Top 9 Digital Marketing Trends to Boost Engagement for Business in 2019

With each new year comes new innovations and new technology. It’s forecasted that in 2019 several digital trends will drive business, boost sales, and serve consumers in a much better manner than last year.

While 2018 saw some pretty amazing trends that helped launch businesses in a great direction, this year’s digital marketing trends are sure to create better avenues for consumers to discover future products and bigger brands, and to continue the evolution of business to consumer relations.

Personalization

Personalized marketing has proven beneficial for many brands, companies, and advertisers. Actually, it’s believed that personalized marketing can really help your brand stand out from the crowd and provide a more exclusive feel to those on your email list or other potential buyers. Personalized emails are also proven to be three times more effective than blasted emails. Businesses are now sending personalized content based on the behaviors of consumers.

Popular brands such as Amazon, Netflix, and others are using personalization. This digital marketing trend is expected to continue to grow, as a whopping 96% of advertisers agree that personalization greatly benefits the quality of their relationships with consumers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

     It turns out that Artificial Intelligence isn’t so scary after all. AI is taking over, but only in the best way!

AI has grown significantly in the world of digital marketing trends and continues to trend upward. It helps brands to target their desired audiences through analysis of consumers’ habits and patterns.

AI can also retrieve data from various platforms and provide in-depth analyses of the way consumers behave in matters of products and services. AI is expected to greatly increase growth for businesses in 2019 and beyond.

Video Marketing  

Reaching consumers by way of video is ever-growing, and for good reason. According to Single Grain, consumers are highly likely to engage with video, earning it a top spot in digital marketing trends:

• 52% of buyers are more likely to purchase a product after watching a video about it.
• 65% of executives check out a company’s website after viewing, while 39% of those executives proceed to contact a vendor.
• 70% of buyers share a brand’s video after viewing.
• 72% of businesses have improved conversion rates through video marketing.

Video marketing is great, since it spans a variety of social media platforms. While YouTube is globally known as a video hub of sorts, the promoting of video can be done on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn alike. As this trend grows, businesses find new ways to promote through video. For example, many companies now go live, allowing consumers a sneak peek into the brand’s world. These include videos showing the company way of life, a glimpse into demos, product creation, interviews, and more.

This provides a more personal way to connect with your audience while also piquing their interest through your brand. All in all, video marketing is a cost-effective way to reach consumers and build rapport. This is the perfect recipe, if you want to grow your business and attract more consumers in 2019.

Voice Search

Most of us can attest to how voice search simplifies our daily lives. Brands are now pairing the convenience of voice search with digital marketing, allowing buyers to experience greater ease of purchase across various brands. Studies show that 39 million Americans now use voice search and smart speakers, with 65% saying they would never live without these features ever again. This statistic alone shows that the use of voice search will continue to rise, with companies such as Dominos hopping on board this trend to market to consumers.

Brands have found that voice search and smart speakers enable them to reach consumers even more closely. Now more than ever, as the new voice ad feature is rolling out, brands can purchase ad space. Once Alexa is asked a question, the answer will be followed by the ad space purchased by a company or “her sponsor.”

Visual Search

Instead of typing in a search term or phrase as usual, you can now upload a picture of a product to yield more detailed results. Some major brands, including Google and Pinterest, have launched tools to help consumers locate the items or products they seek. Lens, a tool created by Pinterest, allows buyers to simply take a picture of a desired item and then relays information back about that product’s location online, pinboards for the product, and other similar products.

Google’s visual search app, Google Search, is similar. It lets buyers take snaps of images such as objects, locations, and more. Details on these images are then quickly relayed back through the app. This helps consumers to save the time otherwise spent on manual searching while allowing companies to quickly fulfill consumer needs with one simple snap.

Pinterest’s CEO talks about the ways visual technology is transforming how people get inspired, find new ideas and do what they love.

Stories

Social media stories are popular among top social media platforms as they have changed the way we share our moments. This is great for advertisers since it takes only seconds to capture the attention of potential buyers and convert them into customers. Several companies have caught on, and now apply this unique marketing trend to their products and services.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of stories is the fact they are only seconds long. This makes them ideal for brands to feature products, events, or anything that may be in the making, behind the scenes. Ultimately, stories give consumers a quick insight into what’s to come and what they don’t want to miss. This is where FOMO, or the fear of missing out, can really hit home and increase conversion rates for your business.

Social Messaging Applications

It’s no secret that we use social messaging apps daily to connect with our loved ones, but these apps can also be used to reach new potential customers. There are one billion users active on Facebook Messenger each month, with two billion messages being exchanged between consumers and businesses each month. WhatsApp boasts of one billion monthly users, with 55 billion messages being exchanged every day (wow!).

Alongside them are other apps with social messaging features, such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, WeChat, and YouTube. These apps continue to grow, with more and more users sending more messages daily. This is useful in the wonderful world of digital marketing, as businesses can now directly message and advertise their businesses. It’s also great because it provides a personal experience which correlates with personalization, another growing digital marketing trend. So, whether you want to let people know about your next webinar or advertise your forthcoming new line of clothing, social messaging will certainly do the trick!

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a way to bring new consumers to your business by using their influence over a large fan base. That being said, an influencer does not have to be a celebrity. Influencers can be YouTubers, bloggers, Instagram influencers, etc. Taking the route of influencer marketing takes out the need to directly approach or market to consumers. You simply pay the influencer and they advertise your business to their audience.

There are many benefits of influencer marketing. It boosts SEO, it’s cost-effective, helps in strategizing content, increases brand awareness, helps build your credibility as a business, and much, much more. Perhaps one of the best benefits of influencer marketing is that no matter the size of your business, you can gain from it, whatever industry you are in. As long as you choose influencers who can provide your needs as an advertiser, the sky truly is the limit with this awesome digital marketing trend.

Chatbots

Chatbots have helped and continue to help businesses run more efficiently while cutting costs. The artificial technology which instantly chats with customers 24/7 is currently used, or planning to be used, by 80% of businesses. Over one billion consumers interact with the technology on a monthly basis and that number is expected to grow through 2020.

Chatbots are heavily preferred over regular customer service agents for a few reasons, with one being they are much quicker to respond. Customers also prefer them as bad attitudes and impatience are non-existent, while answers to questions and problems are always accurate, and promptly resolved.

Quite a few big-name companies have been using chatbots for some time, including Facebook Messenger, Uber, and Square. It’s no wonder this digital marketing trend continues to be popular among consumers. Chatbots create a simple and seamless experience for consumers and companies alike.