Trends in marketing can change fairly quickly and it is usual to see something new arriving on the scene every year. Nowhere is that more true than in the even faster-paced world of digital marketing. Naturally, everyone who uses digital marketing –and who doesn’t these days –wants to get ahead of the curve when possible, so let’s take a look at the trends that are most likely to appear in 2019.
- Strategy and planning
What seems to be emerging here is a move by digital marketers towards using digital transformation programmes. What these essentially do is help businesses move into the digital world and help them integrate a strategy for this format with the existing marketing strategy. A programme also includes guidance on testing and optimisation, as well as restructuring teams if needed.
- Marketing trends research
This will focus on watching what Google is doing, since we can’t escape the fact that the media giant has a massive influence over the success of any digital marketing campaign. Some of the changes made in 2018 by Google will come into effect next year, so we need to understand them now. One in particular to focus on is the Google Marketing Platform, which has made changes to AdWords (now renamed simply Ads) and the better integration of tools like Google Analytics.
- Social media trends
These are always ones to watch. We recommend using the Communications Market 2018, a report compiled and published by Ofcom in the UK, for data on social media and Internet usage. One of the most significant factors the 2018 report highlighted is the change in the ages of users and that is important. For example, people aged 55 and over are now the primary Facebook users, whereas Instagram and Snapchat have their biggest group of users in the 25 to 34 age range.
- Email marketing
This is one area where change has been slower and where it is harder to find innovation. We know how it works and what is effective and what isn’t, so “if it ain’t broke why fix it,” tends to apply here. However, there is always room for evolution and this overview of email trends from Striata suggests that the future is in integrating email with content marketing for example.
- Analytics
Once upon a time people created campaigns and never thought about measuring how they were doing. Now the demand for stats is on the rise. To date, tools like Google Analytics have only offered static reports, but come 2019 we might see a move towards softer feedback in the form of each brand talking to its community of customers. And, we’ll probably see more use of dashboard reporting and analysis tools as well.
- Content marketing
The research section of The Content Marketing Institute is the go-to place for what’s happening in this area. What we are likely to see next year in terms of content is more focus on quality content based on better understanding of customer personas, better measurement of content marketing effectiveness and a much more strategic approach to content marketing that leads to sales and more audience engagement.
For help with your digital marketing strategy, give MINT a call. Our team of experienced digital marketeers will help businesses to implement new trends and tools to ensure you gain the maximum from every digital marketing strategy.
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