The 7 Big Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2019 |Hussain Kalsekar

DiaryOfAnInsaneWriter got an opportunity to interact with Mohd. Hussain Kalsekar, an eminent Digital Marketing Leader. At present, he heads Digital Marketing at 24 Frames Digital. He possesses a rich experience of 14 years where he has been instrumental in digitizing and transforming brands. Many of the projects he & his team worked on have won accolades at national and international level.

Here is his #GuestPost on 7 Big Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2019.

Digital marketing is a fast, dynamic landscape. 2018 has been a year of improving and building off of 2017’s social media trends. For marketers to keep ahead of their competition, boosting brand awareness and sales they need to keep up to date with current trends, technologies, and strategies.

“What does 2019 have in store for us?”

Noone can be sure, but I do have some thoughts on Digital Marketing Trends for the upcoming New Year.

The rise of smart speakers:

One of the strangest thing on the digital marketing trends list is the rise of the smart speaker. So how does this tie in with digital marketing? We will see more and more online publications embrace voice and publish audio content to these devices. They’ll do this in hopes of landing a sport on listener’s “Flash Briefing”, encouraging their followers to follow daily.

Smart speakers like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home Pod have made waves in the consumer technology market over the past couple of years. And consumers love them.

65% of smart speaker owners say they wouldn’t want to go back to life without their voice-controlled assistant.

A rise in Snack Ads:

Snack Ads’, no, we are not talking about some munchies. They are short videos less than 10 seconds long. As a result of an abundance of video content, we are developing much shorter attention spans so it is difficult for brands to produce videos that keep consumer’s attention.

That’s where “Snack Ads” come into play. 89% of the online audience is engaged during ads below 10 seconds. By the time the video is shown for 60 seconds, almost half of the audience loses interest.

Expect to see shorter ads being used more by brands in the near future, to try keep their audience engaged. YouTube is the best example of a company using ‘Snack Ads’.

More brands will use Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in 2019

Today’s user wants basically two things: to be engaged and to be an active participant in the brand’s messaging. Augmented and Virtual Realities (AR and VR) can fulfill both of these needs, offering brands tremendous opportunities in the field of customer experience.

Businesses are already embracing the power of this new technology in creating brand awareness, as well as in selling individual products.  Virtual and Augmented Realities are becoming increasingly commonplace as a marketing tool for brands.

The VR and AR market is supposed to be worth 27 billion dollars.  It is expected that in only four years, it will reach the size of 209.2 billion dollars.

Incentivising customers using Blockchain backend:

With consumers being exposed to so much content these days it is hard to keep them engaged in advertisements and to interact with posts. Blockchain technology is present in almost every industry now, but it has an especially promising future in marketing.

Now marketers are beginning to use blockchain to incentivize consumers to sit through advertisements, and engage — whether it be leaving feedback, commenting, or tagging friends.

Increased use of Chatbots for customer interactions:

By 2020, 85% of customer interactions are predicted to be dealt with by chatbots. Chatbots are on the rise, taking over customer service for many brands. Not only are bots an effective way of mass communication, but they also allow for a 24/7 two-way communication channel between your audience and the firm.

Which, apart from boosting customer satisfaction, will also boost your response rate on Facebook — improving SEO and the likelihood that the brand is recommended. Some are hesitant of integrating chatbots into their customer service out of fear of poor user experience. But fear not, a recent survey revealed that 70% of consumers reported a positive experience and a further 9% were mutual about the experience.

 

Facebook messenger has a Click Through Rate (CTR) of 80%. This has huge market potential. Go find a chatbot you like and start using it. NOW!

Organic endorsement through a long-term relationship with Social Media Influencers:

Using social media influencers isn’t exactly a new trend but its importance in digital advertising is growing. Social media influencers are having more and more influence. Many of which have more followers than small nations.

In the past brands have had influencers openly endorse products. However, consumers are more aware of this now and as such are less receptive.

Brands are adopting a subtler approach these days. They are developing long-term relationships with influencers as these long-term relationships allow for the two parties to grow together and produce more organic endorsements.

 A new competitor in Interactive SEO: Visual Search

Machine learning is taking online search to new levels, and it’s not just voice search that’s on the rise. While many have been focused on the marketing potential of capturing conversational queries thrown at personal assistants, big brands such as Google, Pinterest and Microsoft have been focused on developing a stronger competitor in interactive SEO: visual search.

 Conclusion:

The advertising scene continuously grows, what inevitably leads to changes. New marketing trends come to the surface year by year. Some of them stay to reshape the industry; some of them fade away pretty quickly.  Make sure you know how to distinguish them.

Do your research and when needed – adapt. Use the opportunities the market is offering you.

Do you have a question related to the topic? Do ask, we will get them answered by Mr. Kalsekar. Leave your comments and suggestions at the end of this post, we would love to know your thoughts. 

Specially written by Mohd. Hussain Kalsekar 

for DiaryOfAnInsaneWriter

Disclaimer: This article has been exclusively written by Mohd. Hussain Kalsekar for DiaryOfAnInsaneWriter. Any reproduction in any form is prohibited by the copyright law.