It’s estimated that, by the year 2020, digital media expenditure will make up to 24 percent of the entire advertising sector. That’s a major improvement from the current 15 percent. Even then, 15 percent is a large figure that underlines the importance of digital media in general.
As one of the most dynamic areas of marketing, digital marketing requires constant updating of your resources to the latest trends.
Are you looking to improve your digital marketing game? If so, read on to learn about the top digital marketing trends of 2019.
1. Popularity of Chatbots
Among the most common digital trends is the rise of chatbots, replacing customer care representatives. Better artificial intelligence has made it possible to carry out basic conversations with customers using robots rather than human beings.
The chatbots offer service around the clock, provide instant responses, and offer easy communication. They help firms resolve problems quickly and cost much less than the alternative.
As AI becomes better, chatbots are getting more reliable in handling customer queries.
2. Use of PWA and AMP Technologies
Both Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are technologies meant to reduce the load times of pages on various devices. The aim is to reduce the time taken to load a web page, especially on mobile devices as 60 percent of Google searches come from mobile devices.
AMP reduces the load time of a web page to just 0.5 seconds while PWA bridges the gap between a native app and a mobile website with benefits from both ends.
3. Increase in Video
Among the 2019 trends in digital marketing is the increased use of video for marketing. Today, adverts are no longer watched on TV sets alone. Video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, and Facebook have all curated video content to reach out to users.
4. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Virtual reality and augmented reality are some of the best digital innovations to date. While virtual reality creates a new environment, augmented reality places virtual items in the real world.
Both of these technologies get harnessed to give customers experience with products and services before they decide to make a purchase. This avoids cases where customers return goods due to getting a different experience from what was promised.
2019 has seen the rise of these two types of reality in many beneficial ways.
5. Content Generated by Users
Online stores such as Amazon and Alibaba have tapped into a marketing area previously thought to be non-existent; user-generated content. On most products and services they offer, there’s a section where previous customers offer ratings, reviews, and recommendations on the given products.
This user-generated content is instrumental in recruiting new customers as people would rather believe real-life usage of products than curated adverts. Best of all, it’s free for the advertising firm.
6. More Reliance on Artificial Intelligence
A lot of automation has taken place in digital marketing. The reason for this is the new capabilities of artificial intelligence.
Most importantly, artificial intelligence finds purpose in profiling internet users for easier targeting with ads. Besides that, it’s used to power chatbots which handle customer queries and generally improve customer experience.
In general, artificial intelligence facilitates a lot of aspects in digital marketing with the result that customers are more satisfied with products and services. New product and service categories are also coming up due to the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
7. Omnichannel Marketing
Previously, marketers approached potential customers through multiple channels whereby telephone, email, social media and website platforms were independent of each other. This segmented approach became plagued with discontinuity since it wasn’t easy to keep track of customers or lead them to make a sale.
With omnichannel marketing, all these platforms are one single and continuous platform which allows for tracking of customers across multiple areas but with a single identity attached to them.
8. Marketing Automation and Personalization
One of the most reliable marketing tools is email. Initially, automated emails would get sent out in large numbers with the hope that some customers will find what’s relevant to them and make a purchase. This method fails in today’s marketing landscape as it lacks personalization.
Through the capabilities of artificial intelligence, search engines and other digital marketing tools have made it possible to curate content that’s suited to a targeted customer. The results have been very positive.
In other cases, a marketing company can create content that’s relevant to specific audiences with positive results. These include social media posts and relevant website content.
9. Increased Adoption of Voice Search
Another beneficiary of artificial intelligence is voice recognition and feedback. Various platforms nowadays offer voice recognition software with Google’s Now, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana leading the way.
Voice search has significantly replaced typed search due to the ease with which it’s executed. This allows longer and more descriptive searches than having to type and search through millions of online products to find what you need.
10. Increased Use of Native Ads
A lot of online visitors nowadays employ ad-blocking software. This blocks most ads from appearing in their browsing sessions, thus making it hard to reach them.
The solution found is the use of native ads. These ads appear as part of the content and can’t get blocked by the adblockers. This way, customers can still interact with the ads in their browsing sessions.
Keep Yourself Updated on the Latest Digital Marketing Trends
Knowing the prevailing digital marketing trends enables you to fully make use of them and grow your online business. In most cases, it’s about finding what works best for your business and maximizing its output. Given that the marketing sector is a very dynamic one, always keep yourself updated about these trends.
Follow our site for the latest SEO tools and webmaster utilities.