Whenever someone asks me about how will Digital Marketing shape up in 2019, I recall the the plot of the famous movie series ‘Hunger Games’.
A bunch of kids fighting for their lives in a constantly changing environment. You either adapt to what’s currently happening or you die.
Analogy explained above might be an exaggeration.
But the fact remains that our industry is evolving like crazy. Technologies released within the past few years are already strongly affecting the market. Companies providing innovations are appearing at a faster pace than ever, disrupting the advertising world as we know it. As 2019 approaches, the digital marketing landscape that encompasses the likes of SEO, social media, PPC, content marketing and much more is an eyewitness for this dramatic shift.
There may have been a time when you could’ve dismissed artificial intelligence or visual search as gimmicks from the latest blockbuster science fiction film, but that time is long gone. Whatever industry you are in, here are few key trends that are bound to play an indispensable role in your Digital Marketing Strategy for 2019 :
1. Artificial Intelligence : Artificial intelligence is set to take over the world and many of the simpler jobs!. AI can analyze consumer behavior and search patterns, utilising data from social media platforms and blog posts to help businesses understand how users and customers find their products and services. Artificial intelligence also offers information and tips to users by getting into conversations.
According to Gartner, 25% of customer service will use chat-bot technology by 2020.
Businesses adopting AI in 2019 will be able to save costs and accelerate growth, getting an edge over their competitors.
2. Programmatic Advertising : It simply means using AI to automate ad buying so you can target more specific audiences. Real-time bidding or auctions, for example, is a type of programmatic ad buying. This automation is much more efficient and fast, which means higher conversions and lower customer acquisition costs.
It’s changing the face of digital advertising so swiftly that, according to eMarketer, almost 90% of digital display ads in the U.S. will be programmatic by 2020.
3. Video Marketing : These numbers show the importance of incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy in 2019:
- 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video.
- 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate.
- 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions.
- 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video.And don’t just stop at YouTube. To witness higher engagement with your video marketing, you can make a video post or start a live broadcast on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. (Yes ! LinkedIn too)
Live video is gaining popularity, with a large number of businesses using it for interviews, product demos and “behind the scenes” glimpses of events, life in the office, how products are made, etc.
With ever-decreasing costs of film equipment and the increasingly high-quality smartphone cameras, businesses and marketers are heading for personalised video messages rather than phone calls or emails, which is called the 1:1 video approach.
YouTube and other videos are displayed in the SERPs, so video SEO is becoming much more important – like using text overlays and closed captions, in addition to your description, title and file names.
And 360-degree video content, which allows for a more interactive experience, is on the rise – just look for the circular symbol in the top left corner to start sliding the moving image left or right as it’s playing.
4. Visual Search : Visual search can take the user experience to a totally new level. With visual search, users can upload an image to conduct a search and get more specific results.
And Pinterest is not the only one with visual search. Google Lens is a visual search engine by Google, which recognises objects, landmarks and other things visually through a camera app.
Marketers can get the edge on competitors by jumping on the visual search trend in 2019 to draw customers and serve them the perfect product.
5. Voice Search : Almost one third of the 3.5 billion searches performed on Google every day are voice searches, with personal assistant devices leading the way (TheeDesign, 2017). More and more people use Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant everyday. As their capacity for recognizing human speech has improved significantly, they can be incredibly helpful in both searching for information on the Web and doing things around the house.
What does this shift to voice search mean for marketers? Mostly, gear up !
Voice search differs from the typical desktop or mobile search. When you open Google on your browser and type in your search query, you’ll see hundreds of pages of search results. It’s not that hard to be one of them.
But when you ask Siri or Alexa a question, it will give you just a few results. Many times, only one. If your website is one of them, the CTR can potentially be much higher. But it needs to be there in the first place. Therefore, tailoring your SEO strategy for voice search is crucial.
6. Micro Moments : Today’s consumers are bombarded by content, ads, offers, emails, push notifications all the time. We have reached the point, where we simply cannot process any more information. According to eMarketer, consumers already spend 3 hours 35 minutes per day on their smartphones. Brands and marketers have a really hard time attracting the attention of their audience.
That’s where micro-moment marketing steps in.
Micro-Moments is a “new consumer behavior,” as termed by Google, that delivers your marketing message clearly and concisely in a way that is of interest to the consumers – all within a span of seconds.
People generally make instant decisions on what to eat, which restaurant to choose, what to purchase, or where to go, so every marketer should understand Micro-Moments. To take advantage of micro-moments in 2019, be where consumers search for information in the moment – such as Google, Google Maps, Amazon, YouTube, and anywhere else people search for information at a moment’s notice.
Take a look at how a variety of brands are using Micro-Moments in their marketing.
2019 Is Here !
Now that you know the trends that will be the major chunk of Digital Marketing activities across the globe, the rest is up to you. If followed, tried and tested religiously these tips will help establish your brand and keep your brand on top of your competitors.
It may take some experimentation, but you can get an edge and turn your business into an up-to-date, technological powerhouse. Get ready for 2019 — it’s going to be a very interesting year for marketers!
