2018 saw the advent of many new trends in digital marketing, from chatbots to live video, across various social media platforms. The development and success of these digital trends has made it possible for us to predict similar digital trends for 2019; dive into our digital trends blog to find out where attention should be focused.
Introducing Chesamel’s digital trends blog and the top five digital trends predictions for this year:
- Touchless interfaces:
In 2018, major manufacturers and developers like Google, Amazon and Apple have worked on building interfaces that require very little physical input from us. Voice recognition softwares have improved by leaps and bounds, empowering us to search for information by simply articulating our needs. There used to be a time when it was mind-blowing to think that we had all of the world’s information literally on our fingertips. Today, we’re fast approaching the time when we don’t even have to move a finger to access online content.
So if you’re looking to optimise your online content for 2019, you might want to start optimising for voice search. In a traditional Google search, where you type to access information, you’d most often type just the keywords that would show you relevant pages. However, with voice searches, people tend to ask fully formed questions like “What are some digital trends for 2019?”. Using long keywords and/or fully formed questions in your titles, you’d be optimising for voice searches.
We also predict that this year will see a lot of curiosity around (if not wide acceptance of) technologies like Google Duplex, a new AI system by Google that will enable you to get your tasks done with the aid of an assistant capable of having real, natural conversations with people who won’t even suspect that they’re talking to a robot.
2. Visual Search
We’re in the midst of a commercial revolution spearheaded mainly by apps such as Pinterest and Google Lens that let you find items you’re interested in by simply searching for an image of said item online. With Google Lens, it’s as simple as opening your camera and pointing at an item to know where you can purchase it online.
Starting from bookstores to traditional homeware stores, people have confessed to using visual search to scan items that they then manage to find at a cheaper price online.
We predict that using the right tags and keywords on image descriptions online will help you stand out amongst competitors this year, as more and more people are gravitating towards visual search for online shopping.
3. Instagram Story Filters:
Businesses that worked on their Instagram presence in 2018 have really reaped the fruits of their labour. This platform stands out for its organic reach amongst most demographics, and if one thing can be said of Instagram, it’s that it’s constantly evolving to engage more people.
A new Instagram trend already in place is that of top-notch filters for stories created by brands to promote themselves on the app. Starting from TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy to Youtube personalities like Liza Koshy, many noteworthy brands have created their own filters that fans are loving.
We predict that specific filters for your own brand might be worth the effort this year if you already have a well-established audience base on Instagram.
4. 15-30 seconds of storytelling:
More importantly, 15-30 seconds of video storytelling with subtitles is going to boost your engagement across all platforms this year.
Videos are still a major force when it comes to capturing the attention of your audience as they scroll through their social media. Forbes recently made the following two predictions that are worth noting here –
a) Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text?
b) By 2021, a million minutes (17,000 hours) of video content will cross global IP networks every single second.
Creating short, impactful video content that can be shared on stories, IGTV, or news feeds, is going to be the way forward for your brand’s online visibility this year.
5. Messenger Marketing:
Did you know that Facebook has now added Whatsapp as a call to action button on Facebook Pages? Or that Facebook Messenger marketing can get you an 88% open rate and 56% click through rate?
If you’ve been engaged in email marketing in the previous year, you’d know that these numbers are beyond compare. More and more smart digital marketers are jumping on the bandwagon of connecting with the millions of users currently active on messaging services.
We predict that message chatbots, messenger app stories, and messenger marketing on platforms like Whatsapp and Facebook messenger will open up new arenas for business and customers alike.
All that said, this digital trends blog is certainly not exhaustive; what we’re most excited about are the unexpected new trends that might crop up this year, proving to be game changers in the field of digital marketing. If you think we’ve missed anything, do share them in the comments below. What do you think will be the top digital trends for 2019?
Guest Blogger, Ankita Narayan: “Ankita is an English Literature Postgraduate whose passion for stories propelled her to start writing her blog and later, host her own podcast; (featured as one of iTunes’ New and Noteworthy podcasts in 2017); and in three years of blogging, worked as a Google Create India Partner. Her podcast, interviews real life heroes, sharing stories of how they got to where they are today and Ankita has made appearances on BBC Asian Network, Awaz FM, Deccan Chronicle and Islam Channel. It’s her love for stories that has shaped her career so far, which continues with the Google Digital Garage.”
