Digital marketing so very exciting because it is continually evolving. However, this is also why it is so challenging. If you do not stay ahead of the curve and evolve at the same speed as your peers, you are in danger of being left behind. It is much like surfing. As long as the surfer stays in the right position the wave lifts him to great speeds and heights. If he slackens, he/she gets swallowed by the ocean. The solution, leave digital marketing in the hands of trusted professionals who will continually update, innovate and calibrate your digital marketing campaign for optimum results.
Some of the trends that we anticipate this year are:
Automation: Chatbots And Marketing Through Conversation
You may have the most detailed FAQs on your website. But there is nothing more pleasing to a visitor than typing a question and getting the answer without searching for it. Chatbots are the automated virtual assistants who give your visitors an interactive experience 24/7. Chatbots have been around in a rudimentary fashion but the latest chatbot technology has advanced and has become easier to implement. Chatbots are so evolved that they can guide a potential client in a manner that is very natural and human. They replace the human element of personalized service that you would get if you were to personally visit a brick and mortar company. Chatbots can be programmed to be highly intuitive and are the best way to convert a visitor to your website into a buyer. Some estimates forecast that 8 out of 10 businesses will have chatbots as a part of their digital marketing strategy by the end of 2020.
Personalization
If one observes online trends it is easy to see that the personalization of ads is only growing. Your search for a dinner set would trigger dinner set advertisements showing up more frequently than before. Personalizing all aspects of a digital marketing campaign is definitely a trend that is only going to grow.
Multi-channel Digital Marketing
The number of social media and other channels that are available is many. Some people just prefer one over the other. There are different favorites depending on both geographical location and age group. Just having a presence on a couple of the channels is no longer enough. Digital marketing campaigns have to incorporate a good mix of digital marketing channels to cover a larger potential customer base.
Influencer
The power that a celebrity holds over the masses has been the mainstay of advertising over the decades. This has now taken a new turn with the growth of a new class of self-made celebrity; the influencer. Influencers are the celebrities of social media who capture the attention of a huge number of followers. Their access to and influence over so many people who are interested in one particular niche makes them the ideal people to push a product or brand. Influencers are only going to grow in popularity with users and digital marketers alike.
Shoppable Posts
Though this is not by any means something new, it is being used a lot more and is set to grow in a big way this year. As people are increasingly hooked onto social media, the ability to make the posts shoppable makes buying what you see much easier. The shopping experience is seamless and the bounce rate from click-throughs is reduced. This will generate more revenue from social media posts. The technical aspect of this feature is also becoming increasingly easier to implement using out of the box integrations.
Evolved Searches
SEO is also continually evolving and the newest trend is to make search results more rich and appealing. This makes the list of results more informative than they currently are and is meant to attract the searcher to click through. The way in which this will be implemented will be through Schema markup and structured data. Searches of images are also growing and it is vital that one pays enough attention to the image part of their website as well. Voice searches are also a growing trend.
Enhanced Email
Emails will also get the same treatment as the search results and become more and more attractive and feature-loaded. An email will enable the reader to do more through the email itself rather than just click through to a website. Just imagine the boost that this will give to the attractiveness and lucrativeness of every email that you send.
Automation: Templated Replies
Getting a potential buyer to click through is only the first step. How you use that attention that you captured and convert it into a sale is the most important step in digital marketing. At the end of the day, your marketing campaign is not only about improving visibility but also about generating revenue. So, when you launch a successful marketing campaign you should also plan to keep the momentum by dealing with the flood of responses well. Using templated responses is key. And replying intelligently and appropriately requires intelligent automation of this vital step in digital marketing.
Video
Video marketing campaigns are gaining more momentum when compared to their static predecessors. There is an increase in the number of video marketing campaigns as well as the sharing of these videos through various social media channels.
Augmented Reality
Immersive technologies that seek to enhance the realism of the customer’s experience are being implemented with good results. Some examples are makeup companies that allow you to virtually use samples or spectacle companies that let you try frames on virtually. It is fun to use but no doubt a very useful feature for the customer who wants to interact with the product more before buying.
Content
Regardless of all these trends that are growing, the mainstay of digital marketing is still content marketing. Content is the mainstay of how much value your website holds to the visitor. As long as the search engines value unique and relevant content, a continuously refreshed and updated website with fresh and well-researched content will perform better. And when some people are opting for ad-blockers, being well ranked on web searches is as important as paid search ads.
Static content is, however, is interspersed with interactive content that seeks to engage the interest of the visitor. Polls, quizzes, and 360-degree videos are all gaining popularity with digital marketers.