7 Trends in Digital Marketing You Can’t Afford to Ignore in 2019

Digital marketing services is a big picture which includes SEO, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, PPC and many more. It is now witnessing a dramatic shift as we are approaching 2019.

The time is gone when we saw artificial intelligence and visual search we used to watch in movies and they are now coming into reality.

There are a very new variety of digital marketing trends evolving in the current high-tech, continuously connected era and brands now need to use them to succeed in their efforts because what worked for you in recent years may not work in 2019.

We are SocialChamps, a leading digital marketing company and in this post; we are presenting to you the 7 key digital marketing trends to look out for in 2019 and how they can be useful for your brand.

1. The Rise of voice search
   Alexa, find the nearest Uber for me. Hey Siri, when is next Game of Thrones season launching? The increased use of voice search is becoming important for any digital marketing agency and brands to revamp their marketing strategies in 2019.

Half of the searches made online will be with voice by the end of 2020.

1 out of 5 mobile queries is a voice search.

1 out of 4 Bing search is a voice search.

(Source: Singlegrain)

Voice search has an important role in providing all the related information which people are searching for through audio content. AI is getting smarter and the frequency of error made by these voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google has decreased.

Smart speakers like Google Home and Alexa are also on the rise. Right now, almost 39 million Americans are using smart speakers and 65% of them have admitted that they wouldn’t go back to life, where there are no voice-controlled assistants. 

What the Rise of Voice Search Means for Your Business?

Obviously, if your users or customers are adopting the voice search techniques in the forms of voice assistants to find services you are providing, it becomes important for you to optimize your website with Voice Search. And why not? If it is going to help you in the long run, you should adopt it asap. The future of Digital Marketing and consumer behavior is unpredictable, start optimizing your brand website with Voice today!

You can optimize your website content to speak i.e. by implementing content that is appropriate for text to voice conversion. In short by increasing the speakable property through Schema Markup for the website.

2. Live Stream / Video will make much impact.

Here are some numbers that will show why incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy in 2019:

7 out of 10 customers say that they have shared a brand’s video

72% of brands say the video has improved their conversion rate

52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in deciding whether to make an online purchase or not.

(Source: Google)

65% of executives go to the marketers’ websites and 39% make a call to the vendor after watching the video.

It’s not just about YouTube, to witness higher engagement with your video marketing; you can create a video post or start a live broadcast on Facebook, Instagram or even LinkedIn.

Live videos are gaining more popularity, with a large number of businesses using it for product demos, interviews and behind the scenes glimpses of events, culture in the office, how products are made, etc

YouTube and other videos are shown in the SERPs, so video SEO is becoming much more important, just like using text overlays and closed caption, along with your description, title and file names.

How can you use these features for your brand?

‘Going Live’, is the new Mantra for success.
Together with fun stuff, live streaming has got prominence as a marketing tool. As the stats suggest, actual video content is trending the top right now. So, it will be great to start your business’ first broadcast. Live streaming video won’t just grab the attention of new clients but it will also retain existing users with entertainment and well-informed.
Live videos can help businesses and individuals to
  Capture more attention

  More user engagement & live interaction

  Establish brand loyalty

  Render robust reach.

3. AI Powered Solutions

Artificial Intelligence might take over the world. Or at least the simpler jobs in the world.
It can analyze consumer behavior and their search patterns, using data from Social Media platforms and blog posts to help businesses understand how users and customers find their products and services. For example, Facebook messenger bots can help you serve your customers better. Artificial Intelligence can also offer information and tips to users by engaging them in conversations.

According to numbers, there was 2% use of chatbots in 2017, but it will increase up to 25% by the end of 2020. Brands adopting AI in 2019 can save costs and accelerate growth, getting an edge over their competitors.

Why AI-powered solutions are a must for your business?

For business, AI has been around for more than the last 5 years. Many websites have spam filters which automatically decline machine generated spam inquiries. An email service provider like Gmail has its own smart email categorization, voice to text is also a good example of AI into the business. And, many organizations including government are using AI for security surveillance.

We have seen real estate industry adopting AI techniques to display the interior design of the apartment to the buyer right from their own place. So,  this way, AI has its place into our lives already and it is growing.

4. Advertising is going more interactive

Online ads are no doubt changing their face as brand marketers are growing their capabilities and understanding how customers are behaving these days. We have seen Mahindra’s ads in PUBG game, it was a surprise for all the gamers and it created a great buzz in the marketing world. Interactive apps are also making a difference by providing an interactive UI to the users making them personalized and engaging.

Customers can also make the use of Google Lens and find useful information present online.
Just, for instance, there has been a user of this feature where an individual scanned a banana and Google showed him approx. nutritional value of the fruit.

 

5. Augmented and Virtual Realities

Augmented Reality has made advertising interactive, allowing advertisers and marketers to reach out customers in wholly different ways. Numerous companies have already embraced this cutting-edge technology. If you are still not sure whether to go for it or not, you should clearly realize what benefits augmented reality advertising offers and how exactly you can use this tech in real life.

Virtual Reality is a technology that aims at creating an immersive computer-generated experience for the customers through special software and wearable bands and watches. VR replaces customers’ entire surroundings with a complete simulated 3D setting, appealing to eyes and ears.

Why AR / VR is indispensable for your business?

A recent example of Augmented Reality by an international brand in India is IKEA Place which allows customers to place furniture and other products in their own homes with the help of Augmented Reality technology. Here, customers can actually enjoy looking at the furniture they are planning to buy from IKEA virtually.

6. Geo-Targeted Ads Will Become More Popular

What is the fundamental thing in any digital marketing strategy? Showing yourself in the right place at the right time. Other than appearing in the right place, personalization is the future of Digital Advertising. Communicating brand message in users’ own languages is going to make a difference. Also, showing geolocation related content to users in a particular area is also going to help you get more business.

Implementing numerous localized content marketing strategies may be a successful campaign for your brand. Partnering with local influencers as well as running local search ads are also some of the effective ways that will rule 2019.

How can you implement this feature for your brand?

Suppose, your brand is an entertainment aggregator website and you are running ads for the Seattle region. Here, you can showcase all the current plays, movies and cultural programs going on in and near Pune in the Marathi language is going to catch you more audience and apparently more business.

7. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is here for the last half decade but now the trend is going to change in 2019. This is the era of Micro Influencers. Today, many enterprise-level brands are approaching around hundreds of micro-influencers in shape of bloggers, Instagrammers, etc. This way, they could reach more rather than signing up some big-picture celebrity.

So, today, many Instagrammers are getting creative through their posts and photos in order to attract brands. Using micro-influencers may be instinctive but sometimes, it is very useful to ask someone with the small following count to promote your brand. There are many reasons to believe micro-influencers are delivering better results for your brand. In case you have a startup or a small business, micro influencer marketing is going to help you a lot because they provide a rather great hit in similar domain businesses. Read more

Conclusion

Marketing is all about giving customer experience that will please current customers and prospects to choose your brand. 2019 will be dedicated to better customer experience with personalization, AI-powered solutions, and automation, so to stay ahead of the curve and edge on your competitors in the coming year, you will need to get better at producing personalized content- particularly audio-visual content to share with your better-targeted audience.

By Rutvij Joshi on December 31, 2018   /   ChatterBox   /   13 Comments