Your digital marketing strategy approach should be different in 2019. Every digital strategy boils down to increasing customer expectations and the consumption of information. The digital world is a busy place but creating sound digital plans is not as easy as it seems.
Brands often stumble when they aspire to reach new heights with expansive plans, but one should know if the efforts are feasible. Brands know where they need to go but then try to sprint toward finish line without considering what’s actually achievable with respect to resources and budget.
Digital marketing is also changing with new opportunities for marketers on a routine basis. Before zeroing in on the digital marketing strategies of 2019, one should adhere to sage advice offered by experienced marketers and branding professionals worldwide. Here’s where to shift your marketing budget in 2019.
Don’t Overcomplicate Your Strategy
Digital transformation is a complex term for many and this leads to confusion on end goals. One should be clear about what they want. They should be able to get the idea across in layman’s terms. Don’t add layers to your strategy when you don’t need it.
Refrain From too Many Advisors
Many stakeholders get involved with the execution of digital strategy. But this could lead to confusion in a strategy that’s trying too hard and is not clear about meeting overarching business goals. Only involve people who are required to forge your strategy, and let it be geared towards addressing real problems that need attention.
Know the End Game
Understand the end goals and your leverage points to execute your strategy. Ensure that you are using the right metrics to measure overall progress. Then work backward with questions on how you’re going to reach the end goals. Make it realistic and clear.
As you make sense of the approach, here’s where you should be investing efforts and energy for digital marketing success in 2019.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Smart companies are making the most of their incredible cameras to enhance customer experience. Through VR and AR, boost brand engagement and drive purchase decisions. Help customers engage in several ways while going through immersive experiences, and explore the product you want them to buy.
Amazon recently helped its customers experience a number of products from nerf guns to refrigerators, to picture themselves with these products in a simulation. By having them experience this potential reality, it addresses needs and pain points of customers, and thus enriching their customer journey.
Augmented reality, on the other hand, provides businesses to deliver greater flexibility and reach with mobile apps. StubHub utilized an AR feature to explore the city and stadium before the Super Bowl event, letting people experience their presence at the venue.
The strategic use of AR and VR can supply consumers with useful pre-purchase information that they need.
Leveraging AI in Better Experiences With Chatbots
Digital marketers have not exactly incorporated artificial intelligence in every strategy. AI though has grown leaps and bounds, simplifying data-based experiences and customer experience too.
Travel organizations are creating plug-ins with Messenger to streamline updates for people right from booking to check-in and flight updates. Chatbots have now facilitated pre-purchase decisions. Bing’s Business Bot, for instance, allows interested users to get answers about businesses around them. The bot asks business owners about expected questions from users so that the answers are swiftly provided.
Visual and Voice Search
Expect search to evolve better from text to visual and voice search. Visual searches act as reverse searches. Google, Microsoft, and Pinterest are keen to leverage the space and have already introduced results. Marketers can now prepare tailor-made content for their prospects and customers while also gaining even more insights into their preferences.
Voice search continues to grow as consumers now make searches without lifting a finger. Domino’s voice search with Amazon Echo helps customers to order pizza hands-free. Apart from effective content creation, digital marketers will soon introduce visual and voice searches for their marketing strategy.
Vertical Video
Mobile video ads will continue to be popular in 2019 and savvy marketers will leverage these videos to engage their audiences between tasks and even on social platforms.
Vertical video though is part of a new trend that allows users to create vertical videos. Brands are now keen on offering longer content organically. IGTV by Instagram is quite popular and other platforms are also planning a major shift to introduce the vertical video format. Marketers will then resort to both horizontal and vertical assets for expanding on audience reach.
The emerging digital marketing strategies are expected to improve the consumer experience in spades in 2019, with ample support from technology and fresh playing fields.
