When we welcome a new year, digital marketers need to be on the lookout for patterns that will shape this industry for the next 366 days. For its part, 2019 saw some exciting developments such as the growth of chatbots on websites, as well as rich lead profiling and AI becoming a reality.

No doubt we’re not going to say goodbye to many of the phenomena we’ve seen their rise in 2019, but there’s a big chance that they’ll grow with some of them getting bigger than they were the year before and others are likely to combine to create powerful marketing tools by 2020. Let’s take a look at a couple you need to keep an eye on.

Evolution of Word of Mouth into Influencer Marketing:

Marketing has relied on word of mouth for years to gain brand recognition and now it is changing into something new. Social media has introduced influencers into the world and these can now play a major role in digital marketing. Several brands signed deals with influencers in 2019 and 2020 will likely see even more brands pick up this trend and bottle it up for everything it’s worth. This is really word of mouth marketing but the marketing is done with a bigger and more powerful voice.

Shared Experiences Through Live Stories:

Here’s another phenomenon we can thank for and look forward to seeing social media expand by 2020. So many people go live on social media with a variety of their friends and fans to share their life experiences. It’s a phenomenon now and will be a huge marketing theme in 2020. The way the human mind works is the reason this becomes a large digital marketing tool.

It is a very powerful tool that real people share their experience with a company or a product. Hundreds of businesses are already using this strategy, with influencers coming hand in hand and the effect is massive. This is a phenomenon that could only expand in 2020.

The Rise and Rise of AI:

AI is still a work in progress, but the digital marketing has already had a big impact. Chatbots make it easier for site users to provide assistance round the clock and work is now underway to add emotion to AI. This may take a while to achieve, but we can be sure that 2020 will see AI perform a better analysis of a person’s perception of a brand, if it is negative or positive, for example.

Approximately 80 percent of company executives expect that AI will grow much higher in 2020 and will have a major impact on how they market their products.

Data-Driven Marketing:

Figures aren’t misleading and they’re not about to adjust so you can expect the numbers to push further practice. Each year, more technologies are implemented to help different industries keep up with the numbers and 2020 will be no exception. Digital marketers will be able to make smart decisions with the aid of various tools and test findings.

Increased Mobile Marketing and Purchase:

There was no way these trends would be complete without the addition of what is fast becoming the favorite device for everyone. The use of mobile phones is increasing in leaps and bounds and the world of digital marketing is well aware of that. We’ve seen so many brands still finding new ways to reach people on their mobile phones in 2019. Most of the above patterns are directly affected by the use of the smartphone.