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6 Digital Marketing trends you shouldn’t ignore in 2019

Video Marketing

We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it. Video marketing is where it’s at! Don’t believe us? Here are some stats!

• 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video.
• 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate.
• 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions.
• 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video.

Research also shows that live video is moving up to the top too! Businesses are using live video for product demos, behind the scene glimpses, live event coverage, life in the office and much more. We’re not suggesting you go out and spent thousands on high spec video equipment either. Smartphone cameras are continuously getting better, so you don’t need to spend a penny to get involved.

Personalisation

Marketers are making their brands stand out by using ‘personalised marketing’ which means personalised content, products, emails, and more. How can you tailor your marketing to an individual’s needs? How do you know who want to see what? With the availability of data like purchase history, consumer behaviour, web pages visited, added to cart items and links clicked, obtaining custom content has never been easier. Take Netflix, for example; they are already leveraging the power of personalisation. Log on to your Netflix account and immediately you’ll see evidence of personalisation: the banner, carousels, order, artwork, text and search are all personalised for you based on your recent activity!

Messaging Apps

Social messaging apps have come a long way in recent years and are no longer used just for sending emojis and quick texts to your friends. Take a look at the numbers below:

• 1.3 billion monthly users are active on Facebook Messenger
• 2 billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Facebook Messenger every month
• WhatsApp has 1.3 billion monthly active users
• 55 billion messages are sent via WhatsApp every day

Social messaging apps can be beneficial in sending messages to customers directly, as they allow personalisation (mentioned above) and add value to the users’ experience. For example, I sometimes receive automated marketing messages from Facebook pages I like. Messages I receive can be about upcoming events, webinars or links to free downloadable content.

Influencer Marketing

You’ve all heard the term, but if you’re not familiar with it, then Influencer Marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that focuses on using industry leaders to drive your brand’s message to their audience. Influencers can be anyone from celebrities, Industry experts, bloggers, Instagram or YouTube or journalists all who have large relevant audiences that they can spread the word about your business or product to using their social channels.

Email

Email has been around for a long time but only recently have marketers realised the true potential. Approximately 275 billion emails are sent daily. Email is a powerful tool which allows you to do two things:

• Provide value to users in the form of content;
• Direct users through each step of the customer journey or the sales funnel when they get stuck

Email marketing platforms like MailChimp allow you to create lists to that you can segment your lists and personalise the content that you send out ensuring that the receiver only gets emails about things relevant to them!

Voice Search

You’re probably wondering what does voice search have to do with me? Voice searches have become increasingly popular in the last year. But why?

• It’s easy for the consumer: It’s easier and safer for people who are on the move to talk to their phone rather than type.
• It’s fast: People can talk faster than they can type

Now, you know why let’s look at the reasons why you should optimize your website for voice searches:

1. Voice search usage is increasing on mobile: 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information within the last year.
2. 65% of 25-49-year-olds speak to their voice-enabled devices at least once per day
3. 43% of voice-enabled device owners use their device to shop.
4. 28% of consumers go on to call the business they voice searched for.
5. 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020,

Top Tips:

1. Voice searches are usually longer than typed searches as they’re easier, so optimizing your content for long-tail keywords is important.
2. Voice searches are conversational and most people perform voice searches like they’re talking to someone else so it’s important to make your website content conversational.
3. For an even higher chance of getting your visual content to show up to a voice command, make sure that every image and video is appropriately tagged with meta descriptions and alt-text. Search engines use these bits of information to promptly categorize and serve up your content to users. Without them, you lose traffic and vital leads!