We are now in 2019, this new year promises to be rich in developments in the marketing field. Technological evolution is now extremely fast and we can no longer settle for a classic digital marketing. The customer experience is now in the forefront and consumer expectations are higher than ever in terms of personalization. That is why it is essential to follow this evolution and adapt to it if we do not want to be surpassed. We present our predictions of 5 digital trends that will surely influenced marketing for the next twelve months.
1. Anticipation goes beyond simple personalization
First, as we all know, personalization has the wind in the sails. We are at a point where simple customization is no longer enough. In 2019, the motto becomes: anticipation. It’s great to collect data about your customers, learn about their behaviors, interests, and to use it to offer personalized content. We must now be able to anticipate their needs. It will therefore be necessary to minimize the customers constraints to offer them the most pleasant and seamless experience possible.
Brands will have to try and make the Customer Knowledge Data intelligent. They will have to rely on artificial intelligence and create algorithms that can analyze consumers’ conversations or emotions in order to get the customer ahead of what they want, giving rise to even more predictive marketing.
A concrete example would be the American giant Amazon, who wants to embark on early delivery. The company wants to anticipate the needs of consumers even before they are aware of them! Imagine all the data they need to accumulate in order to get there. Nevertheless, this example illustrates very well this trend, which promises to be more and more widespread in the various industries that wish to achieve this.
2. From multichannel to omnichannel vision
On the Internet, you need about 7 touchpoints before someone who does not know your company becomes a customer. So, to settle for a single platform to get there seems far-fetched. That’s why we often talk about multi-channel marketing. However, this trend gradually tends towards an improved version. In 2019, it is omnichannel.
In an omnichannel vision, we are talking about strengthening our digital ecosystems to make them even more powerful and interconnected. It will be necessary to improve the use of the communication channels so that it is simultaneous and optimized and thus be in perfect symbiosis. Big Data is therefore an integral part of such a strategy and marketers will have to ensure that the marketing and logistics silos are eliminated. All this in order to have a 360⁰ vision of the customer and thus optimize his experience and offer him a 100% personalized journey.
3. Voice technology and Chatbots
Artificial intelligence is the hottest topic. This technology enriches relationship marketing. Among other things, with voice technology and chatbots. According to Gary Vaynerchuk, 1 Google search out of 4 is done vocally on a mobile and this statistic tends to increase again this year. This trend will force marketers to adapt their content and SEO according to the voice command. That is, by now taking into account the complete searches that will be performed as: “What are the digital marketing trends for 2019?” Instead of a traditional Google search made by computer such as: “Digital marketing trends 2019 “. It will be necessary to use long-tail keywords so that your content is visible for all types of research.
As for chatbots or conversational robots, they are a new kind of customer service. What differentiates them? Robots do not sleep! You can get an answer at any time of day and night. Technological advancement also provides detailed answers to specific problems, buying a product or service, paying an invoice, and so on. In short, we are not at the end of our surprise about chatbots.
4. Social networks: opportunities to seize
Social networks play a very important role in the buying process of consumers. It is the recommendations, opinions and comments that influence their choices. According to a study by marketing profs, 90% of consumers trust recommendations made by their acquaintance to buy a product.
The opportunity that social networks become a conversion channel will be more exploited this year. Among other things, it’s because of temporary content (stories) and video content (recorded and live) will still be the engaging formats. Indeed, 73% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after seeing a video of the same product.
That’s why social media TV platforms like IGTV (Instagram) or Facebook Watch are buzzing. It will be interesting for brands to exploit them more and more in the coming year. Social networks are therefore part of the vision of a permanent and individualized relationship with each client and future customers and their evolution is to be monitored.
5. Make room for immersive technologies!
The impact of immersive technologies emergence such as virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality on the customer experience are numerous. These technologies are driven by cutomers expectations and enthusiasm. Always looking for “experiences”, consumers can now use these 3 technologies for entertainment, education or training.
Augmented reality can be found mainly in mobile applications. Applications like Zara (Enhanced Showcases), Sephora (Sephora Virtual Artist), Nike (Smartpixels) or Ikea (Ikea Place) have helped change the way people consume. This new approach greatly simplifies the online purchasing process by directly linking the brand with its customer. Thus, consumers can visualize their desires while remaining in the comfort of their living room.
BONUS: Business Investment in Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
We found a study by Ignite Visibility that details the online and offline marketing investment of 300 companies of all sizes up to 2021. This study has taught us a lot of interesting information about the current and future vision of companies on the importance of different channels. Of course, small and large companies invest much more in digital marketing than in more traditional forms of marketing. If the trend continues, this difference in investment will increase in favor of digital marketing over the years.
It is interesting to see what these companies aspire for in the future and their perception of each channel in terms of ROI. This vision will greatly affect the evolution of marketing through the various communication channels that multiply over time. You can consult this study here.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is evolving at an incredible speed, we are still facing new technologies, ever more powerful algorithms and this is what makes this field more and more difficult to understand. What is certain is that the customer experience is more and more the focus of concern. To make this experience unique, we must adapt to ever-changing technologies like artificial intelligence or augmented reality. It is also essential to adapt our strategy to the needs of consumers by opting for an omnichannel approach and adapting our personalized marketing for anticipated actions.
