How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2019?

The only thing constant is change. And the digital market is making strides that you do not want to miss. From blog saturation to machine learning, and influencers to geofencing, here is how the new Digital Marketing tools are set to change things for 2019:

The Web

Let's start with the home page of the online world; Search Engines and Websites. Here are the top two trends we can see gaining momentum significant enough to affect digital marketing strategies, starting this year:

Voice Search

The advent of digital assistants and smart speakers (Alexa, Siri, etc.) have kick-started a new era of convenience across areas of information, shopping, entertainment, communications, etc. Voice shopping alone accounts for two billion users today, which is expected to double by 2022.

Results for voice search queries are not based on SEO rankings. This means that no matter what your ranking is, your content may or may not be presented to the user. So as voice search gains more popularity, the way websites create digital marketing blogs will change. SEO rankings are no longer enough.

Saturation

90% of the world's online data was generated in the past couple of years alone. This pace is only accelerating us through a point we have already crossed: Content Saturation.

Search engines are afforded so much textual blog data that they can afford to be highly picky with the rankings. 'Content is King' formula for rankings are no longer enough. Also, old blog posts, if not updated, can act like dead weight pulling you down. Content creators have to continue on other avenues like Videos, Infographics, etc. and work on updating blogs to beat this saturation. 

Machine

Have you noticed the popularity of 'Big Data' recently? It basically speaks about crunching the larger volumes of information being generated every day. Insights from terabytes of data are only possible through machines. Here are the 'Ones & Zeros' that are evolving the types of digital marketing we employ.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML):

Machine Learning enables digital sellers to study their massive clientele's purchase patterns, preference, etc. (AI) further extracts data during client interactions (Eg - Chatbots). The insights learned from these data sources instruct companies on how to up-sell/cross-sell products, prepare for seasonal trends, re-stock supplies and much more. (AI )and (ML) are emerging as incredible assets in the back-end section of Digital Marketing.

Chatbots:

People like to interact. Clearly, enough websites have realised that by 2020, chatbots are expected to man at least 85% of client interactions. Chatbots can be mastered with the simple act of up-selling and suggesting attractive promotions in addition to handling a plethora of consumer complaints. Marketing through automated chatbots is a promising field of growth amidst recent digital changes.

Programmed Ads & Personalisation:

This is a step further from the Cookies-based ads you have seen online. With GDPR closely keeping watch, companies are putting the information they extract to better use by personalising the retail experience for users. This means customer trends, purchase history, payment preferences, etc. The data allows marketers to program their approach that's personalised for individual customers. 

For example, 

"Dear customer, it has been 11 days since you last purchased *insert medication/product/perishables*. It's time for a refill! 

Click here to repeat your order."

Digital marketing is zooming in on individuals who welcome being waited on hand and foot.

Social Media

These changes are ones you may have seen coming. Given the popularity of social media, the following developments were bound to happen:

Influencer Marketing

You have probably experienced this first hand. Who hasn't heard of 'Instagram Models' and 'Internet Millionaires'? 

Influencer marketing is a trending approach to digitally market through accounts having a large following. Every subscriber/follower brings them closer to digital marketing. That's why you keep hearing "Like, Share, Subscribe." 

User-generated content

Ever seen Facebook's 'Your year in 2018' or 'Celebrating 3 years of friendship with Pinky'. These are examples of keeping the hype alive through user-generated content.

GoPro is popular for digitally marketing with exhilarating content generated by their users. 

Using such content does wonders for brand association.

Smartphone

2019 is seeing a surge in the following two unique styles of digital marketing:

Hybrid applications

Born from the popularity of smartphone apps, Hybrid applications are websites packaged as downloadable apps that shortcut the access for users. Who's worried about competition when your website can be accessed without opening Chrome/Safari?

Geo-Fencing & Push Notifications

These mean location-based notifications. For example, if you are driving down a street close to a supermarket running a sale, or a petrol pump offering a free car-wash, you receive a push notification - A shortcut to your phone's home screen without spamming your inbox. 

In Closing

Given the way the internet has progressed, these changes were bound to happen. Understanding them will not only help you get ahead of the digital marketing game but also understand the nuances of the online world's demand & supply.

If you're interested to learn more, check out this Digital Marketing Course.

 

Reference:

https://chatbotsmagazine.com/chatbot-report-2018-global-trends-and-analysis-4d8bbe4d924b

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/21/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/#3c84c64c60ba