2018 was full of Easter eggs for every digital marketer, and the most prominent brands did not leave out any opportunity to tap the potential of what the year had in store. Just a few days before we call the curtains on 2018, digital marketers all over the world have started hustling already. They are equipping themselves with every weapon to deal with the challenges the coming year will hurtle their way.
As 2019 marches forward to announce its arrival, the top digital marketing companies are getting ready to witness a disruptive change in the marketing trends. From conversational voice search taking over keyword searches to social media ruling the digital marketing scenario – you have a lot to see in the year to come. Here are the 3 most important digital marketing trends that you need to look for!
1. Voice Search is here to stay
Conversational search is on the rise and is going to be a part of the marketing strategies of the biggest brands in 2019. According to a report published by Google, 65% of search queries are now delivered through voice commands. People are so busy and impatient these days, that they do not want to waste time typing the queries on their keypads. It is undoubtedly easier to unlock the phone and tell it what to do.
Moreover, Google reported that 41% of people who own a voice-activated speaker make a search using the language they use to talk to their friends, updating your keywords becomes essential. Nowadays the voice searches are generally in a casual and conversational tone. For example, if someone is looking for the definition of semantic search, they are more likely to say ‘What is semantic search?' rather than searching with the term ‘semantic search’ on smart speakers. This precisely explains why the best SEO companies emphasize on making your website SEO friendly. The conventional search strings aren't considered enough these days, so you must consider conversational versions too.
The fact that there has been a remarkable rise in the sale of digital assistants like Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home is proof that voice search is here to stay. And if Technavio claims turn out to be true, then very soon the voice recognition market will yield a $601 million turnover by 2019.
2. You just cannot ignore Social Media
From a toddler to an octogenarian – there probably isn’t anyone who does not know the existence of the most popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Today, the majority of the global population is on Facebook! Don’t you think you’ll be making a terrible mistake if you do not tap the potential of it? But that isn’t all that you should be worried about! The mechanisms and algorithms of the social media platforms are constantly changing, and it is going to be quite a tough job to be at par with these changes.
But once you get the hang of it, the powerful tactics of top social media marketing companies can help you generate leads ten times as compared to traditional marketing strategies. 2019 will be the year of social media marketing and here is how you should optimize the most useful platforms for business development.
- Facebook Ads – It is expected that by the next year the number of Facebook users will increase from 2.27 billion to 2.95 billion. So, make sure you have an active campaign ready to run Facebook Ads to attract both global as well as the local leads.
- YouTube Marketing – YouTube, with it’s the ever-growing audience has become a must-have for every business out there. The platform boasts a whopping number of 5+ billion video shares, thus making a YouTube marketing strategy an absolute necessity.
- LinkedIn – Although underestimated, LinkedIn is an effective tool to build a business profile and benefit from its increasing user base. And if your mode of dealings is more B2B, then this platform can yield the best results for you.
- Instagram– This platform is the doorway to Narnia for business owners, and if played to its strength, Instagram can help you market your business by increasing brand awareness and creating maximum leads from its huge base of users.
- Pinterest - If you have overlooked Pinterest as a platform for marketing your business, then you have no idea what you are missing on. Did you know that 67% of people discover a new brand/product through Pinterest?
3. Chat Bots are the Boss
In this era of e-commerce, customer care support is considered a benchmark to prove the reliability of an online site. Customers prefer to inquire whether a company has an automated customer chat support or not and then invest in the product/service. 2018 stood witness to the success story of WeChat in China and has proved that utility and informational bots are the future. When it comes to marketing, automation can get more tasks done in less time. Artificial Intelligence has already stepped foot into the world of digital marketing and Bots are the favorite gift that it has in its kitty for us. As per reports, around 15% of consumers have used chatbots in 2018, and most of the time it was for customer service purpose. Moreover, most of these consumers say that they thought chatbots to be better customer care executives than humans.
When we talk about bots, it is not necessary to use them in the field of customer service. Chatbots can be used to drive engagements as well. Brands will soon be using chatbots to help with lead qualification and generate better quality leads. Informative bots can be used as shopping assistants too and help visitors choose what to buy. Moreover, chatbots will help make user interaction more personal. The chatbots can also be programmed to extract data from the users on a website and turn it into a personalized experience.
Some customers are more comfortable talking to bots and sharing information about themselves than they are with human callers. They are ready to share all kinds of information in their conversational sequence, thus providing relevant information to the bot, which can help to find out user needs. Chatbots add a sense of security by creating a comfort zone for the customers. So, you want to give your customers the best user experience, then 2019 is the year for you to get chatbots integrated into your strategy.
Conclusion
If the predictions are correct, then we can assume that 2019 is going to be a big year for digital marketers. The year will witness the most disruptive changes in the marketing scenario, and AI will have a significant role to play. Mixing the above trends in their digital marketing strategies, any company will be able to make it to the top in 2019. Here's to the hope that the coming year is going to be equally fruitful!
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