Digital marketing constantly innovates and changes, and with 2019 approaching, understanding the current trends is essential. Find out, right here.

We’re fast approaching 2019, and with that being said, a new year brings new challenges, and new trends too. In the world of digital marketing, everything is constantly changing. New tech helps innovate and increase the effectiveness of work in the field. So, what trends are going to become apparent in 2019? In this post, we’ve spoken to a leading digital marketing agency, about the predicted trends set for 2019, regarding digital marketing.

So, in this post, we’ll talk about the up and coming digital marketing trends for 2019. Everything from AI to social media, and how they’re going to affect the digital marketing landscape. Let’s get started.

• Social Media

Social media isn’t a new trend, but it’s one that is going to continue to grow even more in 2019. Even the smallest of businesses should be using social media within their marketing strategies because of the sheer number of users on it. We Are Social estimates there’s around 3.196 billion users on social media cross the world. But in 2019, there’s going to be an even greater focus on demographics on social media, or more specifically, learning to not cross platform.

Each social network has a different demographic. Sure, users of all ages may be on different social networks, but there’s certain social media platforms that attract different demographics, and the content used on each is engaged in different ways. For example, Facebook users may not be interested in YouTube content and YouTube users won’t be interested in the blogs on your site. 2019 is the year to develop different forms of content and strategy for different social media platforms, targeting the right demographic.s

• User Generated Content

Businesses should put a specific focus on user generated content or UGC in 2019. It’s a smart tactic that some of the biggest brands in the world have already been using, like Apple and GoPro, but 2019 will see a shift to where all kinds of businesses start using it. It’s about encouraging users to interact with your business on another level, spreading brand awareness through hashtags and UGC. It gives brands a new level of authenticity and realism, showing that you value your customers buying into your business. UGC is going to be an essential part of digital marketing and branding in 2019.

• Artificial Intelligence: Chatbots

AI has slowly been creeping its way into digital marketing for years now, but in 2019 AI chat is going to become more accessible for businesses of all sized. Whilst the service is used by many companies already, it’s going to see an increased growth in the coming year. Why? Because it’s easy to integrate into a business, will improve and enhance customer experience as well as reduce staffing costs. Whilst some AI integrations are more expensive, many social channels already have AI chat capabilities built in, which means it’s going to become more accessible and better in 2019.

• Visual Searching

With users having cameras built into their phone for years, visual search is going to take a step forward in 2019. It’s the process of searching with an image, rather than a written query, in order to return results. Some business’ apps have already utilised this into their model – mainly clothing brands. However, it’s not to say that it will just work for them. There are many other businesses that could utilise visual search into their websites or apps, if the demand is there. However, users are set to make use of visual search more in 2019, so it may be time to meet the demand.

• Voice Searching

In the age of virtual assistants, like Alexa and Siri, digital marketing strategies must begin to focus both on voice and written searches. With the introduction of these assistants in both mobile and the home, it means that users are searching in different ways. So, an emphasised focus needs to be on voice searching, in order to fully understand the demographic of a business. With ComScore predicting over half of all searches will be voice searches in 2020, it’s something that needs to be worked on in 2019.

• ‘Micro Moments’

In world of ads, notifications, emails and offers, users are beginning to are to have micro moments, which is an incentive to learn, do, buy or look up something on their own – without prompt from ads and the rest listed above. Google estimates that in 2019, we’ll see more of the micro behaviours. In 2019, it’s the time to optimise marketing strategies to accommodate these micro moments.

• Augmented and Virtual Reality

More and more businesses are implementing VR and AR into their online strategies, but the real growth is going to be most noticeable in 2019. It grants consumers and users a more immersive experience and provides true content value to them. Work on integrating VR and AR in 2019.

And these are the trends! Work on all of these in 2019 to be ahead of the competition.