Digital marketing is a landscape that is forever changing. As different technologies become available and improve in their ability, digital marketing strategies and by extension digital marketing agencies, need to adjust their strategies to accommodate and gain new skills to ensure they don’t fall behind and lose business to over-prepared competitors.
While there have been some suggestions on the types of avenues for digital marketing that will be available in 2019, as we come to the close of the year and the new year is fast approaching on the horizon, we are able to confirm what technologies you will need, to be ready for in the year ahead.
Augmented Reality
One of the technologies that saw the greatest improvement in recent years, you no longer need a computer science degree to be able to understand and create augmented reality apps as the number of free and paid resources and support have increased online. Augmented reality is the ability to view the real world through a camera with a difference – you only have to look at popular app Pokemon Go as a strong example of AR integration. Ikea and Amazon already offer AR apps which allow consumers to view products in their own home in real-time. Extremely helpful when trying to choose a lamp or similar furniture to get an idea of how it looks in the room and with your current colour scheme.
AR is not just useful for picking out home decoration however, be on the lookout for AR integration with exhibitions and conferences with opportunities for interactive seminars and even holographic event attendance.
Targeted Advertising
Already used across the world in digital marketing campaigns, targeted advertising or marketing isn’t going to drop off in popularity anytime soon, especially with more people coming online every day from different locations and industries. With PPC services leading the charge in “quick wins” for businesses, don’t let focus slip from creating interesting and cost-effective adverts, in addition to carrying out comprehensive keyword research before making your ad live. It’s also important to remember, a PPC campaign run solely by itself can be a cost-sink, always ensure you are providing excellent content for potential customers to click through to, if you can’t create or generate your own, seek the advice and services of a dedicated SEO agency who offer pay per click management.
Voice Search
Digital assistants are quickly growing in popularity, from Google’s Alexa to Microsoft’s Cortana, more people are realising the benefits of introducing an assistant into their routine. Whether it’s to check today’s weather to setting up schedules and interacting with other IoT devices (lights, thermostats, doorbells, etc). While previous versions of voice search assistants struggled with regional accents and understanding, the technology has seen some impressive improvement in the last few years and will be at the forefront of digital marketing strategies during 2019. To make sure you are ready, all searchable content should be written in easy to understand language, with search-friendly terms and simple answers to some commonly requested questions. Google previously advised that 70% of their received voice searches were in a conversational language tone, rather than keyword directed which is more common for typed searches.
Artificial Intelligence
Already seen in assistance apps mentioned previously, artificial intelligence is being used in numerous digital marketing strategies from Facebook’s “pixel” to intelligent content writing tools, Articolo and Wordsmith, used by online news resources Forbes and the BBC. If you want to keep content creation human-led, AI can be used instead to deliver specific content to readers on your site, offering them a selection of similar articles or topics to keep them engaged. Running a business around the clock? Artificially intelligent chatbots could be the difference between paying out double time for night-time human assistants and keeping staffing costs minimal. While still ensuring your customers can still seek answers to their queries when the day staff have left for home.
If you are deciding on your digital marketing strategy for the new year, you don’t have to be spending big money to run alongside the big dogs, instead work smarter and consider how each of the above 2019 technologies could complement your business, rather than drive it. Offering a product? Consider augmented reality. Conversing with customers around the clock? Choose artificial intelligence. High amount of mobile traffic? Make sure your content is voice-search friendly. With your analytics to hand, why not plan some potential strategies to get you started in the new year and get ahead of the game.
