Upcoming Digital Marketing Trends 2019 Part I (What you should look for!)

No one has a perfect formula to Digital marketing. And it won’t be discovered anytime soon. Every business is different and their customers are different. Only sincere and consistent growth experiments can help you figure out which channels, messaging, or method fits you.

Some Digital Marketing trends however have been tested and proved to bring success with a majority of businesses from time to time. In this blog, we discuss such experiment-worthy digital marketing trends from 2018 and anticipate the trends for 2019.

1. New trends in Social Media Marketing

A huge amount of the internet time is spent on social media – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube LinkedIn, and Twitter. Social Media is in fact one of the most widespread addictions.

People are more themselves on social media and also throw open a lot personal/professional information. With this amount of information businesses can access, they can definitely understand their audience better and engage with more thoughtfulness. The goal of social media marketing is to constantly engage with your audience and eventually gain attention to your business or drive traffic to your website.

Video Marketing

Videos contributed to 90% of the content shared on social media in 2017. You need to get your hands on these, if you want to stay ahead in the race using video marketing:-

Live videos : – Live videos are thrilling and help you connect deeper with the consumers because they are real-time and give viewers a sense of engagement in the present. They create numerous opportunities like interacting with an influencer, or watching someone journal live or watch your favourite speaker speak from another part of the world. Dunkin Donuts once toured their kitchen on a live video, arousing every taste bud in the city. Live videos are also a great way to join and network with people around the world during events. 67% of people that watched a live video purchased a ticket to a similar event following that.

: – Live videos are thrilling and help you connect deeper with the consumers because they are real-time and give viewers a sense of engagement in the present. They create numerous opportunities like interacting with an influencer, or watching someone journal live or watch your favourite speaker speak from another part of the world. Dunkin Donuts once toured their kitchen on a live video, arousing every taste bud in the city. Live videos are also a great way to join and network with people around the world during events. 67% of people that watched a live video purchased a ticket to a similar event following that. 360° videos : – Imagine being able to experience the 360° degree view of a place through a video. Tourism websites and hotels use such videos to entice their prospects to visit the place. When used well, it’s a killer marketing tool. Also products or places with a 360° degree video will spike customer satisfaction because you will be able to keep the ‘WYSIWYG’ promise.

: – Imagine being able to experience the 360° degree view of a place through a video. Tourism websites and hotels use such videos to entice their prospects to visit the place. When used well, it’s a killer marketing tool. Also products or places with a 360° degree video will spike customer satisfaction because you will be able to keep the ‘WYSIWYG’ promise. 3D videos: – Predictions are ringing that 3D animation videos will be the next big thing. They cost less but engage more. A good software and a talented animator can get the job done. It’s in the moments of ‘WOW’, your prospects fall for you. 3D Videos are a great tool to produce those moments of visual wonder.

Pro Tip: – Be thoughtful. Don’t make videos for the sake of making it. Deliver something visually memorable, offer value.

Social Media Stories Marketing

Human beings love stories. A baby needs one to go to sleep, a speaker needs a few to keep His listeners glued and teachers need a few to sow morals, right? If the stories are real, bonus, people relate, identify and even connect with them. Apps like Facebook and Instagram give business users the ability to create and share stories to reach out to their followers. You can effortlessly create them, include links to your website or product, you can hashtag and geotag stories for amplified reach and do so much more. Here’s a quick guide from shopify on how to use stories and why you should.

Pro Tip: – Use general polls in your stories to engage your customers and polls based on your products to know the demands of your customers.

Few quick pointers as you head out to create powerful videos:

A catchy title is the catch.

Keep it quick and short. Attention spans are diminishing.

Keep it genuine, people see through the fake stuff. They love authenticity.

Find out what gets shared more, create something along that line (or) directly use what is getting shared more to sell your product.

2. New trends in Influencer management – Engagement Marketing

People like conversations. Not Monologues! Remember how as college-goers we always enjoyed an interactive session over a lecture? It’s true to this day and applies to most people.

Brands understand this need for communication and connection. Especially, in a uncomfortably noisy marketplace. Engagement marketing is the art of cutting through that noise, extending a connection and delivering value, consistently, until a loyal connection is established.

Here are some engagement marketing trends that saw a spike in 2018:

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing – getting an influencer to talk for you instead of you directly pushing promotional messages with ‘desperation’ written all over the face. More than 50% internet users follow some sort of influencer on social media. (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

There is a growing indifference among the millennials and Gen Z for traditional advertising. There is an ad for everything, everywhere, all the time. The audience suffers mistrust. So, they want to hear from ‘believable sources’.

Influencers are of three types: Celebs, Macro and Micro influencers

Celebs – 1M+ followers and drive 2% - 5% engagement per post. Macro influencers – 10,000–1 M followers and they drive 5% -25% engagements per post. Micro influencers are niche influencers with 500–10,000 followers, but they drive high engagement with 25% — 50% engagement per post.

(Comment- We can make a table or a explanatory chart of this and credit the source – ConversionXL https://conversionxl.com/blog/influencer-marketing/ )

Celebs can give your brand more awareness among the audience. They are more like the poor man’s super bowl! But it’s your macro and micro influencers who build and nurture a community and build credibility in a way that leads to a purchase or signup or any desired action. Influence is why Neil Patel can sell almost anything and companies want to do guest posts and webinars with him.

Remember how Rand Fishkin had an influence on us all? His Whiteboard Fridays had such deep impact on marketers that even after he parted ways with Moz this year, his followers were pouring in encouragement and well-wishes on his new venture – SparkToro. He is a brand of his own. If Rand sells it, I will buy it.

His consistent dedication to making such valuable, in-depth videos helped him engage with his audience and build authentic connections over the years. Anyway, the fact is there are so many macro and micro influencers out there – local fashion bloggers, recipe posting housewives, that artist who journals, fitness gurus, etc. based on what your product is, you can pick any one of them to be your influencer.

Here’s one from my home town. Purush Arie is a gender-neutral Fashion designer and blogger, a believer in the philosophy that everyone has the right to fashion – Man, woman or trans. What’s fashion, if it’s not for a cause right?

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

The ability to vividly engage has saved the center spot for AR and VR in the future of digital marketing. Augmented reality adds digital elements to your real environment to create an experience. For example, the goofy Snapchat filters you use for selfies, Pokemon go, etc. On the other hand, Virtual Reality is a much deeper experience that allows people to experience another world altogether. VR games are a great example! Did you know there are VR games that let you experience Paranormal activity? Sounds fun.

VR and AR will help you engage your customers by creating memorable encounters with your brand. Encounters that will help you stand out from all the banner blindness or distrust. Let’s take a look at some examples on how companies incorporate AR and VR in digital marketing.

Augmented Reality in Digital Marketing – Lenskart allows you to try glasses on an 3D image of yourself before you order a pair. There are tons of other examples – the Fitle plugin that lets you try on clothes in 3D, youcam and Loreal partnership which allows you to try makeup products from loreal using AR, Sayduck even lets you try furnitures in your home using AR, etc. Virtual Reality in Digital Marketing – Coca Cola went around the world in a truck giving people a ride in the Santa’s sleigh using VR. How can anyone unsee something like that, right?

(Comment- Video link- https://www.wearvr.com/apps/santas-sleigh-ride-vr . Embed the video below.)

VR in digital marketing has hit a wide spectrum of industries tourism, fashion, food , gaming, etc. The audience get to experience a destination virtually before they make plans for a tour, get a set in the first row for the London Fashion week, or take tour of the fridge with Boursin or simply ride with Santa on his sleigh. VR is an unexplored ocean of endless possibilities. Maya Angelou said ‘people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’. VR stands true that thought, helping you inspire and create lasting impressions in the minds of your consumers.

If you liked what we have written, stay tuned for the next edition of LATEST DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN 2018 – PART II