Every year, businesses create a new budget and even a new marketing plan. Interestingly, more than half of businesses do not study digital marketing trends. This always come back to negatively affect their marketing later in the year. A lot has been changing recently and it is extremely important that you know these new trends.
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The digital marketing landscape includes social media, email marketing, SEO, PPC, content marketing, etc. All of them are witnessing a dramatic shift. Take, for instance, Facebook is making big changes on the way the platform is used following wide criticism they received in 2018 as a result of the Cambridge Analytica saga. Other platforms are making changes too. If you want to succeed, you cannot ignore any of them in 2019.
New trends and stats emerge every year and it is important that you keep your eyes on them. Take, for instance, it was recently revealed that people in the United Kingdom are now using 10x more mobile data than 6 years ago. This information has changed the way businesses operate in this region. When it comes to digital marketing, every piece of information is important. The changes mentioned above played a big role in marketing in 2018. And 2019 promises to be even more disruptive. To help you take advantage of this, we have compiled the list of the top trends for 2019.
Top 6 Online Marketing Trends
1. The Year of Artificial Intelligence
Since Facebook paid $2 billion to acquire Oculus in 2014, marketers have always believed that artificial intelligence is going to play a huge role in the way we utilize digital marketing. Since then, all the top global tech companies such as Google, and Microsoft have invested heavily on AI. Thus, it is not surprising that experts have predicted that 2019 is going to be the year of artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence plays different roles in marketing such as analyzing consumer behavior and search patterns. It can also be used by companies to understand how consumers view their product. In 2019, you can use AI to gain an edge over competitors by saving costs and accelerating growth.
2. Video Ads Dominating the Market
Results of studies from different organizations have shown that videos will once again be the most-accepted marketing medium by consumers. Facebook just rolled out a new program known as “Facebook Ads Break” to attract video creators to the platform in an effort to compete with YouTube. This year, video (both video ads and live video) will account for 85% of total internet traffic. Experts believe that advertisers will spend over $20 billion on mobile video in 2019.
Available data showed that 52% of consumers believed that watching videos make them more confident in online purchase decisions while 72% of businesses say videos have improved their conversion rate. Video ads make almost 65% of Instagram ads impression and Facebook is also showing more video ads since the beginning of the year. If you want to spread your message more successfully in 2019, you need to start using videos in your ads, social media pages, and on your website.
3. Micro-Influencer Marketing Will Grow
Since 2016, influencer marketing has been growing. This type of marketing focuses on using leaders to drive your brand’s message to a larger audience. However, there is now a new trend. Brands are no longer looking for big influencers with hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers. They are now paying more attention to micro-influencers.
The reason for this is that micro-influencers have more engaged and industry-specific followers, and are likely to give you the result you need. Besides, micro-influencers are more affordable. A study has shown that brands believe it is more rewarding to spread your budget across two or more micro-influencers than on one top influencer.
4. Voice-Search Moves To The Next Stage
If you are still not positioning your contents to take advantage of voice-activated search, you may find yourself struggling soon. People are beginning to accept this type of search in huge numbers. It is widely believed that voice-activated search will make up 50% of all searches by 2020. Similarly, experts believe that sales from this technology will reach $40 billion by 2022.
Big search engine companies such as Google and Bing are investing a huge amount of money into voice search project to make it more appealing to advertisers and consumers. It is important that you create your contents in such a way that it can easily appear upon a voice search.
5. Good Content Is Still the King
While you are chasing new technologies and trends, don’t forget that creating high-quality contents is a trend that will never go away. Contents are the heart and soul of digital marketing. The quality is always going to be very important to consumers. Time has gone when you can copy content from a competitor or use a click bait. Unfortunately, consumers now have a way to figure out these things.
Using clickbait in your headline is like shooting yourself in the leg. Consumers will figure this out and you will lose their trust. In fact, some consumers will go to the extent of starting a social media hashtag warning others to avoid you.
Focus on creating high-quality contents. Make sure that your content is educative and relevant. Whether you are creating social media, email, or video content, it is important you keep it high-quality. You can hire a copywriter to help you with your contents.
6. Use Powerful Tracking Solution
When it comes to media buying, every good marketer understands the importance of tracking every campaign. Using a powerful tracker became crucial nowadays. The competition grows rapidly, traffic gets more expensive, so no reason to pay for low-quality non-targeted visitors. Also, you need to automate as many online activities as possible and optimize your KPIs constantly.
Final Words
As far as we know, 2019 is promising to be a very interesting year for everyone involved in digital marketing. Big changes are coming and this can be very hard for you to accept. However, it is important that you are aware of these trends and analyze how they will affect your marketing. Ensure your team stays up to date on changes in digital marketing trends. If you can do this, you will be able to grow your business and stay relevant in your industry.