Don’t look now, but the new year is nearly here. If you’re a marketer, it’s time to start thinking about what marketing trends are coming up.
You always need to be on top of emerging marketing trends to stay ahead of the competition, find interesting and new ways to reach your clients, customers and followers — as well as establish yourself as a leader in your industry. It all starts with is a little bit of research.
Here are 10 marketing trends you should be embracing in 2019.
1. Chatbots are going to become more prevalent.
Over the past few years, chatbots burst onto the scene and have been helping customers have better experiences with brands. They use machine learning to pick up key words and phrases and assist customers with questions and purchases. They can improve customer service, answer questions quickly and save companies time and money.
Over time, as technology advances, these chatbots have the ability to become smarter and improve their answers and interactions with customers.
According to Facebook statistics, two billion messages are sent between companies and people every month, and 56 percent of people would rather send a message than call a customer service hotline. Marketers can use chatbots in 2019 and beyond to cultivate better relationships with customers.
2. Voice search will be used more often.
People are busy these days. They don’t even have time to type search queries into Google, so instead, they use their voice to ask Siri, Alexa or another virtual assistant to scour the internet for answers. Voice search will only continue to grow next year. According to ComScore predictions, 50 percent of all internet searches will be voice searches by 2020.
What’s that mean for marketers? They need to optimize for voice search. For example, this may include using long-tail keywords in content and making sure all local pages (like Yelp and Google Reviews) are accurate, since many people using voice search are looking for local information.
3. Personal touches will differentiate marketers.
In a time when chatbots are taking over, automated messages are hugely popular and artificial intelligence is becoming the norm, people are going to value personal touches even more. A marketer may not be as fast as a computer, but they can provide one-on-one contact and build great relationships with customers that will keep them loyal to your company.
In 2019, focus on improving customer service and adding personal touches like follow-up phone calls and emails with a live human, as well as sending gift baskets and handwritten thank-you cards to clients and customers.
4. Micro-content/micro-moments are #winning.
Another one of the big marketing trends of 2019 is micro-content. It’s because people’s attention spans are now less than that of a goldfish. As people become more inundated with and reliant on technology, they are turning to search engines to find quick and easy answers for those little moments in life.
Marketers need to create content that matches up with these specific micro-moments like “I want to know where to eat tonight” or “How do you copy a color page?” and give quick answers to people.
5. Live video is going to become more popular …
Facebook and Instagram are continuing to invest in live video. This is because 80 percent of people would rather watch a live video than read a blog post from a company. In addition, 82 percent of people prefer live video to social posts. In 2019, digital marketers are going to need to up their live video game by creating interesting live streams that people want to tune into and comment on.
If marketers are putting best practices into play, they will collect live viewers’ information and send them a call to action/additional marketing materials to eventually turn them into prospects.
6. … and video in general will be shorter.
Short video is another one of the big marketing trends taking place. It’s been shown that shorter videos have a higher completion rate than longer videos. Keep your marketing videos under 90 seconds and you’ll experience a 59 percent average retention rate.
7. IGTV is going to keep growing.
IGTV, which Instagram launched this past summer, keeps introducing new features. For instance, on Nov. 1, 2018, they allowed users to start sharing IGTV videos to their Instagram Stories. As more and more people cut the cord and turn to the internet for entertainment, IGTV and similar platforms will continue to grow.
As a marketer, you can use IGTV, Facebook Watch and YouTube to create episodic videos. Just remember to use the platform that your audience is already on for the best results.
8. Influencer marketing will be bigger.
People trust other people more than they trust faceless brands. After all, 84 percent of people trust online reviews just as much as recommendations from a friend or someone else they know. That’s why influencer marketing is growing. One survey of marketers from 2017 revealed that the swiftest-growing customer-acquisition technique was influencer marketing, beating out organic search, email and display advertising.
Watch out for influencer marketing trends in 2019, and find influencers in your niche that will help you promote your products.
9. There will be an emphasis on location-based marketing.
Location-based marketing spending is predicted to increase at a 24.6 percent annual growth compound rate from nearly $10 billion in 2015 to $29.5 billion in 2020. With location-based marketing, you can target customers based on their locations and send them customized offers. Though retailers and technology haven’t quite matched up, marketers can still push for this. Hire an SEO agency that offers local SEO for small businesses to optimize your visibility in search results. They will make sure your business is shown for keywords that relate to your products or services.
Your location marketing specialist can also figure out ways to send customers coupons while in the store or specific products they might be interested in if they are nearby.
10. Augmented reality will be used more frequently.
Augmented reality is just in its beginning stages. Retailers like Sephora and Timberland are using it to give customers an improved shopping experience. Customers want AR, too. According to a DigitalBridge study from September 2017, a third of consumers would be more inclined to purchase something after using augmented and mixed reality to preview their selections. If you’re a retail marketer, you can work on using AR in-store and giving busy customers an easier way to shop in the future.
2019 will be here in no time. Get a head start and put these marketing trends into action today for amazing results in the new year.
