Top Digital Marketing Trends of 2019

We’re living in the era where trends come and go so fast that they can be tough to follow sometimes. However, there are certain digital marketing trends and tendencies of late 2018 and early 2019 you should be aware of since we believe they’re here to stay.

For a company that’s into digital marketing, being aware of a trend and anticipating it can become a real competitive advantage - if you know how to leverage it, that is.

Here’s a list of the current digital marketing trends that are not to be overlooked in 2019.

Digital Marketing in 2019: What to Expect?

Before we start off by listing the upcoming trends, let’s remind ourselves quickly the current hot ones, which probably will continue well into 2019.

Among them are:

1. Chatbots and various applications that utilize AI
2. Influencers and native advertising
3. Live videos and video marketing
4. Voice search
5. Mobile search and micro-moments
6. Social networks
7. Personal data protection

Now, let’s take some of them for a closer look.

Chatbots and AI

AI has been one of the hottest and most-talked about trends of the past few years - and it’s developing pretty quickly. In 2016, they were still a cool little gimmick that no one took seriously. In 2017, chatbots started to get introduced into a lot of major services. In 2018, it finally became a well-recognized trend.
This all makes us wonder what we will see in 2019 - it’s safe to say, that chatbots will continue to be utilized for more processes instead of humans and will generally become smarter.

The technology itself is a perfect time-saver and can save you a lot of money. If you haven’t yet considered using chatbots for your website, now is the time. Here’s why:

• Chatbots can help you cut down the costs and save time

They won’t come to you begging for a raise, call in sick, or have a bad day. Chatbots work for you (and your clients) 24/7 and won’t ever fail you as long as your Internet connection is stable.

• They can actually provide a personalized experience for every client

Chatbots of 2018 are pretty darn smart and can do much more than robotized “Yes/No” replies they used to be known for. They can be programmed to learn and adapt based on the data received making them more and more human-like when it comes to day-to-day conversations.

• They can process more requests and do it faster

A great example comes from Chinese mobile platform WeChat, which is basically an analog of Viber or WhatsApp. WeChat uses a chatbot technology that can help you make an appointment at the doctor’s, pay your bills, call a taxi, or shop online.

In fact, you can even have a chat with it - in case you get bored with humans=).

• They can help you gather more useful information about your clients

Bots can be helpful when it comes to collecting some data on your audience and their preferences, which is extremely useful for any marketing campaign you might run in the future.

If you haven’t tried the chatbot technology for your website yet, you’d better do it now since your competitors might already be working on it. Chatbots are definitely going to see wider usage in 2019, and you don’t want to miss out on that trend.

Influencers and Native Advertising

Influencers are people who run text or video blogs/channels that have a substantial audience and reach in a particular market niche. The influence these bloggers have on their audience can be (and is) used for “integrating” small, paid promotions into their content.

The best way to do it is as if it were a tip from a friend, recommendation, or good advice you should definitely follow. Needless to say, this type of advertising works MUCH MORE effectively than regular text ads, banners or pre-rolls. If done right, it comes off as a friendly tip and mere recommendation rather than constant “buy this” nagging we’re all used to.

In fact, we’ve already published a piece on bloggers and influencers before so be sure to read it here.

Live Videos and Video Marketing

People are lazy creatures by nature, which is not necessarily a bad thing. When it comes to marketing, people’s laziness means that videos are taking over the regular text ads and articles since they’re easier to digest.

In 2019, live videos will continue to remain one of the most effective ways of keeping in touch with your audience, grabbing and holding their attention without investing much.

Voice Search

Continuing the topic of human laziness comes voice search - for all the same reasons: it’s just easier and more convenient than the hand-typing thing. Seriously - why bother typing when you can just say it out loud?

Voice-initiated searches now account for more than 30% of all the searches processed by Google, and there’s no reason this trend will not continue into 2019.

As analysts from ComScore predict, the share of voice searches will increase up to 50% by 2020.
For us, common business folk, it means that you should tailor your ads for voice search, among other things.

Mobile Search and Micro-Moments

It’s hard to say something new about the mobile search and how everyone uses their mobile phones instead of desktop devices.

Micro-moments deserve a special mention though. As defined by Google, micro-moment is an intent-rich moment when a person turns to a device to act on a need-to-know, go, do, or buy. Therefore, the key to your success as a brand is to identify these micro-moments within your audience, anticipate and act on them thus satisfying a client’s need.

The purchase decision is made within a matter of seconds - you want to make sure your brand will be there quick enough for your users when they’re about to make that decision.

Social Media

In case, you’ve never noticed it but Facebook is now 15 years old, Twitter is 12 and Instagram is almost 10. Social networks have become such an integral part of our lives that we don’t even consider them a modern technology anymore - seems like they’ve been with us forever.

In fact, the number of people with accounts on social networks has recently reached an astonishing 3 billion!

This trend will definitely continue into 2019 with more people joining social media and actively using it.

See how the specialists of our studio helped businesses from all over the world to utilize social media to increase sales and brand awareness - view our portfolio.

Personal Data Protection

European authorities issued a new law regulating the process of collecting and storing user data. It’s called the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and it is aimed at providing the citizens of the EU with the complete control of their personal data on the Internet.

The issue of privacy and data safety is a major one - with all these leaks and hackers, people have become more aware of how and where their personal data is stored.

So, if you want to show people you actually respect their privacy concerns, you should implement additional data safety measures and let your users know about it.

Internet Marketing Trends of 2019: New Tendencies

Now that we’re done with the ongoing trends that will continue to remain relevant in 2019, it’s time to actually talk about the new, fresh trends that have started to become a thing just recently and will most likely become a thing in 2019.

These trends are:

1. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)
2. Interactive content
3. Visual search

Let’s get into some detail.

AR and VR

Users now are spoiled enough to prefer the ads that provide some interaction with the product or service that’s being advertised. AR and VR technologies give us just that.

In fact, IKEA has already launched a special mobile application that allows its users to “fit” a furniture item they like into their apartment to see what it might look like before actually buying it.

Examples like these just prove that AR and VR are yet to demonstrate their full power - most likely, it will happen in 2019.

Interactive content

Closely related to augmented reality, interactive content allows users to get (almost) hands-on experience with the product or service, which increases the chances of them making a purchase.

For example, a landscape design and decoration shop called “Better Homes & Gardens” introduced a really nifty trick on their website. You can actually apply different landscaping options to your own backyard or garden using their computer modeling.

But it doesn’t have to get that sophisticated - you can engage your audience by running a series of polls, quizzes or tests on your website. Guaranteed to increase brand awareness.

Visual search

Another major trend of the upcoming year, visual search is kind of like search in reverse. Normally, you would enter some text search to find a picture matching that query. Visual search allows you to scan an object with your smartphone camera and get instant search results related to this object on the Internet.

The technology associates the objects you scan with the current database of similar images and finds the most relevant ones. Here are a few practical applications of visual search:

• Make a client leave some contact details (email, phone, etc.) in exchange for some action involving visual search. E.g., you can exchange it for a business card.

• As many specialists predict, small landing pages will be more successful than huge, multi-functional websites with overwhelming functionality. The main thing here is smart and original positioning that will make your product or service stand out. 
• Earn the client’s trust right there on the spot. It’s actually very simple: you publish your ad in a printed magazine or online complete with a direct, active link to your website. If the client became interested in your brand, it will only take for him/her two taps to get your website.
• Go “omnichannel”. In order to maximize your conversion rate and overall reach, you need to use multiple channels. Here’s an example of how you could schedule your marketing activities:

1. Sending SMS on Monday
2. Sending emails on Tuesday
3. Sending voice messages on Wednesday
4. Sending push notifications on the website on Thursday
5. Sending physical letters on Friday
6. Live stream on social media on Saturday
7. News compilation on Sunday

• Launch countdowns to big events. People like to anticipate something nice and rewarding. If you want to test this theory out, make a huge sales announcement a week prior to the start of the mentioned sales thus keeping their interest. In fact, e-shops tend to abuse this technique quite a bit around Black Friday.
• Real, “physical” letters make their comeback. Possibly, this is a reaction to the overwhelmingly “digital” communications we’ve all got involved in recently. Why not surprise your clients with a good old letter featuring some visual search trick?

That’s it for the 2019 digital marketing trends. Stay inspired and don’t be afraid to experiment!

If you ever need professional advice or quality assistance with any of these marketing tricks, be sure to contact our specialists at Zwebra!