76% of people believe that marketing has changed more in the last two years than it has in the last fifty years. This is one of the future digital marketing trends expected.
Are you one that believes that marketing creativity can be learned? We are among that group. We also believe in suggestions for marketing innovative thinking can boost team creativity through effective collaboration. Through a series of sparks and not a single flash of insight. Certainly our way of thinking.
This is largely down to technology rapidly advancing and more people than ever having access to the internet, smartphones, and computers. This means that digital marketing needs to be a priority for any business to have success in 2019 as it’s a trend that is going to dominate that industry.
People want interactive marketing that is personalized to them and makes using websites easier and quicker while ensuring great customer service.
First things first, you need a great team
Your digital marketing will be nothing if you don’t have a great team. If you’re an established business you should already have a team for this who uses various digital marketing strategies to promote your brand – if not you need to up your game and fast.
For new businesses, it’s worth investing in someone to do your digital marketing for you, ideally someone with experience in several different areas until you can build a bigger team that has different people with varying specialisms.
Digital marketing has very quickly overtaken any print marketing, which is largely down to almost everyone owning a laptop, tablet, computer, smartphone or a combination of technology, making it more accessible than ever. So you need someone who understands the different platforms and how to use them to benefit your business.
Voice searches
According to ComScore, 50% of all searches will be voice-based by 2020. Technology around voice control is becoming smarter, so devices can recognize and respond to the user’s unique voice, understand different accents, languages and the margin for error is getting smaller.
Voice control is a technology that has developed quickly but is becoming a dominant part of how people want to make searches, particularly on their smartphones.
Incorporating voice search options on your website and social media will show that you’re up-to-date with technology and you want to prioritize ease-of-use for your consumers.
Digital marketing trends expected … smart chatbots
When Chatbots were first used most people found them annoying and somewhat useless. However, Chatbots have become smarter and 45% of people now use them as their main source of communication when it comes to customer service.
This is largely down to the technology behind them advancing, making them smarter and better at being able to handle questions and inquiries.
The biggest advantage of them for customers is that they don’t get put on hold or have to wait in a queue from someone to become available to speak to them, and it’s free.
From a business point of view, this improves overall customer service and can help to minimize the amount of paid staff needed to answer phones, saving time and money.
Future digital marketing trends … virtual reality marketing
Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that is being used in several different industries, from gaming to retail. Whatever business you’re in, VR can be used to benefit your customers.
VR can be used in real estate to speed up how many homes buyers can view, saving time and money on travel costs. In retail, Michael Kors used augmented reality ads on Facebook, where people could ‘try on’ their sunglasses using their smartphone camera.
IKEA, Starbucks, and Volkswagen have all used similar ideas and technology to encourage potential customers to get a feel for their products before making a purchase.
The great thing here is that people enjoy using this type of tech and are usually willing to try it out, regardless of which brand is using it, so the company behind it gets easy exposure, resulting in better business and brand reputation.
Videos win every time
72% of consumers prefer watching videos over reading text when it comes to branded marketing information. People tend to engage better with videos, particularly ones they can interact with, such as live videos where they can write comments and questions that could get responded to.
However, you need to get your video marketing right as research shows that people can quickly lose interest if they’re not done well.
This means getting the length of it right; too long and people will stop watching before you get your message across and too short and people won’t have time to get your message at all. Make sure your video is good quality too.
People are used to HD screens and will notice very quickly when something isn’t up to scratch, which will directly affect their opinion about your brand.
Future digital marketing trends … artificial intelligence and machine learning
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are all throwing their resources at artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, so it’s expected to see this type of tech advance.
In short, using AI and machine learning in your business means that you can predict the likely spending habits of customers based on data collected. Once you have this information you can market to them appropriately.
This can include sending emails, offers and other digital advertising around the time you expect them to make a purchase.
Customers reportedly enjoy the personalization that this involves. It helps them to remember to make regular purchases and better engages them in the information they receive as it’s appropriate and tailored to them.
It’s expected that this kind of technology in 2019 -2021 will be seen in banking, financing, accounting and intellectual jobs, such as teaching.
Going back to basics with plain text email
Getting people to subscribe to your mailing list is the first step, the next is knowing what to send to them to keep them interested in your brand. Technology can currently tell if people are opening emails and will send them basic marketing emails only if they’re not.
For people who regularly open emails and engage with them, such as clicking through to your website, they will receive additional emails to further engage them until they become a loyal customer. This can include additional offers for them and content that suits their shopping habits.
HTML emails have been popular for a while now as they offer color, images and engage people better, but they’ve become associated with spam emails.
Going back to basics with plain text emails will become common again in 2019, with the hope that customers will get the information they need from the email and will be more likely to open them if they know they’re not being spammed.
Future digital marketing trends … plenty of personalization
Personalization is a theme found in almost every digital marketing trend for 2019, so it comes in plenty of different forms. For example, some websites and phone apps will ask you to confirm your location so that they can offer you accurate, geo-targeted content.
Not only does personalized content benefit businesses as it draws consumers in, consumers like it too. 44% of people who have a personalized shopping experience online will likely become returning customers.
Anywhere you can personalize digital marketing to consumers should be done to benefit both them and your business.
Digital marketing is driving the marketing industry. It’s important to have a team of people within your business who can effectively market your brand to consumers, helping to build a strong brand reputation.
People enjoy personalized and interactive content, but something unique and new will also draw people in.
The bottom line
There are a lot of misconceptions about marketing. Just because you read something in a blog post or hear something from a credible source doesn’t mean it is true.
Always do your own research, and try to improve. Social media marketing is here to stay, and it can drive a lot of business for you, assuming you are leveraging it correctly.
There is more opportunity to fail in marketing than to succeed if we treat it like any other design process. It requires us to get away from being promotional and sensational and instead treat our customers with special attention to including their thoughts in our offerings.
It means being truly interested in what they have to say in the real world and communicating about the things they care about — with a vocabulary that illustrates they can trust us.
