At the start of 2020 and the new decade attention naturally turns to the trends that will be the drivers of influence over the next 12 months and beyond. Communications trends are constantly evolving, changing the way we work. Here are six trends likely to gain increasing relevance.

 

  • Personalisation

 

Personalisation is critical. As message clutter grows across digital channels, companies need to capture and keep audience attention. Leveraging master data to build more complete profiles of customers’ needs, desires and preferences, and matching profiles with appropriate ads and content is a growing trend. These efforts can clearly increase website traffic.

Personalisation also extends to the way communications professionals interact with media. With publishers downsizing and outsourcing editorial, it’s important to reach out to the right contacts. It’s all about developing meaningful relationships and approaching media contacts with individual pitches and angles that will inspire quality coverage.

 

  • Authenticity

 

The term “fake news” has been talked about a lot over the past few years. People have become increasingly skeptical of content they click on online and the motivations of the person writing it.

Whether you’re communicating with an internal or an external audience, it’s important to be authentic in your communications and to be open, accountable and transparent about the information that is being imparted. This is essential to build and maintain trust.

And if people find your brand to be dishonest it will be very hard to overcome that reputation. Internally, this is disastrous for employee morale and staff retention.

  • AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is only going to strengthen and evolve at an ever-faster pace. It’s all about the consumer, and the consumer not only demands, but expects to receive relevant, personalised content at the right time and in the right place. They expect immediate response times. AI can work faster and smarter and can react 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  

  • Podcasting

For a long time it seemed that video was a must. However, audio is re-emerging as a preferred method of communications for many people.

The increasing popularity of podcasts and audio books show that many people prefer listening to and receiving information in this format. This might be in a car while driving, putting headphones on for the bus or train trip to and from work, or just listening to information while working at their desk.

Many people find video content distracting, over-stimulating and hard to keep up with while multitasking, but audio content works on many levels.

Instead of a video message from your CEO next time that relies on many visual cues, make time for a podcast or other audio file – it may get better traction.

  • Data, Data, Data

New data-gathering and analytics functions are a powerful way for communicators to monitor, manage and adjust their communications campaigns. 

Before the rise of analytics, communications professionals often had to depend on less reliable feedback mechanisms to determine how effective their communications efforts were.

In 2020, this data driven trend will continue to assist communicators to guide their internal and external communications campaigns and measure their impact and effectiveness.  The availability of more accurate and immediate data assists corporate communications professionals to devise, deliver, tailor and target their campaigns and better evaluate their results. 

  • Collaboration


The rise of collaboration tools is having a transformative influence on ways of working. As a result, teams no longer need to be in the same location, city or country to work closely together.

The way that human beings communicate with each other has probably changed more in the last decade than it has in our entire history. 

As Millennials and Generation Z make up a growing and substantial portion of the workforce, more traditional forms of communication are being replaced with mobile technology.

If companies want to recruit the next generation of workers, they’ll have to be able to give them an employee experience that mirrors their digitally connected personal lives.