As we progress into the second half of 2019, we’ve seen many new developments and trends in digital marketing and advertising. From new ad formats, Amazon becoming a massive search engine, ecommerce expanding onto social media channels such as Instagram and online search taking on new guises, it can become incredibly difficult to identify the ones that are most suitable to your business objectives.
Technology is constantly evolving, and whatever was “the latest innovation” last week is old news next week.
Here are some recommendations for utilising new trends to enhance your advertising and communications efforts.
To help you navigate your way through the technology noise, here are four key trends that you need to know about now, that will help engage consumers in today’s business world.
1. Visual and voice search
Google, Facebook, and Amazon are all leading the way in voice search, and according to Chatmeter more than 50% of consumers now own a smart speaker and use it daily. And, it’s even been said that voice search is leading to the death of search engine optimisation (SEO).
So why is it so popular? Well, it’s faster than typing as humans speak 150 words per minute but can type only 40 per minute (Katherine Waiter, WO Strategies), and it’s ideal for mobile devices as it’s more convenient and easier for users as searching with your voice is 3.7% faster than typing (SEM Post, Jennifer Slegg) and 43% of users cite that voice search is faster than using a website or an app (Katherine Waiter, WO Strategies).
How can it be used in business? Voice search will have a direct impact on your digital marketing strategy. With voice search on the rise and Google’s mobile-first index which bases ranking off of the mobile version of a site instead of the desktop version, if you choose to implement voice search you’ll see immediate benefits as you’ll be favoured by Google’s algorithm and your website will jump up rankings.
In addition, voice search helps enhance user experience of search engines, as it provides ultimate convenience.
2. Digital videos
According to IAB’s 2019 Video Advertising Spend Report, digital video ad spend isn’t slowing down any time soon. And, marketers have reported that digital budgets have increased 25% year on year.
Added to this, 81% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool, which is up from 63% last year (HubSpot), 6 out of 10 people say that they’d rather watch online videos than television (Google), mobile video consumption is rising by 100% every year (Insivia) and it’s been estimated by 2022 that online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic, 15 x higher than it was in 2017 (Cision).
So, if you’re already an avid producer of video content, continue producing it, and if you’re not, make sure you introduce it into your marketing and advertising strategy.
The top performing content for videos includes knowledge sharing, educational, how to guides and videos that share something that the audience may not have known about before watching.
To develop these topics, consider what’s important to your customers, what their challenges are and what they’re trying to achieve, and your content will be a hit.
3. Influencer influx
The term “influencer” has been bandied about the marketing industry for a few years now, but it’s only recently that influencers have transformed from being a novice with a video recorder to gaining real prominence and working with top-level brands.
Today, 70% of advertisers are currently working with influencers (L2) and 40% are planning to increase their influencer budgets in the coming months (Linqia).
Influencers present an ocean of opportunities for marketers and brands, and by partnering with an influencer you leverage their existing follower base to increase their awareness and ultimately sell more of your products and services.
A key reason why this approach works so well is due to it being a less intrusive and more trusted way of advertising your business, something which is lost in traditional tactics. In addition, online influencers are credible, as they already have a strong follower base, and often have a very targeted, niche following, and if this matches your ideal customer, it’s ideal for you to tap in to.
4. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) are merging and evolving, not least because of how fast machine learning is improving.
Far from being the stuff of science-fiction, AI combines the latest powerful software with hardware to transform many areas of everyday life. AI systems are often hugely complex and powerful and have the ability to process information extremely quickly.
AI has many applications for business management as it can automate many processes including insights for data-driven industries, sales and business forecasting and responding to customer queries, and it is ideal for ecommerce businesses and marketing activities too, as it can enable you to personalise communications based on audience interactions and personalise services based on customer purchases.
