10 Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore in 2019

Have you ever seen that lamp that’s also a woman’s leg?

At a point in time maybe someone believed that would be the lamp to influence the entire lamp industry. Gladly, no one else caught on. This tells us that some trends are made for changing.

Other’s, like the smartphone, stick around as the new way of doing business.

As competition grows and tastes change, it gets harder for your target base to find you. At their core, digital trends contain the basics of what people want.

Keep reading to discover how these 10 digital marketing trends can help you stand out in 2019.

1. Personalization

Since marketers discovered they could include a customer’s name in an email, personalization has been on the radar.

But companies are dropping the ball.

As these tactics become more familiar, they also become less special. As they lose effect, customers simply scroll past your email.

Forty-four percent of consumers say they are more likely to be repeat customers when their shopping experience is more personalized.

The future of personalized marketing is behavior based.

2. Video and Audio

Three hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. This number sounds daunting, but guess what?

It still pales in comparison to the number of blog and websites on the web. As an unsaturated market, the YouTube search engine is still growing. This means it can still work for you.

In 2019, add video to your arsenal. Optimizing for video platforms can lead to a wider customer base.

Another source of traffic is iTunes. Having a podcast exposes you to listeners with higher disposable income levels.

Audio and video technology is more available than ever. You can create and post high-quality content today.

3. AI

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. Unlike the movies, you can’t sleep all day and let it do the work for you. You can take a few things off the to-do list, though.

Artificial intelligence is helpful in tracking customer data and automating repetitive tasks. AI can purchase adds and run A/B tests. This way, you know you are taking the best path to your business goals.

The time that you gain from bots can be used to focus on opening new marketing channels. It can also help foster customer relationships leading to repeat business.

4. Mobile Apps

As more consumers use the internet via handheld devices, apps will become a stronger source of marketing. Modern App Development is not just for fun and games. Companies are using apps to improve relationships with their customer base.

Mobile apps help personalize client experiences by allowing vendors to log in and place repeat orders. They streamline personal-information access and help to answer questions faster.

5. Multi-Channel Approach

In the early 2000s, you could advertise solely on Facebook or by email and get great returns. Now, with billions of subscribers, it’s more difficult to get discovered. If you’ve owned an email account in the last 5-10 years, you know they’re easy to ignore.

This shift happens because as the natural result of a product’s lifecycle. As time goes on and competition crops up, things become less novel. In the new year and years to come, you have to diversify your channels.

This is why it is so important to bolster your blog efforts with video, audio, and other content.

6. Selling to Existing Customers

Have you heard of the 1,000 true fan’s rule? The concept was created by Kevin Kelly as a means to explain how anyone can sell things.

True fans are defined as a person who will buy anything you produce. So even if you’re a creator of miniature art, this can work for you. You simply have to build a fan base.

In business, these are your existing customers. If you have a sales funnel, you also have a marketing funnel. A sales funnel is a strategy to move a customer along a path to purchase. After they make a purchase, you can start them down a new funnel of marketing.

Offer upsells or downsells to encourage customers to buy from you again.

7. Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion Rate is the number of people that make a purchase as a result of your marketing efforts. As social media gains momentum, companies want to know how their efforts convert.

This is discovered through A/B testing. Each group of your target audience receives a different marketing tactic. From there, you compare what worked and repeat that action. Keep the tactics similar enough so you know where the change in customer decision happened.

Knowing how your customer base behaves will allow you to customize their experience.

8. Voice Search

By next year, half of all searches are expected to be voice searches. Local business marketers, listen up! Local voice searches are 3 times as likely to occur.

To keep up with this trend, tailor your content to answer questions people would ask. The way we write content and the way we verbalize answers differ. So voice searches results will be a result of how people speak, not type.

Tools like AnswerthePublic.com can help you create content in reference to a verbalized question. It is a keyword tool that shows results in the form of questions people ask around the net.

Taking this step will help you rank in Google search results for voice.

9. Content Is Still King

Content is anything that is considered valuable to your target audience. Content marketing isn’t simply a trend, it’s here to stay.

Content helps inform people about what your brand cares about. The key to good content is that it adds value. It educates them on topics related to your business, helping them to make informed decisions. It can also be entertaining.

10. Telling Your ‘Story’

Content marketing is one way to tell your brand’s story.

The story we mean here, though, is social media stories. Platforms like Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram allow you to share your life from day to day.

Harnessing this in a valuable way to widen your customer base. Some chose to make their stories educational. Others choose to showcase their brand on a personal scale.

However you use it, remember the number one rule of content marketing: it must add value.

Winning with Digital Marketing Trends

As long as business competitors exist, marketing trends will keep changing. As long as customers change focus, marketing will keep changing. Digital marketing trends will continue to evolve with the internet.

Add multiple channels to your marketing efforts. Diversifying increases your chances of success. Expand your content with video and audio. Use personalization combined with AI to keep customers coming back.

Also, check out more of our articles on how to improve your business in a creative and unique way.