The digital marketing industry is constantly changing and evolving, new things are coming our way constantly. If you are not aware of the current trends in the industry you might be losing out on a lot of things that can help your business or your brand reach a new growing audience.  There are a lot of trends in the digital marketing industry but in this blog post, I am going to share my view and opinion about the most important things that are going to shape digital marketing in 2020 and what I believe is going to be the most popular. Voice search  Everyone is talking about voice search and that you should start optimising your website to include voice search. That was a digital marketing trend of 2019 and in my opinion, your website should be optimised for long-tail keywords which work great with voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Home. Nevertheless, a lot of people are saying that voice search is going to be relevant again in 2020 and I think the same, a well-optimised website should be found and rank on either voice or good old manual query search. Users ask more direct queries, to get more relevant answers, this is where long-tail keywords in your content come in handy. Using these keywords helps increase the chances of your content ranking in voice search engine result pages. Smart bidding Smart bidding strategies are going to be mainstream in 2020 in the digital marketing industry mostly on Google Ads. Google has already changed all the bidding strategies on its platforms to include smart bidding where conversion tracking is installed correctly. Smart bidding uses machine learning to recognise and analyse different signals in order to determine if a user is going to make a conversion, that enables the bidding to be higher or lower, based on the outcome. Smart bidding is going to evolve with the help of AI in 2020 and more marketers are going to use it instead of manual or enhanced bidding on Google Ads, it is surely one of the most interesting of the digital marketing trends. Animation 2020 is going to be the year of animation. You can use animated videos to share a story or explain the purpose of a product. Animated videos are eye-catching and users engage more with video and animated images. Animations can increase a user’s engagement with a business or a brand by: Boosting social media engagement  Creating explainer videos that engage even the laziest of buyers  Increasing brand awareness with ad-recall Improving search engine rankings 95% of people have watched a video explaining their products or services, businesses who use animated video share personalised stories, challenges, and successes. All of which helps to humanize the brand, connect with their target audience, form authentic relationships, and grow their business. Animations are going to be widely used in 2020 by more and more marketers and business and why not, the benefits of using animation are great. SEO A

SEO can be a daunting and time-consuming task, and often most businesses have don’t have the budget to invest in their digital marketing activities but that shouldn’t stop you from improving your website’s ranking. Google offers a simple yet powerful way to improve your rankings through Google My Business. What is the Google My Business profile? First things first, Google My Business is a free tool offered to business owners to help them manage how a business appears on Google’s search results. You can include relevant information that users will use to search for businesses, for example location and contact details. If you own a business, you should definitely set up an optimised Google My Business listing and we’re going to explain how to do that in this blog. Step one – create, claim or verify your Google My Business profile Let us start with the basics, the first thing to do is to create a listing or claim and verify your existing one, all of which can be done via this page. Start filling in all the relevant details for your business which are listed below: Business information An optimised Google My Business listing has all the below information filled in and updated on a regular basis including: Your business name Enter your business name as it appears everywhere else, this needs to be consistent across all channels so you can be found online from potential customers. Category You can choose one primary category for your business and another nine relevant categories, be as specific as possible about what your business is about. Address Enter and verify your physical address so potential customers can find you on local search results. There is also the options for those that haven’t got a physical location as well as for businesses that have multiple service locations. Phone number Include your phone number so that potential customers can call your business and if you are a local business customers feel more comfortable if they see a local number. Website Update your website information if you have one so that you can drive traffic to it and customers can learn more about your business. Opening hours Another important aspect of optimising your Google My Business listing is having the correct opening times on your listing and keeping them up to date on upcoming holidays. This is very important if you are a restaurant for example, where customers are searching for opening hours to visit you. Business summary This is where add further information about your business, products or services. Consider using your company’s elevator pitch so that potential customers can know what your business is all about, just don’t forget to use relevant to your industry keywords in that description. Step two – include company updates and news Google My Business listing offers something called Google posts, where managers of the listing can post updates about upcoming events, promotions, newsletters, news and blog posts. Google posts appear on Google search on the business knowledge

We were joined by digital marketing student, Hitam Hassan last for her work experience placement. Hitam worked alongside our digital marketing specialist, Tony and has written a blog on her experience with us. My name’s Hitam and I’m currently studying digital marketing at Birmingham City University. I recently completed a work experience placement at Digital Glue. During my time there, I’ve learnt so much about digital marketing and really enjoyed my time in the office, working with the Digital Glue team. I’d say getting work experience is incredibly important when you’re working towards a specific career. It looks good on your CV and puts you ahead of the game when you start a new job because you’ve already got the skills and experience from your placement. You will perform confidently as you will understand the aspects of the role you’re there to do. What I love about being on a work placement is that I get to learn and put my skills into practice, creating pieces of work which is a much more enriching experience. Here’s a snapshot of what I got to experience… On my first day I had a meeting with Tony, Digital Glue’s PPC and SEO expert. He wanted to find out what I already knew about digital marketing and we discussed what key areas I wanted to learn more about. Tony was my mentor for the week so I was given a desk right opposite him so that I could work with him. Once I was settled in I was introduced to the whole team. Every Tuesday, Digital Glue has a team meeting where the Managing Director, Javan, gives everyone an update on how the business is doing and the team share their successes, which was really nice to see. Everyone also shares what their key focus is for the week. It was really interesting to be apart of this because it gave me insight into what everyone does in the business, it was like a family-like workplace environment. They also had team lunch on Tuesday, where the company treats everyone to a nice lunch every fortnight and we all sit and eat together. Over the next few days I learnt how to manage Google Ads accounts for existing clients, set up a new account from scratch and create ads for Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. I didn’t realise how many factors there are to consider when creating ads, such as including the right keywords that you want to rank for, testing ads to check which one is performing better and on which platform, as well as monitoring the competition. During my placement, I needed some help coming up with some ideas for my University assignment so the team suggested we have a brain storm session, they spared time out of their busy schedule to have a meeting to discuss my brief and come up with ideas, just as they would do for a real client, it was a great experience. Getting first hand experience of working

Courtney Patrick is the Head of Creative and Web at Digital Glue. With a background in strategic branding, she brings a keen eye to the team in helping businesses of all sizes and sectors differentiate themselves from the crowd and align their team to create consistently amazing brand experiences online and in person. You can find out more about Courtney and connect with her on LinkedIn here. A fresh start isn’t just reserved for January, and it could not be more fitting that my time at Digital Glue starts during my favourite time of year: Christmas. As a US expat, you learn that in the UK there are a few things that are synonymous with Christmas: turkey, brussel sprouts, the infamous pudding, German markets, and, of course, the Christmas adverts. When the festive period rolls around, TV just wouldn’t be the same without Moz The Monster, Buster The Boxer and The Man On The Moon, however, it isn’t just John Lewis that steals the show when it comes to a winning Christmas campaign. Brands from every background strive to bring customers on an emotional journey in the hope it will ultimately bring them through their doors, both physically and online. With a background in brand strategy, I think the idea behind the Christmas advert is great. Christmas is the ideal time of year for your brand to reinforce the greater purpose behind what you do outside of selling. However, what should be an accessible opportunity for businesses of every size has now become overshadowed by big advertising budgets and celebrity spotlights. The reality is that Christmas, and the entire holiday season, is one of the most important times for your brand to build better connections with your customers. Whether it’s bringing in new faces, re-engaging old connections, or strengthening your existing relationships, Christmas provides a platform for your brand to reinforce the great purpose underpinning everything you offer. In short, if you can’t build a personal connection with your customers at Christmas, then when can you? How do you build a winning Christmas campaign on a budget? 1. Start with clarifying your brand’s story By now, you’ve probably seen the concept of having a clear ‘why’ come across your LinkedIn feed a few times thanks to the brilliant Simon Sinek. It isn’t just for show, there’s a reason why this is so important. Your ‘why’ should be the driving force that differentiates your business from the masses and sets out clear customer promises. This purpose is the foundation for everything you do and say as a brand, and should be the foundation of your overall brand story and your Christmas campaign. You can read more about brand purpose in our previous blog “What’s a brand without a purpose?”. What does that look like in action? Let’s say you’re an ice cream shop that’s overall brand purpose is providing customers better access to tasty low calorie options. You could take inspiration from Kevin the Carrot and craft a very compelling story