A New Year brings new marketing trends to watch. Which of these hot topics in digital marketing will you be embracing in 2019? As always, Zebra 360 Online Marketing is here with all the facts you need to make smart digital marketing your watchword.
1. Chatbots
Chatbots are in- especially for those of you maintain corporate Facebook pages. In many ways they are coming to mimic- and extend- email marketing, allowing you to mesh your Facebook ad campaigns with bots, automate follow-up responses, and even broadcast bulk messages. Set them to answer easier, routine questions, and learn more about your users at the same time. Of course, you shouldn’t expect miracles- they’re still in their infancy- but they’re a nice way to automate the easier questions, freeing your manpower to answer in-depth queries and more focused pitches while helping you avoid the appearance of spam, provide interactivity, and give a human touch to the basics.
2. Semantic SEO
Semantic SEO makes your SEO content more meaningful. It’s the art of building beyond ‘answering a simply query’ into truly optimizing for the intent of your users, thinking beyond that first keyword/question to answering all their queries and delivering even more. Google wants users to find everything they’re looking for if you want to attract their attention- and making sure they do helps you capture a variety of keyword rankings and stay highly poised, relevant and driving traffic.
3. Voice search optimisation
“Alexa, find me pizza!”; “Siri, where’s the closest dentist?”; “Cortana, which way to the mall?”…. We’ve known this one is coming for a long time, and 2019 is set to be the year the voice search boils over into true relevancy. Voice assistants have shot to prominence across a range of industries and devices… the true question is whether your content is ready for them. If you can’t be found by these handy gadgets, your marketing efforts are doomed to irrelevance… so make 2019 the year you embrace voice search optimisation.
4. The personalisation boom
The era of mass marketing is truly dead and gone. If you can’t personalise your client’s digital experience to their unique interests and needs, you will be banished to the spam pile, never again to see the light..or their Rands. People expect you to work for their business… but at least you have general marketing automation in your corner to help you make smart use of the data your analytics brings you. You do have smart, automated analytics, right?
5. The year of the micro brand
Have you ever thought you’re just too small to compete? Great news- people are flocking away from mass-market retailers and booming Influencers where they’re little but a number. The Influencers with smaller social niches, and the small brands who can provide personalised, tailored services where the client feels welcome and among friends, are set to win 2019.
6. E-commerce and social media
Gone, too, are the days of merely using your social media accounts to redirect clients to your sales platform. In 2019, those same sites will be the platform. We’ve already seen the first tentative roll-outs of shopping directly from Facebook and Instagram, and this trend is only going to get hotter as the year progresses. Expect to spend a decent amount of time in 2019 making sure it’s as easy as possible for your customers to shop right from the comfort of their own chosen platforms.
Now you’re armed with all the facts about the hottest digital marketing trends of 2019, why not let the Zebra 360 Online Marketing team help you craft smart, adaptable campaigns that will boost your brand prominence into the stratosphere this year?
