9 Digital Marketing Trend Predictions for 2019
We’re just a few days into 2019. With digital marketing changing constantly, it’s never too early to educate yourself on the latest trends.
We’re highlighting 9 predictions about digital marketing trends that we expect will take place – or continue taking place – throughout 2019.
1) Voice Search Marketing Continues to Increase
Approximately 19% of online searches today are voice searches. A growing number of users are no longer typing search queries into their devices: they’re simply speaking them. Whether talking to Siri, Alexa, or Google, today’s searchers are increasingly searching with their voice.
On the digital marketing side of things, that means advertisers need to consider voice searches. Today, it’s hard to advertise to voice searchers. They’re typically looking for a specific piece of information. Ideally, they won’t have to interact with their device at all: they’ll just hear the answer spoken out loud by Alexa or Siri.
Nevertheless, companies that can find an effective way to advertise with voice marketing will have an edge over the competition. Voice searches aren’t going away anytime soon.
2) Augmented Reality Becomes Increasingly Mainstream
Augmented reality first went mainstream in the summer of 2016 with the launch of Pokemon GO. Today, augmented reality continues its gradual roll out. Expect to see augmented reality, or AR, continue to emerge in 2019.
As mobile devices become more powerful and social apps are better integrated within our lives, brands will incurably use AR to engage with customers.
Picture a future where brands can trigger sponsored AR content based on your current location. You might walk through a shopping mall, for example, and get a push notification for a great deal at a store near you.
3) Influencer Markets Reach Complete Saturation
Brands are pouring millions of dollars into influencers. Social media personalities have traded social fame for free products.
The influencer market, however, is reaching over-saturation. Take a quick browse through Instagram and you’ll see hundreds of discount codes for products nobody wants to buy. You’ll see forgotten reality TV stars selling detox teas. You’ll see travel bloggers bragging about getting free nights and airline upgrades.
The public is starting to tune out. And Forbes agrees:
“Brands pour millions of dollars into influencers now, but by and large they’re either not measuring or not seeing the results they could get from alternative marketing spends. The market will collapse as brands zero in on a few select individuals who drive results or move to organic grassroots promotion, and away from high-cost, middle-tier influencers who drive awareness but little ROI.”
4) Professional Live Video Streaming Advertising Becomes More Important
2018 was the year social media apps all built live streaming services on their platforms. Today, you can live stream on Facebook, Instagram, and other major social media outlets.
Watch for live streaming to continue growing throughout 2019. Digital marketers will need to capitalize on live streaming advertising opportunities to stay competitive.
5) Personalized Sales Funnels Become the Norm
A personalized sales funnel is an effective sales funnel. Instead of channeling all users into the same sales funnel, wouldn’t it be more effective to display a unique sales funnel to each customer who visits your website? That’s the idea behind a customized sales funnel. As customization technology and tracking technology becomes more prevalent, brands are going to get increasingly effective at building personalized sales funnels.
6) Content Marketing Will Take Place Across All Types of Media
Content marketing has grown over the years. It started as written articles on the internet. People went online to read lengthy, informative articles on whatever topics they were interested in.
Then social media came along. Social media doesn’t just consist of text posts. It includes pictures, videos, live streaming, and other types of media.
Content marketing now refers to a wide range of media. Companies that want to stay on top will need to capitalize marketing efforts across multiple forms of media.
7) Smart Speaker Advertising Will Become a Thing
We touched on this point above when we mentioned voice marketing. However, smart speakers deserve their own category. Smart speaker systems like Google Home and Amazon Alexa are changing the way people interact with the digital world.
How will smart speakers connect with digital marketing? We’ll likely see more and more online publications embrace voice by pushing audio content. Content of the future might be read out loud – not written on a website.
In a related note, expect to see more ads on smart speaker platforms. Publications need to monetize content. They can’t give it away for free. Google, Amazon, and other advertising giants might roll out advertising systems specific to smart speakers. You know those ads you hear in between Spotify songs? Envision something similar to that with smart speakers of the future.
8) There Won’t Be Much of a Difference Between Internet and Television
We’re already seeing internet and TV blend together. You can login to your cable service provider’s website to watch new episodes, for example. You can watch TV anywhere on your smartphone, tablet, or any other internet-connected devices.
Eventually, we’re going to reach a point where the internet and TV completely blend together.
We’ve already seen this from the internet side of things. Companies like YouTube have begun offering television services, for example. YouTube TV lets you watch TV as easily as you watch YouTube. You can even switch between channels – just like you would on an ordinary TV.
It’s only a matter of time before we forget the days when internet and TV were two separate entities.
9) Smarter, More Personalized Advertisements
This is one of the easiest predictions to make on this list. That’s because advertisements have become smarter and more personalized every single year since digital advertising was invented. The more personalized and intelligent an advertisement becomes, the more likely it is to generate revenue.
In 2018, we’ve seen the rise of increasingly intelligent technologies that improve the effectiveness of advertising. Natural language processing and machine learning algorithms are smarter than they’ve ever been before. Watch for this trend to continue in 2019 with increasingly intelligent and increasingly personalized advertisements.
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