3 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2020

Happy New Year and welcome to a year of hindsight’s 2020 jokes. Before we jump head first into the new year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on what we learned in 2019, and where that can take us in 2020 for marketing.

1. Consumer privacy matters

In 2019 Safari made the biggest privacy splash by updating (several times) their Internet Tracking Prevention (ITP) policies to aggressively prevent cross-site tracking via third party cookies. But, Firefox also introduced its own version of this, called Enhanced Tracking Protection, and California announced its own version of GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These new policies changed the game for marketers, both in terms of what type of retargeting we can do, and in terms of how we look at our data. Going into 2020, we’re going to need to find the nuance in creating optimal, personal experiences and respecting and protecting customer data.

For more on this, check out this deep dive in Safari ITP, and our webinar about how it affects marketers.

2. Don’t take data accuracy for granted

A lot of brands learned this lesson the hard way, and it comes as a result of Safari ITP in particular, and the necessity for data driven marketing in general. While most marketers are embracing data-driven decision making, we can’t take the accuracy of our data for granted. The key here is not to take segmentation lightly, because when viewed in aggregate your numbers might seem to make sense but actually tell the wrong story.

For example, as SiteSpect Optimization Consultant Paul Terry writes,

“Say a variation is showing flat or negative lifts in KPIs. This could be representative or it could be due to a specific browser or device type that is responding negatively — and differently — than other users. It’s always a best practice, and especially when results are negative or flat, to segment by browser and device type to ensure the averages are relatively uniform.”

In short, though by the start of 2019 we’ve pretty much agreed that data should drive marketing decisions, in 2020 the importance of segmentation and analysis is really going to hit home.

3. Give people an authentic customer experience

We’ve spent the past several years honing our marketing content process, creating brand voices, and giving customers the information they need to make decisions in a saturated marketplace. This year, standout marketing is going to focus on giving an authentic, personal, brand experience. Content isn’t going anywhere, and is still as important as ever in creating brand authority, information, and brand identity. But, as we get more and more sophisticated, we also need to go back to the fundamental personal interactions we have with our customers. The buying experience has to be great.

We have a lot of content on Best Practices for creating the best customer experience, but it boils down to knowing your customer, knowing your brand, and being transparent.

We predict 2020 is going to be about honing in on the information we’ve learned to collect from customers over the last decade, to do it smarter and with the customer’s needs first. If you want to learn more about how SiteSpect can help with that, shoot us a note here.

To learn more about SiteSpect, visit our website.