Marketing Tools: Digital Marketing Trends 2019

I'm a big fan of finding the latest tools that help me find digital marketing trends.

While digital marketing trends will only help you execute a proper strategy (they won't do the work for you), choosing the right track for your marketing can really help you zoom past the competition.

In 2019, the digital marketing landscape has been disrupted so much that what was effective just a few years ago is now old hat.

Posting content to social media - one of marketing tool was once all you needed to grow, a trend to following. Today, customer interactions come at a premium. If you aren’t wowing your customers with personalized content or starting a real conversation with them, you’re falling behind the curve.

While some businesses are on the cusp of the latest digital marketing trends, many others are still playing catch-up to what was hot a few years ago.

If you still feel like your head is spinning from 2018, 2019 promises to be even more disruptive. And it isn’t just new technologies that are changing the game. Digital trends that you need to follow.

What are the major trends that can help me?

The list of major digital marketing trends has been listed below:

1. Omni-channel Marketing

Marketing is undergoing rapid and major changes. We are moving away from the mass, “push” - based digital marketing, and towards more personalized, 1:1 communication with consumers, through the many trending channels and on the many devices they use. The effectiveness and ROAS (return on ad spend) of print media, television ads, and batch and blast email campaigns are on the decline.

Unfortunately, when it comes to omni-channel, multi-device digital marketing trend, consumers today are way ahead of most marketers.

Omnichannel refers to the multichannel sales approach that provides the customer with an integrated shopping experience. The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, via phone, or in a brick-and-mortar store, and the experience will be seamless.

1.1 What is omni-channel marketing?

First of all, what is omni-channel digital marketing? The term “omni-channel” may be a marketing buzzword, but it refers to a significant shift: marketers now need to provide a seamless experience, regardless of channel or device. Consumers can now engage with a company in a physical store, on an online website or mobile app, through a catalog, or through social media. They can access products and services by calling a company on the phone, by using an app on their mobile smartphone, or with a tablet, a laptop, or a desktop computer. Each piece of the consumer’s experience should be consistent and complementary. 

That creates onmi-channel marketing that bring customer to business with the latest trends.

1.2. Differences between multichannel & omni-channel marketing

Multi- and omni-channel approaches differ in that omni-channel digital marketing really puts the customer at the core to ensure a completely consistent, unified experience at every touchpoint as opposed to simply enabling that touchpoint. You can think of it this way, too: multi-channel means many, omni-channel means all (the customer is literally at the center).

Omni-channel’s focus on the customer’s experience brings about the second key difference between the strategies: consistency. Omnichannel businesses are diligent in ensuring their customers receive the same experience and messaging through each and every channel.

A consistent brand image and message ensure a heightened sense of familiarity and relationship with the brand. Marketers implementing an omni-channel digital marketing strategy must ensure that all internal departments are on board and in-tune with the messaging. For example, PR, customer success, social media and sales teams, must all be portraying this consistent message to ensure the strategy implementation is successful.

2. AI - Artificial Intelligence Marketing

By now, savvy marketers may have heard of Artificial Intelligence Marketing in the digital market (AI Marketing), the newest wave of data-driven digital marketing strategy that is taking the digital world by storm. Artificial Intelligence enables marketers to create highly personalized consumer experiences that cost significantly less than traditional high-dollar campaigns. Every interaction a prospect or consumer has with a product or solution is utilized for future optimization.

AI takes conversion management solutions to the next level. Marketers can now compare sophisticated inbound communication side-by-side against traditional metrics to help answer difficult strategy questions. With AI digital marketing, there are no longer questions about whether or not a prospect is ready for a discussion, the data provides the answer.

While there are various ways to optimize digital advertising and account-based marketing, AI solutions help marketers take them a step further for deeper insight and analysis. AI can tap into the abundance of consumer data hidden in keyword searches, social profiles, and other online data, for smarter and more effective digital ads. The results are human-level outcomes and insights without manual human labor.

2.1. What is artificial intelligence marketing?

Artificial intelligence marketing (AI Marketing) is a method of leveraging customer data and AI concepts like machine learning to anticipate your customer’s next move and improve the customer journey. One of the major trend of digital marketing nowadays.

The evolution of big data and advanced analytic solutions have made it possible for digital marketers to build a clearer picture of their target audiences than ever before, and in this hotbed of advancement lies artificial intelligence (AI) marketing.

Armed with big data insights, digital marketers can greatly boost their campaigns’ performance and ROI, all of which can be achieved with essentially no extra effort on the marketer’s part. While this definition provides an overview of artificial intelligence marketing at the most basic level, there is obviously much more that goes into it. We’ll be addressing all of the details in the content to follow.

2.2. Artificial intelligence marketing advantages

One of the advanced capabilities of AI is its ability to analyze large blocks of open content and identify trends. This allows brands to interact directly with consumers in real-time through online conversations or events. Communicating with consumers at the precise ‘decision-making moment’ can help directly influence buying decisions. AI helps marketers monitor these social conversations and other open forums to identify any relevant conversations.

There’s no better time for digital marketers to begin testing how Artificial Intelligence strategies can help create highly personalized experiences for their consumers. With AI poised to continue growing across all industries and segments, marketers should dedicate time and resources to experimenting with strategies and ensure their digital marketing organization is set up for continued success, both now and in the future.

3. Automatic Chatbots

It's 2019, and you are probably wondering if it's about time you use chatbots in your digital marketing strategy.

Chatbots have been a pretty big digital industry buzzword for a few years now. To recap, a chatbot is any computer program that can carry on conversation with humans in a natural, fluid way.

Let’s get real, though.

There’s a huge difference between a bot answering “yes” or “no” questions and a bot that provides meaningful experiences.

And so the positive impact of chatbots really hinges on the quality of a brand’s bot.

This begs the question: what makes a “good” chatbot, anyway?

The speedy service offered by bots is exactly what people crave in the era of instant gratification. Rather than let customer concerns or potential sales fall by the wayside, social chatbots can pick up the slack and keep your business “open” around the clock.

Using chatbots as your digital marketing trend, you can put together actions and workflows that also show off your brand’s personality.

3.1 What is a chatbot, exactly?

The most advanced bots are powered by artificial intelligence, helping it to understand complex requests, personalize responses, and improve interactions over time. This technology is still in its infancy, so most bots follow a set of rules programmed by a human via a bot-building platform. It's as simple as ordering a list of if-then statements and writing canned responses, often without needing to know a line of code.

Say you want a new charger for your robot suit from your favorite superhero supply store. You could visit their website, scroll through 20 or 30 product pages, fill out the form with your shipping and payment information, and so on. But if it had a chatbot, it could simply select the right product and provide you information about the product for confirmation and finally option to purchase and payment helps just using the text or voice of your conversation.

But new uses for chatbots are emerging all the time, including:

• Lead qualification
• Shopping assistance
• Website browsing guidance
• Knowledgebase research
• Talent recruiting
• Self-service
• Accessibility
• A cool marketing tool

They accomplish their task, start to finish, in the place where you already spend your time: messaging apps. Whether it's Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, or Viber, bots integrate with these apps and are available for you to chat with.

3.2 Why do digital marketers use chatbots?

It’s no secret that chatbots are great in a customer digital service capacity.

According to Gartner, by 2020, customers may manage up to 85% of their interactions with a company without ever even speaking to a human.

But we would be mistaken to assume that customer service is all chatbots are used for. They can also be an important part of other aspects of your marketing strategy.

A well-planned chatbot can serve as an engagement driver, lead generator, and can even help with digital market research.

Chatbots can offer round-the-clock, available information. Whether it’s on Facebook Messenger or a company’s own website, customers have access to quick and easy answers to their questions.

The best part? No expectation that people will jump through the additional hoop of downloading an app they probably won’t use more than once. Or an app they’ll most likely delete once they have gotten the answers they’re looking for.

4. Personalized Marketing

In recent years, personalized marketing has become one of the most effective trends for business owners use to promote their digital products and drive more revenue. Serving the right message to the right customer (at the correct time, on the best digital platforms) makes your message resonate that much more. For a better digital marketing journey, personalized marketing becomes one of the key factor.

According to a survey by Infosys, 86% of consumers say that personalization has some impact on what they purchase; and one quarter admits personalization ‘significantly influences’ their buying decisions.

Marketing personalization has numerous benefits:

• Better customer experiences
• Increased brand loyalty
• More revenue
• Cross-channel selling opportunities
• Brand consistency

Providing entirely personalized customer service is a goal for many businesses because entrepreneurs implicitly understand that it breeds loyalty and increases conversions. That said, it is incredibly difficult to execute. 

4.1. What is personalized marketing?

Personalized marketing (or one-to-one marketing tool) can be defined in a number of ways, but at the most basic level, it can be explained as follows:

Personalized marketing is the implementation of a strategy by which companies deliver individualized content to recipients through data collection, analysis, and the use of automation technology.

The goal of personalized marketing is to truly engage customers or prospective customers by communicating with each as an individual.

4.2. How is a personalized marketing campaign developed?

Digital marketing. In addition to making personalized recommendations, web pages can also be designed to display other content based on customer history; in fact, entire landing pages can be built out of this. Thus, when a customer arrives at the website, the referral source, geographic location, and purchase history can all influence what is presented on the page.

Direct mail and e-mail. Greeting somebody by the first name is more engaging than “Dear customer,” but direct mailings can do so much more than that. Lead data can be integrated into the mailings, so those specific products or trending offers are highlighted accordingly. This is markedly easier with e-mail, but reductions in variable printing costs make it possible for physical mail as well. For example, if your mailing list is generated from your customer database, then information on prior purchases can be used to suggest future ones. Database marketing activities that already generate highly targeted lists can be used to cater to specific individuals as well.

Business-to-business (B2B). Before contacting agents and decision-makers in the target business, one of the digital marketing trends, lead intelligence can be collected on the specific challenges they are facing in their position, and this used to frame pitches. Additionally, a search on LinkedIn can turn up mutual contacts that can be leveraged for references, or making a point of common contact. 

Social media marketing. This method enables you to respond to customers on social media, answering their questions and engaging them. A personal interaction here (as opposed to automated responses) goes a long way. It may seem like a lot of effort for a single customer, but those active in social media are more likely to share with friends, thus connecting you to even more contacts.

5. Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic ad buying has changed the face of digital advertising, but there’s still confusion around what it actually is.

According to marketing statistics. In 2018, 80% of digital display marketing in the US was done via programmatic advertising.

If you or your business uses digital advertising, you will have heard people raving about how programmatic ads have changed the landscape. 

And if up until now, you have nodded sagely while people have made that proclamation but not really understood it, you’re in luck. Programmatic advertising a great marketing tool that plays playing a key role in the latest digital marketing trends.

Managing ads is a full-time job for digital marketing. But with so many new channels to reach customers through, not even a full-time advertising team has enough hours in the day to keep up. That’s why more and more companies are trying to let Artificial Intelligent (AI) advertise take it over.

Programmatic advertising exists in a wide range of digital channels, including display, mobile, video and social.

5.1. What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic ad buying, put simply, is the use of software to buy digital advertising for digital marketing. Whereas the traditional method includes requests for proposals, tenders, quotes and human negotiation, programmatic buying uses machines and algorithms to purchase display space.

However, it is not the complete automation of the ad buying process. Traditionally you would have manually prepared insertion orders or ad tags, which can be menial but labor-intensive. With programmatic ads, humans have more time for the optimization and improvement of ads.

Humans will always be needed to plan and optimise advertising, but programmatic advertising will mean there will be fewer ad buyers.

What the software will mean, however, is that those who are doing the job will be able to better plan, better optimise and better target their advertising.

5.2. Why does programmatic advertising matter?

Before programmatic ad buying, digital ads were bought and sold by human ad buyers and salespeople, who can be expensive and unreliable. Programmatic advertising technology promises to make the ad buying system more efficient, and therefore cheaper, by removing humans from the process wherever possible. Humans get sick, need to sleep and come to work hungover. Machines do not.

Technology is being used to replace some of the more menial tasks that humans have historically had to handle, like sending insertion orders to publishers and dealing with ad tags, but they’re still required to optimize campaigns and to plan strategies. Programmatic technology will probably mean there are fewer ad buyers in the world, but it could also allow both marketers and sellers to spend more of their time planning sophisticated, customized campaigns instead of getting bogged down in bureaucracy.

6. Video Content Marketing

In 2019 video content marketing is trending. That is why every brand needs a video marketing strategy this idea isn't new. What has changed is how important video has become on every platform and channel.

Video is no longer just one piece of your overall digital marketing plan. It's central to your outreach and campaign efforts especially your social media marketing strategy.

Video content has absolutely dominated social. According to a recent report, four of the top six channels on which global consumers watch a video are social channels.

Why is this important? If you aren't creating a video, you're likely falling behind. But don't fret. For most videos, the more simple and raw it is, the more authentic the content seems and that's what really matters to your audience.

Better yet, video production is more cost-effective than ever, you can shoot in high-quality, 4K video with your smartphone and use it as your marketing tools.

Check out the video of an e-commerce platform explainer video by Nox Bit Digital 

By 2020, video will make up more than 85% of all consumer internet traffic in the U.S. Most of the videos people will be watching won’t be uploaded by brands or businesses – they’ll be uploaded by individuals.

Digital marketers can use video for several strategies, even for advertising. Here are some types of marketing videos any business can make in 2019:

• How-to videos
• Product walkthroughs
• Explainer
• Influencer interviews
• Customer testimonials
• Behind the scenes videos
• Company culture videos
• Event videos
• Webinars

Make the most of the emotive power of video by appealing to your consumers’ needs and hidden desires. Scared you’ll lose leads this way? You can always place a strategic and relevant call to action alongside a tracked URL at the end of your video (just make sure it fits into your overall story).

6.1. How to do video marketing

On the surface, the how of video content marketing is pretty simple: Your brand creates videos that, in some way or another, promote your company, drive sales, raise awareness of your products or services, or engage your customers. A digital marketing tool that works great for promote digitally. In practice, it’s a little more complicated. Like many of your marketing efforts, video marketing is data-driven, so you’ll want to monitor various metrics and track customer engagement.

To develop your video marketing strategy, you’ll want to:

Allocate resources. You’re going to need to designate some budget for video content – at the least, decent equipment, good editing software, and a video marketing guru (or, better, team) – as well as time to create it.

Tell your stories. Storytelling has never been as important as it is in video, so get brainstorming: What stories do you want to tell? How will you tell them? do you just want to follow the digital marketing trends or tell people to know what you are offering?

Engage. It’s not enough to simply tell your stories; you must engage your audience while you do so. How will you make your stories interesting? What will hook your audience?

Keep it short. There’s no set length for digital marketing videos (although there are recommendations), but the general rule is that shorter is better. Be ruthless with your editing. Cut, cut, cut out everything extraneous. Attention spans are short, so make the best of what you get.

Publish. Publish your videos far and wide – embedded in your website, uploaded to Google-owned YouTube, and on all your social media channels. Then, promote, promote, promote.

Analyze. Track metrics and stats, to determine which videos do the best – and why.

7. Next-Generation SEO

There’s been so much rapid, ongoing changes in the digital market and specially with the giant search engine Google, that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. And it’s especially true when it comes something that sounds as complex as search engine optimization (SEO).

You can follow our guide-to-SEO for beginners to get started with SEO today.

The rationale of search engine optimization is very simple. If we can work out what factors the search engine algorithms favor, we can do more of it which is called white-hat SEO. Our reward will be a high ranking, meaning more people can find us, which results in more traffic.

In theory, the incentive of the search engine and that of the SEO should be aligned. The SEO works out exactly what the search engine wants, and hands it to them on a plate.

The problem is a reality.

Search engines, in reality, aren’t near as clever as those running them sometimes make out. They are susceptible to gaming. Sergey Brin, a few years back, even went so far as to suggest “there is no spam, only bad algorithms”. The existence of a webspam team appears to indicate the algorithms still need plenty of work.

There are other problems in terms of incentives. The search engines make their money not by the relevance of the search results, but by the relevance of the advertising. Unless competition is finely balanced between search engines – which it hasn’t been for many years now – the search results need only be “good enough”. Does a search engine really want the searcher finding the most relevant content in the main search results? The business case would demand something a little more subtle, which is not good news for webmasters who rely on gaming the algorithms.

Secondly, a search engine would prefer the money being spent on SEO was going into PPC. If it is considerably cheaper to game the algorithm than run PPC, then few people would bother with PPC. In this respect, SEOs are a competitive threat to the search engines advertising business, yet the incentive for the webmaster is to minimize marketing spend. The search engines, therefore, would have an incentive to drive up the cost of SEO.

To generate high revenue from digital marketing you don't have any other option rather than playing with search optimizing. 

To optimize for search in 2019, businesses should do the following:

• Create pages with UX in mind, not the search engine
• Prioritize an easy user experience
• Integrate different types of media into each page
• Implement a white hat backlinking strategy
• Optimize every page for load speed
• Use schema markup
• Use a sitemap
• Focus on video
• Create more long-form written content
• Optimize for local search

SEO has always been a great tool compare to all the other digital marketing trends.

Conclusion

Bottom line, overall strategy, and results will always depend on your affords on digital marketing. Even with all these digital trends might don't work for you, but with a proper plan and a solid strategy to optimize your marketing for each level of your sales funnel. You can even achieve even more then you calculate. Determine what trend will best work for your digital marketing success.

Then, test. Analyze. and finally, choose the right marketing tools that work best for you. when necessary. Work to make them more effective. And whatever you do, follow at least one of the trend in 2019 and beyond, it’s the cornerstone of your brand’s marketing efforts.