The 6 Most Important Inbound Marketing Trends You Need to Know in 2020

Inbound marketing is an effective strategy for generating traffic, leads, and authority. In fact, 75% of marketers believe that their inbound strategy is producing noticeable results.

However, inbound marketing changes and moves just like any other industry. Not keeping up to date on what works may decrease the effectiveness of campaigns. That’s why we’ve put together this list of the most important 2020 inbound marketing trends.

1. Voice search is on the rise

20% of all searches are done through voice according to Google. This can also be seen through the use of Alexa, Siri, and other voice-activated devices that are on the rise.

However, what does this mean for professionals and marketers? It’s going to change how marketers perform keyword research when optimizing for search engines. You need to target full sentences and questions versus choppy and blocky phrases.

Traditionally, SEO keywords are sometimes unnatural phrases that have to be placed perfectly to appear human. For instance, “Best New York digital agency” would be turned into “What is the best digital agency in New York?” There’s a clear differentiation between how a user would type a query into a browser versus speak it.

2. Video marketing is still powerful

Video remains one of the most effective forms of content to produce in 2020. Video content can be produced on a multitude of platforms, as well. These include Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This creates the opportunity to take a single piece of content and promote it for maximizing reach. There are many options for creating videos, such as:

• Tutorials
• Case studies
• Customer stories
• Informational videos
• Vlogs

3. Podcasting is powerful

Similar to videos, podcasting is another form of convenient content that’s on the rise. It requires minimal equipment to begin outside of topic ideas and a microphone. There are many free recording tools to create and edit episodes, too.

70% of American’s know what a podcast is. With the rise of platforms like Spotify, Soundcloud, and Google Play, this shouldn’t be very surprising. Companies can upload episodes to any platform and connect the RSS feed to others. This automatically syndicates the latest episode to every platform, automating the process.

4. AI and machine learning

There’s no shortage of technologies that organizations adopt to improve their inbound marketing. While many focus on CRM, automation, and similar, another is emerging quickly: artificial intelligence.

AI has the potential to learn how a company operates to find optimizations, tweaks, and anomalies. That branch specifically is called machine learning. This ultimately saves marketers from having to monitor and find these discoveries manually.

In particular, there’s AI marketing software on the market that improves SEO, content marketing, email marketing, and more. These automate processes, create split tests, and find more efficient approaches.

5. Don’t forget about email marketing

Email marketing may be decades old, but it’s still effective and should remain a part of every company’s inbound marketing funnel. There are plenty of platforms that enable businesses to collect subscribers through forms, send newsletters, segment audiences, and create drip campaigns.

This allows an organization to keep in touch with leads, touching base, sharing content, and nurturing a relationship. Furthermore, they can capture users before they leave so it maximizes website ROI.

6. Influencer marketing

40% of millennial consumers trust influencer recommendations over those from friends. Brands and notable figures have this type of large impact because of their authority, trust, and thought leadership. It’s also the reason companies need to continue investing in influencer marketing throughout 2020.

While Instagram was, and is still, one of the main hubs of influencer marketing, YouTube is growing rapidly, as well. Both of these channels allow brands to collaborate and have one promoted to a massive targeted audience.

There are inbound marketing platforms like BuzzSumo that allow users to sign up and connect directly with industry influencers. You can message these figures and measure campaigns directly through these tools. Ensure a relationship is created in which both parties benefit mutually from working with one another.

Conclusion

Inbound marketing is as powerful as ever. Companies can leverage it for gaining authority, organic traffic, and high-quality leads. Nonetheless, they must remain modern for it to have its full effect.

This begins with optimizing for voice searches by using complete and natural keywords. These can be placed on company websites, social profiles, and review sites.

Podcasts and videos are two formats organizations can implement into their content strategy, as well. Both could be uploaded to a multitude of platforms, achieving an omnichannel effect and maximizing exposure.

Artificial intelligence is making an impact within the inbound marketing space by offering automation, live data, and deep insights. Adopting this technology may result in cost and time savings along with performance increases.

Lastly, two previously popular channels—email and influencer marketing—need to remain within your inbound strategy. These empower a brand to nurture relationships and get placed in front of a larger audience.