Are you looking toward the new year to take your digital marketing strategies to the next level? Here’s a quick look at online marketing trends for 2019:
#1 Content Marketing: Authenticity
Consumers have 24/7 access to a ton of information. They are also bombarded by ads. As a result, today’s buyers are able to quickly learn a lot about your business, products, or services before ever talking with a representative from your company. What does that mean for your business?
Your business has to be authentic.
The only way your business content can stand out in such a crowded space is to create authentic content marketing that resonates with your target audience and aligns with the mission of your business.
Evoking emotion and telling stories is more important than ever. Similarly, if you’re an expert in a topic that you are passionate about, then share your expertise in a helpful manner. Being authentic through stories and offering truly helpful information goes a long way at building trust in your business in the eyes of consumers – and people buy from who they trust.
Practical tips for making your content marketing more authentic:
- Tell real stories. You should share everything from business stories and team member spotlights to customer success stories. Also, use video content when possible.
- Write passionately. If you don’t care about what you’re writing it will be obvious to everyone.
- Be helpful. Use your expertise to give away helpful information that can ultimately build trust with your target market.
#2 User-Generated Content: Millennials and GenZ
When it comes to marketing and advertising strategies, it is essential to understand your target market. Regardless of your product or service, if Millennials and Generation Z consumers are not in your current target market, they will be in the future. What do Millennials and GenZ buyers expected from brands and firms?
First, they expect authenticity (as outlined above). Second, they expect 24/7 availability (see next section). Finally, they want to be involved.
One of the best ways brands and firms alike can involve consumers is by encouraging them to create user-generated content, also referred to as consumer-generated content. When done correctly, a business can encourage consumers to create and share information about their brand, product, or service electronically.
For example, GoPro encourages users to go out and explore with their GoPro and then share that content on social media.
People trust user-generated content a lot more than the content that businesses create, making this ideal scenario a win-win for businesses and consumers alike.
Furthermore, both generations are all about influencer marketing, often striving to be known as an influencer themselves.
Let’s take a quick look at both generations below to better understand how you can encourage them to create content for your business:
Millennial Buyers: 1981-1996
Millennials are tech-savvy and are very focused on the “now.” Before making a purchase, they are more than likely going to conduct online research to find the best products at the best price. Overall, millennials tend to be optimistic, entitled, and self-focused.
Therefore, encourage Millennials to create consumer-generated content for your business by speaking to their motivations. What can they personally get out of their time and energy?
GenZ Buyers: 1997-2018
Generation Z consumers are even more tech-savvy than Millennials and can quickly multi-task across 5 devices (e.g. mobile device, tablet, laptop, etc.). They prefer to communicate with images (hence the rise of GIFs, memes, SnapChat, and Instagram). Overall, they tend to be self-reliant, future-oriented, and realistic.
Therefore, encourage GenZ to create content for your business by tapping into their future-oriented mindset and realistic perspective. They are creators and entrepreneurs at heart. What meaningful benefits can they receive from their involvement or how will their involvement help others they care about (i.e. organizations with values they share) are questions they routinely ask.
Practical tips for encouraging user-generated content for your business:
- Provide incentives. What can they get out of creating content for your business? Will you share the best content (speaking to their desire to be an influencer)?
- Simply ask. Both generations like to create and share content socially; therefore, if they are loyal to your brand, product, or service simply asking can go a long way.
- Use hashtags. When done correctly, hashtags can help spread the word about your campaign or user-generated content promotion.
#3 Artificial Intelligence Marketing: Voice Search and Chatbots
Artificial intelligence will continue to play a bigger role in 2019 as everything from Siri and Google Assistant to Alexa products are developed and improved. Consumers are using voice search to find everything from business phone numbers and addresses to answering questions they would typically type into a search engine.
In addition to voice search, today’s buyers expect 24/7 availability and quick responses from businesses. In order to better meet this demand, many businesses have turned to chatbots that use artificial intelligence to answer frequently asked questions and route the conversation to a representative if needed.
These chatbots can be set up on everything from websites to Facebook messenger. The goal is simple – provide consumers with the information they desire as quickly as possible in an effort to keep them satisfied and choosing your business instead of the competition.
Have you optimized your website for voice search? Are you using chatbots to improve the customer experience without overloading your team? These capabilities and consumer expectations are likely here to stay!
Practical tips for levering artificial intelligence for your business in 2019:
- Search engine optimize your website for voice search. In order for your business to compete in voice search results, your website has to have a great search engine optimization strategy. Everything from creating a FAQ page to ensuring your on-site SEO includes conversational keywords can help improve your likelihood to appear in voice searches.
- Claim your local listings. Over 20% of voice searches are for information about local companies and events. Therefore, it is very important that you have claimed all your local listings (i.e. Google My Business) and that each profile is 100% complete and accurate.
- Integrate chatbots. Add chatbots to your website at the very least. Additionally, if your target market sends you messages on social media to inquire about your products, services, or for technical support, then also add one to your social media inboxes.
Other Key Marketing and Advertising Trends:
In addition to the trends to watch mentioned above, there are several additional digital marketing trends in 2019 that will remain essential when creating marketing strategies for your business.
Video marketing is here to stay. Both Millennials and GenZ consumers love videos. YouTube remains the second most-visited website on the Internet for this reason. Therefore, make sure you are creating videos, putting them on YouTube, embedding them into your website, and sharing them on social media. Live video will also continue to be popular, especially for breaking news, behind-the-scenes access, and influencer marketing.
In addition to video, marketing automation is another trend that will continue to remain popular next year. Keep your business in front of your target audience with automated email marketing campaigns that are designed to help nurture buyers along the buying cycle.
Finally, keep an eye out for the continual development of augmented reality and visual search as technology in these areas continues to develop.
In short, understand the importance of the user experience and adjust your online marketing and advertising strategies in 2019 to meet the expectations of your target audience.
Grow Your Business in 2019: Tailor Your Digital Marketing Strategy for the New Year
The new year is quickly approaching – is your business ready? If you’re looking for help on creating a tailored digital marketing strategy that can help you meet your business goals for the new year, then schedule a meeting with the Uptick Marketing team!
We start every business relationship with a fact-finding meeting where we spend the entire time learning more about your business goals. Then, we create a tailored marketing strategy that is designed to help you take your business to the next level.
Now is the time to start preparing your business for 2019 – let Uptick Marketing help!
