race in 2020.

Agility and iteration

The pressure in the market is increasing all the time. Not only since Growth Driven Design do we live in a "perpetual beta". No one can afford to stand still in the digital cosmos. Especially not in the year 2020.

For digital success, you have to identify relevant trends early on. By 2020, the number of people who own a cell phone will be greater than the number of people who have running water or electricity at home (source: "Cisco Visual Networking Index" by Cisco, June 2016).

What does this mean for digital marketing? Who will be your target audience in 2020 and who will be your competition? How will your customers interact with your brand and buy your products?

User Centricity - Digital Marketing Trend 2020

Respect the user

Don't panic! You're no different than the rest of us. Time flies, competition grows, and opportunities and tools pop up faster than you can say "GDPR." But there's good news: User Centricity is here to help us all.

The most important facts in brief:

• Fakenews and DSGVO have made people sit up and take notice
• Messages with relevance and simplicity win hearts
• Only those who learn to look at the world through the eyes of their customers earn trust
• UX design helps companies and customers get closer to each other

Customer focus

Customer Centricity is certainly not what you'd expect a revolutionary trend to be in 2020. And yet, a consistent focus on the wants and needs of customers is the biggest differentiator of the coming years.

The advantages of User Centricity are manifold. Nevertheless, many companies still find it difficult to profitably combine the needs of customers with their own corporate goals.

The fact that customer focus is becoming increasingly important in all areas and disciplines such as corporate culture, marketing and communication has to do with further trends. The strengthening of data protection, the end of bullshit marketing and the fight against fakenews, as well as the rise of the Goldfish generation will culminate in 2020.

Last year, the excitement surrounding the GDPR cost us all a lot of nerves. But what started with privacy statements, cookie bars and double opt-ins was only the first warning shot. In 2020, the issue will continue with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA for short - the American light version of the GDPR). Also, the awareness of all users about the handling of their data will certainly increase in the new year. This could soon mean the end for cookies. This could also fundamentally change how U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple want or need to handle user data.

Is your company prepared for this development?

For Swiss companies, the GDPR was both a turning point and a trigger. It was only through the GDPR that many finally took a serious look at the wishes, fears and needs of their customers.

Generation goldfish

The average attention span of an internet user is a record-low 8 seconds (if you the Microsoft study so it's one second less than goldfish). Video content, simplicity, snackable content, short loading times and anything else that makes it quicker and easier for users to solve their problems is becoming more relevant than ever.

At the same time, people are becoming more and more critical, and not just when it comes to disclosing and handling their data. A rougher wind has also been blowing in digital marketing recently. A quarter of Swiss Internet users have an adblocker installed on at least one device. (Source).

If you continue to do digital marketing simply for the sake of marketing, you will find that it is difficult to achieve the goals you have set. At worst, potential customers will be scared away for a long time - if not forever.

The human being in the center

User experience strategy and UX design are two of the emerging fields in the digital cosmos, and not just in 2020.

Only those who understand their customers also understand their own business model. Only those who are able to look at the world through their customers' eyes can also solve their problems and win their trust. Companies that address the wishes, fears and needs of their customers at all touchpoints along the user journey establish successful customer relationships in the long term.

Reliable methods for a customer-centric view include the Customer Centric Business Model and Consumer Closeness Interviews. These models force you to look at your business from the customer's perspective. The Value Proposition Canvas also helps you reflect on your company's offering with the fears, desires and needs of your target group in order to identify possible gaps and potentials.

Those who can implement the resulting measures in a privacy-compliant manner and without annoying pop-ups will not only be among the winners in 2020.

Companies that manage to deeply root User Centricity in their culture will become a unique problem solver and will not be quickly displaced from their pole position.

Here's how:

Data & Customer Insights

Data is the gold of the future, because with it we can rely on more than just our gut feeling. Whoever has reliable and unique data and manages to combine, evaluate and enrich it most profitably will win the race in 2020.