Reading Time: 5 minutes
Digital marketing is an ever-evolving practice with a number of innovations taking place every single year. The pace at which digital marketing practices are shaping up in both B2C and B2B scenarios is astonishing. The only thing that remains constant is the goal of digital marketing: reaching the maximum target audience sitting online.
Below are 8 trends we think will be making disruptions in the marketing scene worldwide this year:
1. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is ruling the internet and is soon going to rule digital marketing as well. Artificial Intelligence carries the potential of analyzing search patterns, customer behaviors, data from different social media platforms, blogs and other things rapidly to help businesses in strategizing their next moves.
This allows the businesses to understand their customers and potential customer’s behavior and give detailed insights to the businesses. In 2019, we can expect that enhanced use of Artificial Intelligence by the digital marketers not only for analyzing but also for better ad targeting. It is also expected to see the use of AI in optimizing the ad creative images.
2. Video Marketing
Videos are the product of a 20th century and till date have been among the favorites of all internet users. Businesses in recent years have made videos describing their products and educating the audience about the same. These videos have been liked by most of the audience as they believe that rather than reading a piece of content, videos make the whole thing more interesting & transparent.
According to the stats, 72% of businesses have witnessed an improved conversion rate after sharing videos related to the businesses. 52% of the consumers have felt more confident while making an online purchase after watching the videos. So, going by the stats, we can expect video marketing to gain more popularity when it comes to digital marketing. So, businesses out there, it is high time to make a video marketing strategy for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms to catch the attention of the target audience and increase the conversion rate.
3. Influencer Marketing
The target audience sitting online has responded positively towards the influencer marketing. People have started believing in the actual response of the local influencers rather than the firm corporate statements and paid endorsements done by the celebrities. The past year witnessed many brands ditching paid endorsements and relying on real people and their views regarding their products and services.
Companies too have shifted towards the influencers to market their products. So, the companies are expected to partner with top influencers for a long-term to put up campaigns and promotions of their products and services.
4. Chatbots
Chatbots are expected to grow in the year 2019. According to Gartner, 25% of customer service will use chatbot technology by 2020, up from less than 2% in 2017. This AI-based technology uses software that interacts with the customers in real-time. The customers are assisted by the chatbots to complete their tasks by answering their questions.
As it is AI backed, we can expect it to answer repetitive questions like: “when can I get my order delivered”?, “What is your office address”? etc. Many businesses have adopted this and even have benefitted from the same. It is expected that by 2022, chatbots will help the businesses save $8 billion per year.
5. Voice Search
Alexa, Siri, Google and other “smart devices” have taken the whole game of voice interaction and search to a new level. Talking makes interaction simple and the companies and businesses have started considering this and therefore, voice search is continuing to rise. It is expected that by the year 2022, 50% of all the researches will be through voice and the voice commerce sales will reach $40 billion.
The stats prove that voice research is an area of digital marketing which certainly can’t be ignored and needs to pay attention to in the year 2019. It definitely requires a different approach and is still evolving but to be ahead of the competition online, companies need to pay serious attention to this emerging trend.
6. Visual Search
Visual search is an interesting and emerging way to look out for products and various things online by the customers. We all experienced the “Lens” introduced by the Pinterest that allows the user to take a picture of a product and it shows where the same thing or similar products can be bought online. Not only this but, it also allows to view the pinboards of related items. Even the Google came up with “Google Lens” for Google Pixel phones that scan various products, landmarks, and other things visually through the phone camera. The visual search has been accepted by the users globally.
Looking at the trend, various mobile apps like CamFind has been developed and launched to make searches quickly by just clicking the pictures rather than typing the keywords in the search engines. To stand at the top among the competitors, it is high time to think about including a visual search to let the potential customers find the perfect product.
7. Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic ad buying is the process of buying digital ads by using the software as opposed to the traditional process such as human ads, manual insertion orders and salesperson. Programmatic advertising uses artificial intelligence and this is the reason it is known as programmatic advertising. That means program learns with time to run ads when and where for maximum conversion and ROI.
This exciting fact is the speed of the automation is quite quick and efficient.
8. Micro Moments
Smart phones have become the center of everybody’s world at the present time and people spend a lot of time surfing the internet. Due to lack of time, people generally instantly make decisions on what to buy, eat and where to go etc. All such consumer behaviors are termed as “Micro Moments” by the Google.
These Micro moments deliver the marketing message clearly and concisely within the time span of a few seconds to grab the attention of potential customers.
In the year 2019, the businesses need to make an effective presence at the platforms where the customers look for certain products like on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon, Google Maps, and other platforms where the users search for the information at a moment’s notice.
The basics of digital marketing will still remain the same- build your brand, tell a story and provide good quality content to the audience. With these basic steps, the businesses need to adopt the above-mentioned digital marketing trends in order to stay ahead of the competition.
