As 2018 is going to be over and 2019 is just around the corner, the digital marketing fraternity is excited about what lies ahead. This year has witnessed several improvements technology-wise, as the digital marketing landscape came across a tech boom. Voice search, virtual reality and artificial intelligence are just a few of the technologies that have disrupted the online marketing scenario in the recent time.
Marketers are more than keen to embrace these trends and these will continue to dominate the internet landscape in the coming year too. Besides these, there will be some more trends that are expected to emerge strong in 2019. Let us unravel all that lies ahead for digital marketers in the New Year.
1- Personalization will be the name of the game
Online buyers are smarter than ever and no marketing campaign will be a success unless it caters personalization. This means that your digital campaign should be able to target them with personalized content, recommendations, offers, and messages. Whether it is an email that you are sending to them or a push notification via mobile, everything has to match their expectations and preferences. The idea is to know your customer well enough so that you understand what exactly they are looking for.
2- Conversational commerce will be a norm
If you are looking to build a winning digital strategy, make sure that it is based on conversational commerce. This refers to the ability of your website to engage in conversations with the potential customers, understand their needs and deliver accordingly. Taking this idea further, having chatbots will be a norm for all websites and mobile apps in 2019. These are the smart assistants powered by the Artificial Intelligence technology that enables them to converse intelligently with humans. Platforms like Chatfuel, Mobile Monkey or SendPulse have all the necessary messenger chatbot features to get you started.
3- Video marketing will gain an advantage
Although storytelling has always been the backbone of digital marketing, the coming year will witness a shift towards video content. Videos are capable of engaging the audience and driving them to conversions because they have the capability to interact with them. A potential customer is likely to be more confident while making a purchase decision with a website that showcases product videos.
This means that incorporating videos in your marketing plan will be a necessity in the future. Furthermore, you can take the strategy a notch higher by sharing videos on social channels as well.
4- Businesses have to be voice-ready as well
While being video-savvy is one aspect of futuristic digital campaigns, businesses have to be prepared for voice searches as well. According to experts at BearFoxMarketing.com, businesses that do not optimize their websites for voice searches will not be able to stay in competition in the coming time. The reason is that shoppers love the idea of shopping hands-free, by just speaking the search keywords rather than typing them. So this is the right time to gear up your SEO plan and get it tweaked for voice searches with the use of long-tailed keywords and conversational queries.
5- Social stories will be a critical element
The last few years have been dominated by social media marketing and 2019 is not going to be an exception. Marketers cannot ignore the concept of social media “stories” at any cost because this is something that has the potential to boost sales manifold. Social stories not only enable you to grow your brand’s outreach but also help you build your brand. Savvy marketers can leverage live videos along with engaging content and interesting images to create social campaigns that have the power to generate brand awareness and propel growth.
6- Capturing micro-moments will be the key
Success in the digital domain is all about being able to capture the buyer’s attention with the right content at the right time. This is something that can drive instant buying decision for the customers. The concept of micro-moments has become the new way to gauge customer behavior and understand just when to deliver them a marketing message that has the power to generate conversions. This is something that businesses will need to integrate into their strategy to avail success in the highly competitive market.
With so much on the horizon, 2019 appears to be a challenging and exciting year for digital marketers as they would need to go an extra mile to help businesses in being successful. Those who fail to embrace these trends will definitely be left behind and the ones that are well-prepared in time will absolutely emerge as winners. For businesses, it would be best to collaborate with a marketing team that has the drive to overcome these challenges with aplomb.
