Did you know that Google processes over 6.5 billion search queries every… single… day? 6,586,013,574 to be exact – and that number increases from month to month. With so many people searching for products and services on the internet, looking at where the digital world is headed will help us prepare and ready ourselves for the trends of the future. Let’s have a look at five digital marketing trends moving into 2019:
2019 Digital Marketing Trends
In a rush? No problem, we’ve summarised the article for you here:
- Voice Search will join the fray in a BIG way
- Video marketing material becomes VITAL
- Chatbots will be MUCH smarter
- All hail programmatic advertising
- Outsourcing will become the norm
Voice Search Growth
ComScore, an American media analytics company, predicts that by 2020 half of all online search queries will be voice-based. Voice searches are growing in popularity, with the most common of voice queries falling into one of the following categories:
- General Information: news, financial information, travel information, sports results
- Personal Assistant: booking calendar events, online bookings, voice-to-text, shopping lists
- Local Information: Pubs near me, restaurants in X, directions to X, weather conditions in X
- Fun and Entertainment: finding music, streaming video, purchasing online, interactive games.
If you know what your audience is looking for, and you have an idea as to how they’d structure their voice search in terms of sentence structure and lexical complexity, you’re ready for the voice search revolution!
More Video Marketing
Let’s face it – many people would rather watch a video than read an article. It’s understandable, seeing as our attention spans are growing shorter and shorter. Years ago, the Washington Post predicted that video marketing collateral would make up around 80 percent of all internet traffic by 2019. That prediction was modest, as current studies expect that percentile to be closer to 85 by year-end.
So, how do you incorporate more video collateral into your marketing material? Well, Hubspot shares that simply adding a short video to your email newsletters could boost your click-through rate (CTR) by up to 300 percent! Live video, on the other hand, will become necessary to set brands apart from those merely generating video for the sake of moving pictures.
Smarter Chatbots
Chatbots are becoming more and more commonplace on websites, and there’s no surprise why! They make life just that little bit more convenient, by allowing website and app users to order their dinner, book their next nail appointment, or secure seats at the next big sporting event – all without having to speak to an actual person.
Think chatbots are a flash in the digital marketing pan? Think again! A survey conducted by LivePerson revealed that only 19 percent of 5000 interviewees felt negatively toward chatbots, with 33 percent having positive perceptions and 48 percent revealing indifference so long as chatbots can resolve their problems.
Looking to code your own chatbot? Check out this step-by-step chatbot tutorial!
Programmatic Advertising
In a nutshell, programmatic advertising is the use of computer programs to bid on and purchase advertising space. Before, advertising buyers would have to bid on and action the purchasing of ads themselves. By 2019, programmatic advertising programs will be facilitating over two-thirds of the world’s digital display advertisements.
How do we get onto the programmatic advertising bandwagon? Well, Google already allows you to bid on and place Display ads programmatically. The algorithm is not perfect, and can make mistakes, which is why many people are fearful. However, as Google’s machine learning improves, so too shall its automated advertising solutions!
Want to learn more about programmatic advertising? See this Digiday article!
More Marketing Outsourcing
The beautiful thing about the internet is that it facilitates easy collaboration across geographical borders and time zones. Nowadays, companies from a range of industries are utilising outsourcing to broaden their service offering through third-party providers. The biggest benefit, however, can be seen in the digital marketing arena.
For example, Waverly Digital leverages our unique partnership with a South African marketing agency to offer our UK clients world-class marketing material, written in British English, at substantially reduced costs thanks to the Pound/South African Rand exchange rate.
With online interactions (via email, social messaging and file sharing services) taking place almost in real-time, marketing agencies that outsource to far-flung destinations can manage content and overall marketing campaigns as if the third-party providers were sitting in the office next door!
Future-proof your company’s online marketing by partnering with a digital marketing agency that understands where the industry is headed, and that can offer you fantastic value through strategic marketing partnerships. Connect with Waverly Digital today and start to navigate the world of digital successfully.
*Sources consulted:
https://dashtwo.com/blog/6-marketing-trends-for-2019/
https://www.websitehostingrating.com/internet-statistics-facts-2018/
