Trying to keep pace with the rapidly changing digital marketing landscape can be difficult. It seems like every year there is a new strategy or trend that businesses ‘have‘ to follow to keep up with the competition.
The truth is that companies don’t need to chase trends to have an effective digital presence and keep up with their competition. At least not every trend. However, marketers do need to keep a close eye on the landscape and adopt new strategies and trends where it makes sense for their business. In 2019, we’ll see rapid growth in a number of different strategies.
Some of those strategies have seen consistent growth for years. Others are new to the scene and just now beginning their ascension in the digital world. But, all of them will play a key role in the internet marketing industry in 2019.
Growth Hacking
If you’ve been paying attention to recent trends in the digital marketing industry lately, you probably have heard a fair amount about growth hacking. If you aren’t aware of what growth hacking entails, I’ll provide a quick explanation.
In growth hacking, every strategy you execute, tool you install, and technique that you use to gain traction is informed by your desire for growth. Often, in growth hacking, traditional processes take a back seat to results. Growth hackers view the digital landscape as a battleground and see their job as fighting in that battleground and rising above the competition at whatever the cost. They use data as their weapon and creativity as they vehicle.
Growth hacking often employs small techniques, known as “hacks,” that help companies to drive demand and growth. Often, these strategies are in a moral gray area, which is one of the reasons why growth hacking has remained on the outskirts as a strategy. However, companies see the results that the practice is able to provide and want it for themselves, which is why we will see growth hacking take an even larger jump into mainstream marketing circles in 2019.
Security has become a hot topic in 2018, especially with the recent Data Protection Act, thus it is essential that a client’s personal data be kept fully secure, or else your company may not be deemed trustworthy, leading to a decline in customer loyalty. Larger companies like Facebook have been hacked for personal data, thus consumer awareness is at an all-time high, notes digital.com. As a small business, try to keep focused on reversing the data structure, for instance by keeping your personal information on your phone, as this implies that you are always in control of your data.
SEO Trends to Keep Track Of
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the set of best practices that will get your website to rank higher on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) which results in more traffic to your company. These include technical aspects of your website as well as the quality of the content your produce.
Google’s algorithm changes hundreds of times a year and isn’t always published explicitly. However, marketing and SEO experts have made it their focus to nail down what works and what doesn’t. Google’s algorithm favors valuable web pages that align with user’s needs most. Google favors:
- Fast load times
- Pages that have many other pages on the web pointing towards it (backlinks)
- High quality content
- Content that seems natural and in depth
- Responsive and mobile friendly web design
Gone are the times where spamming keywords in articles added to your page authority. Even before that, people were hiding keywords in the background as whited out text.
Google’s algorithm is constantly getting smarter. Instead of simply crawling pages for a single keyword, it can now detect related keywords that are typically used in conjunction with the main slug. These are all the unique words that surround your niche and indicate your knowledge as an industry leader. This means that Google is getting better at finding truly in depth, rich content. What it also means is that your job is getting easier. Now you can focus on how to help the user rather than how to game the system.
Video Marketing
For years marketers have been waxing poetic over the future of video marketing. As high-speed internet and devices capable of streaming HD video became more commonplace in the populace, it made sense that companies would find new and innovative ways to leverage the medium for their own gain.
That was in 2010, though. Here we are in 2019, and video marketing still looks poised for huge growth this year, and next. The proof is in the pudding. Marketers are constantly prioritizing video content over other types of content. After watching a video, 67% of users are more likely to buy a product online.
Watching online video is becoming more ingrained in cultures around the world. Every single day, more than 100 million hours of video content are watched on Facebook. In 2019, we’ll see video marketing continue to grow at a rapid pace. It’s just too valuable for companies with the budget to produce professional videos to ignore.
As 2019 moves into play, most of your target audience for your marketing campaigns will be a millennial crowd, says businessnewsdaily.com. A millennial audience will still be quite young, thus may be anxious about taking risks about a business. Thus, it is essential that your marketing towards them be open and honest in regards to what they can expect from engaging with your company and product.
Inbound Marketing
In inbound marketing, the focus is placed on the content that you produce and the value that you are able to offer your customers. That won’t change. The industry is moving in one direction and it is toward higher levels of personalized content production, not away from it.
Inbound marketing is all about attracting your audience based on the value that you provide, not based on how well you can interrupt their thought processes with an interesting advertisement. It’s a long-term growth strategy that helps to position your company for ongoing success.
In order to continue connecting with customers, it is important to establish the best means of a client getting in contact. 2019 will see the rise in online connectivity continue, including through instant messaging and chats, but also video calls and live streams.
Research has shown that 82% of audiences do find it more convenient to watch videos rather than to read long blogs. Live streams give the opportunity for potential customers to receive instant responses to their questions, and they can even replay the video to remind themselves of the advice they have received.
According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2018 report, 58% of marketers say that blog content creation was their top inbound marketing priority in 2018. That won’t change in 2019, as more companies make the long-term commitment to producing more content and inbound marketing strategies. Look for inbound marketing and related internet marketing strategies, an already large part of the online marketing industry, to continue its growth in 2019.
