Digital Marketing Trends of 2019

Digital marketing trends continue to evolve year after year- and it’s all for the best. As a digital marketer, the ever-changing trends are not something you can simply ignore.

By adopting new marketing trends, you can easily outshine your competitors, promote brand awareness, and increase sales. In this article, we discuss the major digital marketing trends to follow in 2019, as well as those that are outdated.

2019 Digital Marketing Trends

  1. Voice Search is Bigger and Better!

According to Comscore, 50% of all queries will be voiced-based by the year 2020.

Of course, with the rise of smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, Apple Homepod, and Microsoft’s Cortana, this is one trend that is going to be huge by the end of 2019.

Instead of typing their questions on search engines like Google, users can get immediate answers to their questions through voice search.

As a digital marketer, it’s time to include voice search in your digital marketing strategies. This will help provide value-based content to your consumers.

2. Chatbots are even hotter than before!

Chatbots have been, and will still be, a major influence in digital marketing this year. There is no doubt about that.

Chatbots are an AI technology that uses instant messaging to chat with customers in real-time 24/7. With approximately 1.4 billion people around the world already interacting with chatbots, research indicates that more than 80% of businesses are already using the messaging technology or plan to by the year 2020.

Using chatbots in your business can enable speedy responses and improve customer service. However, for complex questions, chatbots should not replace human conversations.

3. Video marketing isn’t slowing down any time soon

One of the biggest digital marketing trends right now is video marketing. According to research, approximately 52% of customers say watching product videos at one time or another has helped them make more informed online purchases.

Statistics from the same report indicate that 70% of online visitors have shared a specific brand video, and that about 72% of businesses claim that video marketing has significantly improved their conversion rate.

If you look at the number of videos shared every day on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, then you understand why video marketing is the future.

4. Facebook marketing will be much bigger

From the automotive to the fashion industry, businesses around the globe can attest to the fact that Facebook marketing through ads can really help improve conversion rate, promote brand awareness, and of course, increase traffic to business websites.

Facebook is still the most popular social media platform with over 2.27 billion users. This is a huge market that you should consider tapping into this year.

5. Content will still be king

Search engines like Google have been pushing for good quality content over the past few years. Gone are the days when people could just post low-quality content on their site and rank with ease. In 2019, content is still king, and that isn’t going to change soon.

Furthermore, internet users are putting more trust in high-quality, well-researched, and informative content.

Basically, your business content goal this year should be all about providing value to your readers. You will not only see a bump in traffic and profits, but more people will know your brand.

6. Instagram Ads will be hotter than ever

Instagram has been experiencing massive growth over the past few years, with its total users hitting 1 billion in 2018.

A recent survey reported that internet marketers plan to increase their expenditures on Instagram ads in 2019. Of course, this means there is a lot of money to be made, and you should probably follow the same trend.

Additional Digital Marketing Trends you should not ignore include:

• Micro-influencer marketing
• Virtual reality marketing
• Live video marketing
• Email marketing
• Browser push notifications
• Content personalization
• Mobile first optimization

Digital Marketing Trends to Drop in 2019

Due to major improvements in technology, customer behavior, and other business changes, there are various trends that are now outdated and no longer beneficial to businesses. These types of trends must be dropped to pave the way for newer, innovative trends.

Here are some of the outdated digital marketing trends you should discontinue in 2019:

• Short form content- the longer the better to avoid algorithmic penalties and to outshine competition

• Intrusive messaging- consumers are put off by constant advertising messages. There are better ways to promote your products or business

• Spammy email- like messages, people hate it when digital marketers send a lot of emails every single day. It’s not only spammy, but it’s also annoying

• Sending out too many tweets- tweeting every 20 minutes can be such a huge turn off for your followers. The same goes for Facebook posts and other social platforms

• Mobile pop ups

Wrapping it Up

There you have it, the 2019 digital marketing trends to follow. Without a doubt, the only way to succeed in the digital marketing era is to stay informed and adopt trends that will drive business and increase brand awareness.  Conversely, investing in outdated digital marketing is not a good spend of your marketing dollars.

LightHouse Graphics specializes in several areas of online presence, including website design, social media management, and content creation. If your business needs assistance in these areas, contact us. We’d love to work with you.