Social media and online marketing have well and truly cemented themselves as an essential part of a business’s promotional strategy. In today’s digital landscape, if a business is still missing from the social media platforms then they’re seriously missing out on a huge, untapped audience.
Digital Marketing and Social Media is forever evolving at an exasperating pace. Every day there is a new app, tool, or concept that’s trending in this sphere of interest. Here is the top 5 trends that Cathy and the team at Net Branding believe will prove to be game changers for digital marketing 2019:
Digital Marketing 2019: Augmented Reality continues its meteoric rise to the top.
Augmented Reality will be amongst the top digital marketing trends in 2019. Initially entering public consciousness during the early 2010s with Google Glass,Pokémon Go and Snapchat Filters, it has already made a huge mark on the billions of internet users. It is estimated that both the augmented & virtual reality markets will touch the $298 billion mark by 2023. Snapchat and Facebook’s image filters in particular showcase a perfect example of employing augmenting reality for promotional purposes – all with minimal barrier to entry. Social media managers can take advantage of this and should look for new opportunities that are yet to come to market because of the incredible ability to make your brand known on both existing and new social media channels.
Online Marketing Trends shifting towards Generation Z.
Most of the upcoming digital trends 2019 revolve around Generation Z as they are about to become part of the workforce, which means they have the money to spend and converting them into sales would be easy. The best thing about these “digital natives” is that they are born surrounded by technology, which makes them the perfect target audience to build effective social media marketing strategies around. With a new generation come new interests, new ways of looking at the world and new ways to appeal to them. As New Zealand’s first integrated digital marketing company, here’s our verdict: Integrate generational change, or be left behind.
Influencer Marketing continues to see growth
Currently, influencer marketing is one of the most popular marketing trends of the past few years, and is considered one of, if not the best option to market aproduct or service to a vast audience. Anyone with thousands of followers/subscribers has the power to be an influencer, and by utilising these influencers through YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat, a business can easily reach out and win over huge audience.
Special care must be given when selecting the right influencer to boost your business. Look for a consistent field of interest in their posts to ensure your brand is conveyed as genuinely as possible.
Messenger Apps & Chatbots will be huge digital trends 2019.
When it comes to online marketing, both messenger apps & chatbots continue to play a larger role in the market. Messenger services act as a great channel that enables customers to build relationships with businesses and vice versa on a particular platform (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn). In the case of a customer landing on the business’ page or website, marketers can reach out to them via Chatbot to initiate a conversation that might lead to a sale. Chatbots serve as a great tool to increase user-engagement throughout the entire customer journey.
Cathy’s thoughts: while chatbots continue to develop, making sure it’s configuration is right can take up substantial amounts of time. No human likes talking with a robot, and so making your chatbot come across as humanly as possible is a priority to really see the benefits. It might be out of reach of small businesses and cases where resources are restricted and better used elsewhere. That said, ensuring your bot can provide responses that drive value and are on topic to the subjects discussed are sure to elevate your levels of engagement and success.
Digital Marketing Companies & Live Streaming
While around for the better part of a decade, the explosion of livestreaming onto traditional video platforms in the past year or so – YouTube and Facebook – 
has taken social media by storm. In a short time, live streaming has gone from the niche of Justin.tv and Twitch and become a part of mainstream social media.
Nowadays, both small & big-sized firms are using live video streaming to capture the attention of potential & existing customers. By 2019, digital marketing companies will have to recognise the power of live streaming as part of their content plans – a true, live conversation broadcast to the world.
All the social media marketing trends above share the same principle: giving customers and users a great personalized experience by putting them in charge. Expect businesses to play a different role – from persuasive content creator to a navigator that guides users through their products. New social media trends let businesses better connect with their customers, generate more revenue & build trust through transparency in the public eye.
If tackling these burgeoning ways to interact with consumers seems daunting, consider working with a digital partner like Net Branding. Talk to us about your marketing endeavours, and we’ll make it work for you.
