In 2019, there are so many important trends and developments taking place in the world of digital marketing that it’s difficult to choose which ones to report on. We wrote about six of them in a previous blog post (click here) and here are seven more for every marketer to pay attention to.
1. Video Traffic will Continue to Increase
Video traffic is predicted to be 82% of all traffic by 2022. So what does this mean for your SEO?
2. YouTube will Continue to Reign in the Realm of Long-Form Videos
In spite of some competition from Instagram and IGTV, YouTube is still the most widely used social platform by US adults (73%). And 33% of this total view time is attributed to long-form content. YouTube, unlike other platforms, has a massive advantage when it comes to the attention spans of its users. Instead of a “scroll” mindset, viewers make time to sit down and watch YouTube videos. Sometimes people even binge watch! All of this makes YouTube an increasingly valuable platform for brand building and lead generation.
3. More Integration of Marketing Channels
Content marketing won’t be just about publishing more content; it will be about publishing more strategically. Up until now, content marketing has been regarded as the king of all digital marketing strategies. However, content marketing has reached a saturation point - just because you publish regular blog posts does not necessarily help you rank higher or sell more products. Even the most skilled content marketers are struggling to achieve the same results they used to get. In 2019, more and more businesses will begin to understand that content marketing is no longer the be-all and end-all of digital marketing. It’s only one strategy, and it should integrate with all the others.
-
Example: if you always run a major marketing campaign in spring, plan your content to support that campaign, but don’t increase the number of blog posts. Instead, write one well-optimized blog post per month leading up to your campaign. From these posts, pull a collection of quotes, memes, graphics, etc. and use them on social media. Also, use them to create some lead magnets at the openings to your sales funnels. If you have a content strategy that isn’t working, dump it or reinvent it.
4. A New Skillset will Develop Belonging to the "Client Journey Architect"
Traditionally most marketing departments are divided between:
The Client Journey Architect will be positioned between these two groups. This person will take all the disjointed, disconnected sales funnels and products and piece them together into a more cohesive whole. To make another analogy, the architect will take a bunch of individual subway lines and turn them into a fully integrated transportation system that can take people anywhere they want to go.
5. Messenger Marketing will Grow and Become More Personalized
Messenger Marketing is relatively new but is on track to eventually overtake email as the dominant communication channel. Most Messenger Marketing is currently taking place in Facebook Messenger, but WhatsApp and iMessage are following suit. With respect to Messenger Marketing, the best results will be attained by conversing with people rather than talking at them. Because most people use Messenger on their phones, copy will need to be delivered in short, concise chunks. Because the engagement rate on Messenger is so much higher than it is for email, there is even more potential to learn about your customers and deliver more personalized messaging.
6. Messenger Marketing will Grow and Become More Personalized
LinkedIn recently rolled out its Objective Based Advertising to help advertisers more easily generate and keep track of conversions. There is not likely to be a big reduction in the cost-per-click, but marketers can achieve a significant decrease in the cost-per-objective. Which begs the question, what is an “objective” in this case? An objective is a higher leverage buying opportunity such as a booked sales appointment or a request for a sales appointment. With the right objective, LinkedIn gives you the ability to measure conversions and thus invest in the campaigns that are getting the best results.
7. Instagram Shoppable Services will Equal the Success of Shoppable products
500 million people use Instagram every day, so Instagram shopping has exploded and will continue to increase. 60% of Instagrammers state that they find new products on Instagram and 72% have bought something they have seen on Instagram. Now businesses that offer services will be able to provide the same seamless buying opportunity as those businesses with products.
Conclusion
In 2019 exciting things are happening in the world of digital marketing. Many of these developing trends involve vast oceans of data and marketers will be turning more and more to data scientists and AI to help them choose the data that is most relevant. AI will not kill off the human workforce; instead, machines will increasingly take over the more boring stuff, leaving humans to provide judgment and creativity so that machine learning can be guided in a productive direction toward new trends that will emerge in 2020 and beyond.
Contact Us Today!