Digital marketing is a crucial strategy if you want to build a successful and sustainable business. Even what used to be traditional businesses are now embracing digital methods to cope with the rapidly changing tides. Without an online presence, a business, whether small or established, is bound to fail.
Through the years, the landscape of digital marketing has seen dramatic changes. That means, some strategies must have worked in the past but are irrelevant nowadays. In search engine optimization (SEO), for example, having extensive backlinks could have ranked you higher in search results. But now, it’s no longer as important.
Even social media, a popular digital marketing tool, is constantly evolving. If in the past, you can have a multitude of people seeing your Facebook Page posts, that may not be true today. That is because Facebook has dramatically lessened the organic reach of FB posts.
Now all these changes and more are taking place as we speak. That is why it is important to be up-to-date so you can also constantly improve your digital methods. This 2019, here are some trends you need to look up and apply so that your business will not get left behind.
Develop an Omnichannel Approach in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is fast transitioning to an omnichannel approach. If in the past, you can build a business with just one channel, that is no longer as effective today. For example, Facebook progressed rapidly by just informing everyone to invite their friends. They would get your address book and automatically invite all your friends even without your notice.
Today that has changed, those strategies don’t work as well as they used to. This is not to say that they don’t work at all, they are not just as effective anymore. After all, marketing has evolved into an omnichannel approach. Because of that, you need to use various tactics such as hacking growth, pay-per-click, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and banner ads.
The list of strategies stretches endlessly and the more channels you can utilize, the higher your chance to fare in digital marketing. Most of these platforms, however, are saturated and crowded because of millions of online businesses and counting. If you’re not able to take advantage of them, 2019 may end up to poor conversions and sales.
Voice Search is a Big Deal
You may not be comfortable with it, but the search is transitioning to voice search. In 2020, Comscore projects that half of all the searches on Google will compose of voice search. Today, two out of every five adults in the United States are using voice search. Surely, kids are not using it as much. However, studies show that half of all searches are going to be via voice search by 2020. So, if you want to fare this 2019, take advantage of voice search.
To make this happen, make sure your website or blog is HTTPS because most of the top-ranking sites these days are HTTPS. Second, make sure your site loads fast. Speed is a critical consideration if you want to rank high in search results and maintain your ranking. If your site does not load fast, you’re not going to fare with voice search.
Third, when people type search queries, they typically type longer-term phrases. That means, your questions and especially your answers need to be brief and straight to the point. If you answer with long paragraphs, you’re not going to fare as well compared to if your answer is only a sentence long.
Conversion Optimization is Fundamental
The rates for advertising is getting more and more expensive as years going by, and that will surely continue. There’s no stopping that as everything goes higher. The only way you’re going to be able to compete and make your business stay relevant is through conversion optimization. That means, the more you optimize your landing page for conversions, the higher your chance of faring despite the trends.
Concerning that, make sure you’re utilizing platforms like Crazy Egg which allows you to do A/B testing so you can generate more conversions from the traffic you’re reaching.
Also, don’t forget to use tools like Hello Bar which promotes email collection. Take note that this will help you generate more sales from the users and visitors that you have. If you don’t apply this as the years go by, your competitors will drown you as they will spend more money than you.
Again, place your premium attention on conversion optimization even though it’s not sexy and most people are not talking about it in online marketing.
Take Advantage of Marketing Funnels
Marketing funnels are becoming more and more popular especially this 2019. Before, these were used to maximize campaigns. Today, you must consider up-sells, down-sells, cross-sells, lifetime value of a customer, and churn.
Whether you have a physical or a digital product, you should still track everything from a visitor to a conversion point. That’s an opportunity for them to keep buying and that’s why funnels are critical for online businesses. If you don’t know how to create a funnel, there are a lot of online tools such as Click Funnels to help you out.
Quality Content Remains King
Content marketing is no longer working well as it used to in the past. Blogging has become so popular that everyone keeps on targeting the same information over and over again. A lot of popular and highly-prized keywords has become saturated. The key then is, create new and unique content that people will love. It should be something that they have never seen or read before.
Leverage on Video
Experts say that video content is the future. And the thing is, people and more people love it. Not everybody is into reading. Now, if you notice, all of the most successful bloggers have video content. Even the most popular social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube prefer to give you more views for videos. That is why you need to start leveraging on that. Otherwise, you will be left out.
Create Podcasts
Podcasting is sweeping the online world like a tsunami. Studies have shown that 45% of people who listen to podcasts have a household income of $75 000. That’s a lot of money. That means, the more people who listen to your podcast, the more conversions you will generate.