Must-Read Marketing Security Trends in 2020
By: Eric Vardon
Tags: Digital Marketing, Artificial Intelligence, Roi, Google Analytics, Marketing Security

I’m sure you’ve heard of marketing technology, or MarTech for short, but is your business aware of marketing security? It’s a new vertical transforming modern business by securing budgets, integrations, customer data, and other sensitive items.

Because, after all, your website and related properties are some of your most valuable assets. Things slip through the cracks, too. You forget about something, scramble to fix it, and then have to come up with an excuse for clients about why it happened.

Staying up to date on these seven marketing security trends will prevent that from happening while maximizing marketing performance and finances.

Check it out.

1. AI-driven cybersecurity

Malware, rogue users, and vulnerable pages are just a few common cybersecurity issues. Wouldn’t it be nice to prevent these issues from happening to begin with? Also, consider that 90% of COO’s admit that they waste millions on inadequate cybersecurity.

This is why artificial intelligence-backed cybersecurity solutions are on the rise. They analyze a company’s properties and behavior to determine any activity that seems suspicious. These items can then be addressed, patching up holes or preventing real threats from elevating.

Most importantly, this technology gives back your time. No need to sit a monitor waiting to tackle problems when software can do it automatically.

2. Optimizing finances with anomaly detection

Most of us do A/B split tests and lengthy experiments to optimize budgets for things like PPC campaigns. We test different audiences, calls to action, copy, and the list goes on. Times are changing, though.

50% of small businesses followed their budget in Q1 and Q2 of 2018, but a whopping 36% went over. Sound familiar? You don’t have to sweat bullets, call a meeting, and start running through spreadsheets to solve this.

Marketing security solutions are capable of finding the most profitable customer profiles, creatives, and other components with anomaly detection.

Let’s imagine that you’re running several Google Ads campaigns. Marketing security platforms will find anomalies ( Data that stands out) which in this case would be ad sets or keywords that are converting higher than expected. You could then focus on these, boosting ROI while spending less on the poor performing campaigns.

I believe that we will see more companies opting for financial automation for this reason. Sure, you can roll up your sleeves and crunch numbers for hours, but why not let a computer (Which is much faster) do it for you?

3. Preventing and fixing human errors (Because they happen)

Accidents happen. Studies have concluded that 25% of data loss in companies is a result of human error. But, there’s no reason to cry over spilled milk.

Digital monitoring solutions are capable of finding all of the small problems we marketers face on a regular basis: not turning on ad campaigns, forgetting to post on social, miscalculating budgets, etc. It’s like having a shot of espresso in the morning-it keeps you sharp and operating better.

After all, these aren’t real issues. It’s the problems they cause after, such as delaying strategies, missing deadlines, and letting down clients.

That’s why monitoring software will be used more often in 2020 to learn how a company operates on a daily basis. What’s normal? What’s not? This data is used to alert marketers when they’ve made a small mistake to fix it and get back to important work.

4. Using real-time data for better decision making

Whether you’re securing the ROI of a marketing campaign or studying customer behavior, the fresher the data, the better. Because a small delay can make a big impact on decision making and business performance.

Real-time data is one way this problem is being solved.

Traditionally, most companies rely on batched analytics. Google Analytics is a great example. They’re awesome tools and need to be used, but marketers are relying on them completely.

This can delay client reporting, marketing strategies, or capitalizing on lucrative opportunities.

Live data, on the other hand, gives you real-time insight into what’s happening with you or a client’s business. This can be used to make faster optimizations and swat away bugs sooner.

It’s also one of the reasons big data is growing at such a rapid rate; the market size is expected to reach $103 billion by 2027.

More companies are realizing the importance of fresh data and it’s proper application. That brings me to my next point.

5. Forecasting with predictive analytics

Do you ever worry about the future of your business? You’re not alone.

David Stevens, the senior advisor at Deloitte Private Consulting, commented on the typical startup’s issue of longevity saying “Founders are terrific visionaries. They can see a future for their product or service but they often struggle with the realities of running a business. Their focus on the art of the possible can overlook the mundane, and they might not realize the regulations they’re going to face.”

It’s very easy to focus on the short term and small wins-which you need-but having a longterm plan rooted in concrete is crucial for success. That’s where predictive analytics comes into our list of marketing security trends.

Real-time data tells you what’s happening now. But, predictive analytics lets you see it in the future. You can prevent security mishaps and set up campaigns to excel ahead of time.

This machine learning-driven technology analyzes your company against previous data to create accurate forecasts on customer lifetime value, segments, risk modeling, and more.

For example, marketers can use technology to prevent churn and analyze when customers tend to drop off. Is it after one month? After viewing a demo? Predictive analytics will forecast signs of dissatisfaction, exit points, and creates the opportunity to improve the customer experience.

6. Compliance isn’t going anywhere

Remember the boom of GDPR compliance? It seems like you can’t visit a website today without being asked if you accept your cookies being collected. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Companies need to become aware of other ways they must remain compliant in 2020 to improve the usability of their website while making the internet a better place. One of which is ADA compliant.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was established in 1999 to help improve the usability of facilities for people with disabilities. Think of automatic doors and wheelchair ramps, for example. Many companies don’t realize that their website needs to be compliant, as well.

Luckily the ADA and similar institutions didn’t leave us hanging. They provide thorough lists of steps you can take to become compliant. These include:

Screen keyboards Increaseable font size Zoomable pages Audio versions of the content Alternative text Contrasting colors Eye-sight movement

Neil Patel, one of the world’s top digital marketers, is a prime example of this. In the click of a button, his users can adjust anything from font size, text alignment, preventing animations and more.

However, you don’t need to invest in developing features like this because you can check your website’s compliance by following the next steps.

Testing your website’s compliance

Use the free WAVE web accessibility tool to determine how accessible your website is.

Begin by entering the URL of your website into the search bar.

This will give you an in-depth analysis of the accessibility of your website, including contrast errors, missing alt text, and more. Many of these are quick fixes, too.

Click the “Details” tab to receive a full breakdown of what the tool discovered. There are also visual cues overlayed on the website preview screen to show you directly where improvements can be made.

7. More optimized tool stacks

More tools, more problems. Marketers commonly use several different solutions for individual tasks. This means that they’re paying more money, juggling platforms, and spending extra time managing these tools. In fact, 40% of employees say that they’ve lost productivity from multitasking.

That’s why more companies need to opt for all-in-one solutions, or at minimum, trim the fat by using less software. Take a hard look at all of the tools you use. I’m sure they have many overlaps. Could you remove one and use similar features in another?

For instance, perhaps you’re using a CRM like HubSpot but invest in another email marketing software. Technically you could make your team’s life easier by moving everything over to HubSpot because it’s capable of doing email campaigns, followups, and what you’re getting out of email solutions.