7 key words! Interpreting the hot new trends in digital marketing in 2019

With the changes in the digital environment, multiple channels have made marketing no longer a problem, but how to efficiently attract traffic and promote in depth has become a daunting task. For sellers, it is necessary to stay at the forefront of marketing trends at all times in order to maintain effective interactive dialogue with the target audience.

Looking at the entire marketing market, many brands and sellers invest too much resources in outdated popular channels or methods, but ignore the new trends that are gradually spreading silently. In the new marketing era, grasping future trends has become a crucial link. So what digital marketing trends should not be missed in 2019?

1. Omnichannel Marketing

The term Omnichannel has become very popular in recent years, and the premise for understanding Omnichannel is to distinguish it from multichannel.

In a multi-channel marketing strategy, sellers can set up various marketing touchpoints to enhance interactions and provide convenience to customers during the purchasing process. For example, you can use social media as a channel to attract consumers to your website and email as a lead nurturing channel.

Compared with multi-channel, omni-channel means a wider coverage. In short, an omnichannel marketing strategy means creating marketing touchpoints on every available channel that work together. At the very least, sellers can create consistent touchpoints across all the channels their customers use.

Currently, most businesses use social media, paid search, and email as marketing channels. A survey by marketing agency Clutch shows that 82% of marketers believe that social media is the most important digital marketing channel, but from a customer perspective, consumers engage with brands through more than just Facebook posts.

Trends that sellers should watch out for in 2019 include:

- Short videos (such as Facebook and Instagram Stories)

-blog

-Mobile App

-live streaming

- Live chat

-SMS text messages

-PR and press releases

- Offline advertising

- Direct mail

-Offline activities

-Chatbots & Virtual Assistants

All of the above channels can enhance the seller’s marketing strategy. Omnichannel marketing is critical for sellers because 70% of consumers conduct purchase research through three or more channels. And omnichannel is the best way for sellers to build a unique customer experience.

Take Bank of America’s omnichannel marketing solution as an example:

With the free BofA smartphone app, customers can perform all their banking activities on the go. The virtual voice assistant "Erica" ​​can answer customers' questions and help them make financial decisions.

Bank of America also provides valuable content to customers via email, apps and websites. They also push new products via email and apps.

Obviously, omni-channel marketing can maximize brand exposure and customer retention, and increase customer stickiness. According to Aberdeen Group, companies with a strong omnichannel marketing strategy experience 9.5% year-over-year revenue growth and retain 89% of their customers on average.

2. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is one of the front-end technologies in recent years, but like the wave of smartphones, it is gradually becoming popular in the marketing sector.

The application of artificial intelligence in marketing is more in the form of intelligent algorithms and robots, which collect relevant data information through sensors or manual input to generate solutions. In 2019, the application of artificial intelligence in marketing will be more used in content marketing, customer service and advertising. In addition, artificial intelligence will be used for trend identification, data provision and competitor research.

Some of the AI ​​platforms currently available in the market that provide competitor research are as follows:

It is worth noting that artificial intelligence content generation is gradually becoming a major trend.

As early as 2016, marketing agency Gartner predicted that by 2018, 20% of commercial content will be created by machines. While the accuracy of machine-generated content has yet to be tested, most consumers already read AI-generated articles in some way.

For example, AI is particularly good at creating data-intensive news briefs about business or sports. These news may not look the same as handwritten articles, but they can save advertisers and news publishers a lot of time and money.

In the future, AI is likely to become the main producer of Internet content. However, it should be noted that inbound content that relies on personality and authenticity is not the strong point of artificial intelligence. It may be more suitable for generating some initial content, while increasing the relevance of the content can be done manually at a later stage.

3. Chatbots

Chatbots are now ubiquitous from business websites to mobile apps to social media newsfeeds. It can be used for a variety of purposes and uses, but is typically used to answer simple questions or help customers complete simple tasks.

Some advanced chatbots have already been deployed by businesses as virtual assistants and digital departments. New uses for chatbots are emerging all the time, including:

-Sales lead screening

- Shopping assistance

-Website navigation guide

-Knowledge base research

-Recruitment

-self service

- Accessibility options

For some small and medium-sized sellers, chatbots can also be used on third-party conversational intelligence platforms, using these devices to provide customer service, answer shopping questions, and further encourage customer purchases.

4. Programmatic Advertising

Given the high cost and time of advertising management, programmatic advertising has gradually become a popular choice for many. Programmatic advertising provides advertisers and media with efficient, intelligent and precise marketing opportunities, bringing about a double increase in marketing efficiency and advertising effectiveness.

Programmatic advertising is the process of using AI to buy and place ads based on targeting algorithms. It is estimated that by 2020, more than 86% of digital advertising will be bought through automated channels.

Additionally, programmatic advertising extends beyond the online space and can be used to buy and sell advertising inventory across a variety of media, from display to outdoor advertising.

The key difference between programmatic and traditional advertising is that programmatic can be updated in real time, giving advertisers more control.

Even small and medium-sized sellers can leverage programmatic advertising to maximize their ROI. The way you use programmatic advertising determines whether it will be successful or not. Programmatic advertising relies on a combination of automation, big data, media technology, and expertise. This requires certain manpower costs.

In its current form, programmatic advertising is better suited for brands with mass appeal than for brands targeting niche markets.

5. Personalized Marketing

As early as 2017, 90% of US consumers found personalized marketing content very attractive, with only 4% having a negative impression of it. According to Forbes, 44% of consumers say they are likely to buy from a brand again after a personalized shopping experience.

The benefits of personalized marketing include:

- Better customer experience

- Improve brand loyalty

- Increase income

-Cross-channel sales opportunities

-Brand image consistency

Whether it’s a custom signature on a Starbucks or expressing emotions through a video message, consumers like the brands they care about to provide a differentiated and personalized user experience.

Blanket advertising and catchy slogans no longer work. Companies no longer have full control over the sales process; customers hold absolute power.

For now, sellers should create as easy and enjoyable a shopping experience as possible. At the same time, with the development of marketing automation and other technologies, personalization has gradually been given a whole new meaning. Personalizing emails, for example, will go beyond just automatically filling in the recipient’s name in the subject line.

It is reported that contacts will be automatically segmented based on new parameters, with reference data including historical search records and offline activities. Emails are sent based on the customer's data configuration, rather than just relying on rough guesses about the customer's time zone, effective delivery time period, and email reading rate.

In summary, personalization will become an important part of improving marketing conversion rates. Sellers can focus on creating the following:

-Personalized product recommendations

-Personalized social media information recommendations

-Personalized video messages

- Personalized emails with shopping trigger buttons

-Advanced personalized emails

-Automated contact segmentation

-Personalized digital advertising

- Personalized Web Content

6. Video Marketing

In recent years, video marketing has been an important strategy for big brands, but there are certain changes in trends.

Data shows that by 2020, video will account for more than 85% of all consumer Internet traffic in the United States, and the majority of videos people will watch will be uploaded by individuals.

One of the biggest struggles many sellers have with video marketing is content production. They hope that the finished film will look professional and exciting, even reaching the level of a Hollywood director's blockbuster.

But many sellers overlook the benefits of being able to create videos using simple recording tools. Most clients aren't looking for dazzling special effects on YouTube; they just want fun, informative, story-driven videos.

Here’s a video example from marketing CRM company HubSpot:

Not only has HubSpot launched its new video series, “Brilliant,” about an entrepreneur overcoming major challenges and building a business through persistence and determination, it also includes some great production elements to better drive the story.

The above videos are very attractive and widely spread types of videos. Rather than using sales software, HubSpot took the approach of building a community around the brand, creating invaluable brand awareness.

Here are the types of marketing videos you can consider making:

-Operational videos

-Product Display

-Interviews with influencers

-Customer Testimonials

-Behind-the-scenes production stories (such as employee stories and brand stories)

-Brand culture video

-Activity Video

-Webinars

Without a doubt, one of the easiest ways to conduct video marketing is to use webcams. More and more brands are using videos to publish important content such as interviews, general questions, etc. on social media (as shown below).

This type of personalized marketing can not only gain more shares, collections, and comments, but also create a more influential image for the brand.

7. Next Generation Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In July 2018, Google launched the “PageSpeed” update, and this algorithm update also caught the attention of marketers. Google algorithms can now better understand user intent and give more precise results based on additional information about the user, such as user location, search history, and other information. For example, when a customer in New York searches for "Chinese restaurants," they will not get the seats of all Chinese restaurants in the United States.

In addition, Google officially stated that it will give priority to fast-loading websites when ranking search result websites.

Professionals point out that, relatively speaking, small sellers are more vulnerable to this change, and will largely host their sites in a shared server environment with limited resources. They are also unable to develop newer network resources like some large sellers. Yet in 2016, only 21% of small businesses plan to improve their website performance.

In addition to Google's algorithm updates, the way consumers search is also changing, with more and more searches being generated from mobile devices. For many people, the smartphone has become the most important online tool.

In addition, local search and image search have also become important factors for marketers to consider. 30% of all mobile searches are location-related, and 46% of Google searches are local. Furthermore, in 2017, 27% of searches on the top 10 search sites were for images.

Here are some tips for SEO optimization in 2019:

- Create pages that are targeted at users, not search engines

-Create a simple user experience

-Integrate different types of media into each page

- Implement white hat backlink strategies

-Optimize the loading speed of each page of the site

-Use schema markup

- Use a sitemap

-Use video resources

- Create more long-form content

-Optimize local search

Summarize

In short, sellers should be prepared for the ever-changing digital marketing environment in 2019. According to Statista, in 2017, 48% of small businesses used digital investments to upgrade software and computer systems, while only 15% of small businesses chose to introduce marketing automation.

In the rapidly changing world of 2019, sellers need to do more than just invest in marketing. They also need to adjust their overall strategy based on their own circumstances and keep up with market trends and consumer behavior trends.

Source: Hugo.com