He has also spoken in front of 30,000+ audiences across the globe in 75+ events. Of the various topics, these are some of the most popular and sought after topics wherein Ananth has been a speaker:
The first and foremost thing we need to know about digital marketing trends in 2020 is that, it shouldn’t be just digital tool or website or app or technology driven. It needs to be focused on customer experience and journey at every stage.
It doesn’t matter if you are creating content every single day.
Unless, that content is truly relevant and valuable for your end users, customers, prospects, it isn’t going to deliver the ROI for your digital marketing strategy.
So the first key focus is to ensure your core keywords, key phrases (now it is important to note that, these are not words about your brand name or product name). These should be, more of a generic keyword that users online will be searching for. Those keywords when optimised will enable you to be on top and dominate google search and other page ranking results (SERP) search engine results pages.
Investing in search engine optimisation (SEO) for organic reach and search engine marketing (SEM) using paid ads like Google Adwords is a good start.
Similarly, more and more users are shifting to voice based searches. With voice search devices like Google Home, Alexa, Google Assistant, Amazon Echo, Siri via iPhone, Macbooks, iPad, Microsoft Cortana etc gaining more prominence and newer customers, voice search will surely dominate 2020.
So it is crucial to have your content optimised for voice based searches too.
2) Platforms relevance:
The plan or strategy (our views: A general idea of how this has worked for us and for our clients across industries and countries as a digital agency over the past 10 years) with personalised tweaks for both, digital marketing and social media too depending on your goals, industry and demographics.
IP: Intellectual properties like website, apps, your trademark / copyright content etc, ROI: Return on Investment, SEO: Search engine optimisation
Many a times, brands simply create profiles and accounts on social networking platforms just because everyone seems to be doing so.
In the year 2020, as a digital marketer and as a brand, you need to be well aware whether being on that platform will really be a valuable differentiator and will your customers appreciate that time, effort and resource.
On similar lines, interactive content will be the key differentiator to not only how but also which users / demographics really engage and consume your content.
Do not jump to social networking platforms just because everyone seems to be there. For example, ask yourself, do my users really use platforms like TikTok? Is Facebook the right social platform for my prospects to reach out to me? Will LinkedIn be right for my industry? Will instagram make sense to my end users? Just because a social networking site is gaining or has gained millions of followers, it’s not necessarily the right platform your brand or industry.
So, when you talk about platform relevance and interactivity for your content and end users, as a responsible digital marketer, ask yourself these three questions: a) Does this platform attract my customers and prospects?
c) Chatbots and Automation: As a digital marketing professional, do you need to create real-time updates and push content across specific targeted users on few platforms or can you automate my messaging and have chatbots that can engage with users? This is a crucial question when it comes to platforms.
Some platforms and types of industries will need you to ensure as a professional digital marketer that you have real people responding and at times, with experience and digital marketing campaign success over the years, or as seasoned digital marketers, you can plan engagement with end users based on “what feedback” or “what response” will the customers give and “what reply” or “how soon” will they expect a customized or personalised response from the organization.
Your digital marketing efforts needs to clearly define whether your brand needs to generate that content in real-time or you would be more benefited if your end users do it on their own.
Which is what happens in the case of user generated content driven social media or digital marketing campaign. In this case, you need to incentivise them in a way that will encourage them to talk positively about your brand based on their actual experiences with your products, services and organization.
Prior to planning, diving deep into your analytics can help you plan and design the same very effectively.
The more precise your analytics and tracking is, the better your digital marketing results will be.
In other words, ROI will be a defining factor for digital marketers and user responses in terms of clear call to action in the form of sales, leads, enquiries, downloads, subscriptions, email newsletter subscriptions, video views, check-in, online purchases, on-site visits, foot traffic to stores etc and similarly for brands too.
So using, blogging, content marketing, SEO, Pay Per Click for ads, AI, VR, IoT, Machine learning, Big Data, influencer marketing, live streaming events, video content, interactive and engaging content, social media contests, gamification strategies, social media optimization, email marketing, etc are various ideas and strategies with which you can plan and truly dominate your digital marketing success for 2020.
