Wanna know the trends that will impact digital marketing for the rest of the year? Don’t worry, we have put together a shortlist of trends that are impacting digital marketing as changes in consumers’ habits affect us as entrepreneurs.
That’s why you should stay on top of your game and understand the trends in digital marketing, and don’t run the risk of losing customers.
1. Link building and loading time will still be fundamental
Link building will remain as a key factor for SEO, but you have to make sure to link your content to quality links. There’s no need to target new links if they don’t add value or help build authority. A successful SEO strategy will move towards building relationships and helping the brand develop strong contacts in the long run.
And don’t forget that loading speed is critical! The slow loading speed of web pages results in a bad experience for users. So, it is necessary to reduce load times, optimizing images and videos, and removing apps or items that don’t add real value to your business and the user experience.
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2. Changes in user habits
Changes in users’ habits will mark a large number of trends in digital marketing for the coming years, and you must take this into account to generate revenues.
Increase in voice searches
One of the most important trends in digital marketing you’ll see is the increase in voice searches. Although it's true that voice searches didn’t provide good data, this situation is changing and voice recognition is improving rapidly. And more people are using Siri and Cortana in everyday life.
Previously, the reason why voice searches didn’t work well was due to the inability of search engines to correctly process the sounds, making the search incomprehensible.
However, search engines are escalating to another level with AI and now, the vast majority of services manage to successfully process speech requests. In fact, voice searches represent half of the whole searches for teenagers (QuoraCreative). And according to PWC, 65% of users between the ages of 25 and 49 speak at least once a day with their mobile devices and smart speakers (such as Google Home or Alexa) to seek solutions to their doubts or problems.
All this data is not surprising, since voice searches are much faster and more direct, which is why it is gaining relevance among all age groups around the world.
Mobile payments and greater use of smartphones
Traffic is becoming more and more mobile and there is a large amount of data that certifies that the use of mobile phones compared to PCs is growing fast.
For example, almost all reports on email open rates claim that nearly 50% of opens are from mobile devices, according to HubSpot and mobile users check their emails, at least, 3 times more than users with other devices. Furthermore, 35% of professionals claim to view their emails directly from their mobile and according to Campaign Monitor, 52% of customers are less engaged with a company, which offers a bad mobile experience.
With all this, it is important that you set up all your digital content for mobile phones as well as ensuring that all payments are mobile-friendly. That way you won’t lose a sale!
Conversational marketing boom
Another digital marketing trend that has been going strong is the rise of conversational marketing. Conversational marketing is taking the user to talk to the company directly. To encourage these conversations, the company asks users to visit the website, creating a bond of trust between the company and the potential buyer.
You just have to set up chatbots. As time goes by, chatbots are becoming great allies. They are key to making customer service faster and they can provide an instant connection with customers around the world and solve basic problems and frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Or live chats with a real person from the company or offering a Link to WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger to get a faster and more fluid conversation.
Importance of local results
Local positioning is gaining popularity among businesses. Indeed, 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five kilometers of their surroundings (Wordstream).and local searches lead 50% of mobile device users to visit stores in one day (HubSpot).
With this data, it is important that you work on your local positioning to take advantage of the high conversion rates that these types of searches present. Don’t miss this opportunity!
Greater awareness
The massive amounts of stimuli users receive every day is overwhelming, and as an entrepreneur, we need to be aware of this.
Also, not everything goes on the internet anymore. More platforms are fighting fake news or eliminating content. So, it’s important that all information you share is well-founded and users want greater privacy on the internet, as a consequence, you have to reach them in a non-intrusive way.
WhatsApp marketing
WhatsApp is a powerful communication tool and it gives you a lot of possibilities when it comes to instant messaging. With it, you can stimulate conversations with users, as well as send valuable content.
Thanks to this tool, you’ll be able to achieve a more direct and personalized treatment with users, and a warmer and more fruitful relationship that may result in a purchase.
3. Extremely personalized campaigns
To stand out, you have to personalize content as much as possible. Users receive a large amount of visual and communicative stimuli throughout the day, so you have to stand out to try to get their attention.
Users are making more and more purchases through social media and taking advantage of this situation is the job of entrepreneurs. It’s important to be present on all social media to reach your target audience. That’s why you should analyze which social media you’d get more leads if you don’t want to be left out of the game.
This trend is going to grow, so the idea is to create shoppable posts. Platforms like Instagram or Facebook allow you to include products in their catalogs to actually make purchases, something that helps improve your conversion rates.
4. More visual and interactive content
Content is still king, but the truth is that the type of content that is going to rule is about visuals and interaction. Thanks to this, the video, podcast and animations will continue to gain importance in the future.
Podcast
The podcast is booming! It is increasingly growing since its listening is simple and does not require paying attention to the screen, which makes it perfect to consume while doing other activities. According to data from HubSpot, 17% of marketers plan to add podcasts to their marketing efforts in the next 12 months.
Video
Video continues to grow and they are 50 times more likely to grow organically compared to plain text (SEOINC). In addition to improving rankings, including a video in a post increases organic traffic. So, millennials prefer video content to written content, and video will lead preferences for several years.
Strong incorporation of Artificial Intelligence
Despite the fact that today only 15% of companies are using artificial intelligence, next year the share will reach 31% of companies according to PWC, since its utilities can help improve productivity and service.
As you can see, trends in digital marketing focus on offering a better user experience and achieving personalization of the services and communications made. Ultimately, the purpose of all of them is to break down the boundaries between companies and users to create more fruitful, lasting and warm relationships.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is growing and it will keep growing in the next few years. The focus is on getting leads from the fanbase of influencers, so you’ll have a bigger market and millions of prospects for your brand. In the future, using this tool is much more common and for being competitive, you’ll have to recognize the needs of your customers and connect with them.
Integrated animations and illustrations
Today, more and more websites left static images behind and they are starting to give them movement and color. With animations, it’s easier to attract and engage your website’s visitors. Even, with animations, visitors have an entertaining experience while the website loads, and later, you can keep them engaged with more appealing illustrations.
So, plain text is not enough to convert visitors to customers nowadays. Users are no longer attracted to serious and uncreative brands! On the contrary, users expect creativity, friendly images, some fun and an energetic business.
5. Great UX design
A good UX increases the chances for people to interact with your website. If your website is completely functional and delightful, that will generate a positive user experience, which in turn will benefit you, your brand and your business.
Furthermore, you need to exploit the emotional aspects of user interactions because creating emotions through words and images affect the cognitive processes that influence a user's relationship with you, your products, and your business.
And current search engines discover which websites are most useful to users… and they rank better! Since SEO is advancing towards more relevant and personalized experiences, the user experience is key to maintain good traffic by creating an engaged audience.
Don't let anything stop you!
Entrepreneurship grew a lot in recent years, and being an entrepreneur is becoming a realistic option for self-employment. So, being successful in digital marketing will depend on you, moving forward to keep the pace of the users’ demands and define what trends your business needs, outline the objectives you want to achieve, and determine if robotization or the internet of things will impact your industry, etc. There are uncertainties too.
Would you like to share your opinion about these digital marketing trends? Contact us to continue the conversation. PUNCHY is here to support you!
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