Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore

2018 is already halfway through and we have witnessed many changes in digital marketing. Its impact on the people and businesses has become impossible to ignore anymore. You can no longer stay away from Artificial Intelligence or the various visual search engines as these are the top digital marketing services all businesses are opting for as their marketing strategy. Every brand is trying every possible way to connect with their audience in a unique way through all the social media platforms.

Facts
As per a report, in 2018
– There are 4.021 billion people using the internet globally which is up by 7%.
– There are 3.196 billion people using various social media platform which is up by 13%.
– There are 5.135 billion people using mobile phones which is up by 4%.

Source

Here are the top best social media marketing trends you should not ignore. Based on these you can pick the kind of digital marketing services you would like to run for your company.

Artificial Intelligence – The New Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence holds great importance in the digital marketing processes. It has the ability to analyse human behaviour based on their buying and search patterns. They also analyse your move on social media platforms and the blog post you follow to see how you search for your desired products and services. With the help of artificial intelligence you also give information and tips to your users by involving in conversations.

Facts
– According to a survey by 2020 85% of customer interactions will not require a human.

Chatbots For Interaction
Chatbots have become a very important part of Digital Marketing trends. This being an AI-based technology makes use of instant messaging to be able to chat in real-time, with all the customers be it day or night. Chatbots are highly capable of meeting customer demands in this digitally connected era by providing instant & smooth interaction with prospects and existing customers.

Facts
A survey has shown that by 2022 businesses can save upto $8 billion yearly with the help of Chatbots, more specifically in the banking and healthcare sectors.

Personalized Content
In 2018 personalized content has become the prime marketing aspect and is expected to grow further ensuring customer delight. Sending personal emails of personal offers to customers based on their choices provides them a unique and personalized experience. It’s better than having the same offer for all.

This is possible with the data available like the customers purchase history, or previously visited pages can help you customise their offers and make personalized content.

Facts
– 74% of digital marketers use targeted personalization to enhance and grow customer engagement.
– As per Statista’s survey the open rate of personalized emails in 18.8% where for mails without any personalizations the open rate is only 13.1%. 

Mobile is Vitally Important
Social Media and smartphone make the perfect pair. There has been a drastic increase in the number of mobile users over the years. It is very important to have a mobile responsive website. Where already 5.135 billion people are using mobile phones for almost all their activities, it becomes vitally important to have a mobile presence.

Facts
– The graph below clearly shows that in 2018 there will be more than 2.53 billion smartphone users across the globe.
– By 2020 it is expected to rise upto 2.87 billion smartphone users globally.

Source

Video, Video Everywhere!
Over the year digital market has changed drastically. People have opted out of using desktops & laptops to find content, instead they use their smartphone and tablets to find or search for anything they need. Its handy and easily available with the mobile network data provided. Today consumers want quick and easy solutions to what they find. They prefer to watch videos to find the exact solution. Yes, Video marketing is growing and is most in demand these days.

Facts
– According to a report 2019 more than 80% of the web traffic will be represented by Videos.
– You can increase the click-through rate by 200-300% by including videos in the emails.
– 90% of users say that seeing a product video helps in making quicker buying decisions.
– Forrester researcher Dr. James McQuivey estimates that one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words.

Social Messaging Apps
Social messaging apps are not only used for sending forwards or emojis to your friends. There is a whole lot of things you can do with these social messaging apps. The number below will get your eyes rolling.

Facts
– 1.2 billion users are active on Facebook Messenger app monthly.
– Every Month 2 billion messages are exchanges between people and Businesses on FB Messenger App.
– Every Month Whatsapp has at least 1.2 billion active users.

Source

Visual Search
Visual search is one of the latest type of search engines giving users an entirely new experience. In a visual search user can upload image to get more info on it or specific results.

Fact
– Pinterest has topped it all by raising $150 million in venture funding at a $12.3 billion valuation to stay focused on visual search.
– They have 175 million users monthly who use it to search for images or pins for food, dresses, etc.
– Mobile search has increased by 40% than last year.

They came up with Lens, a visual search tool where you can snap a picture of an item that you wish to locate to buy online. You can search for similar products online. Google Lens, Bing Visual Search and CamFind are also some visual search engines that help you search other similar images for your images. Each of them have their specific search features to make the visual search process easy and fun.

Voice Search
In the current digital era, you can find answers to almost all your questions through the search engines. People are quiet impatient these days, they don’t have the patience to wait read the entire content, they would rather search through voice and get the output through the audio. It saves time and gives you the exact answer you were looking for. With AI in picture the errors that were made by voice assistant like Siri, Alexa & Google have reduced to a great extent.

Facts
– It is expected that by 2020, 50% of all searches will voice based.
– Today already 20% of mobile queries on Google are voice searches
– 25% of Bing searches are already voice searches.

Digital Marketing has a lot of scope and there is a lot more one can do with it. It plays a major role in the growth and attracting more customers to your business online.

Closing Note
Digital Marketing trend is the new phase of social media marketing strategy to be used for all business. It opens new doors and opportunities to enhance brand engagement in a entirely new way. Today, customers are everything, what we do and what we make is to give them a world class experience. It seems 2018’s prime focus is going to be about customer engagement and ways to enhance it. Whatever trend you follow you need to have a creatively engaging content that reaches the targeted audience in less time frame.