How digital marketing looks set to shape up in 2019
First things first: Happy New Year! The WEBPRO team wish you a healthy and prosperous 2019.
With this in mind, we wanted to remind you that we are always here to help; and we thought we’d kick off the new year by giving you the heads up on what’s looking set to be hot in the digital marketing arena this year.
One thing is for sure: digital marketing is here to stay and is becoming increasingly important. If you want to stay ahead of the game, it’s going to be more important than ever that you embrace it.
With Facebook holding its number one spot as the social media platform, both in the UK and the US, it really cannot be ignored. It can be fantastic for directly communicating with your prospective clients. And you can keep in touch with regular customers too with your own business page or group. Develop and enhance your business profile by running competitions or make your business known through advertising.
The key – as with any marketing platform – is to know your target market. The social media giant is absolutely the right place for marketing to the more mature client, for example.
If your target audience is the under 30s, this image and video-centred channel is the way to go. With over one billion users, its rise in popularity has been fast. It is known to predominantly attract the younger demographic and can therefore be a very smart choice indeed. It can be a common mistake for businesses to overlook Instagram as an effective marketing tool, however even retail giants such as Primark have recognised the significance of utilising this far-reaching, up-to-the-minute approach to marketing.
Chatbots
A chatbot is considered a virtual “concierge” service which has come into its own in today’s world where people need – and have come to expect – information at their fingertips. Having a bot run chat facility on your website means that there is always “someone” there to represent your business and respond to enquiries that clients – and potential clients – want immediately. Typically seen in text chat window form, verbal interaction is also possible.
This facility looks set to increase in 2019. It is already taking the world by storm. And understandably so. If you don’t already have online chat on your website, this could be a great time to make your business instantaneously available to prospects while on the go! If your competitors use a chatbot and you don’t, you could be missing out.
Video
Even today, video isn’t used nearly enough for marketing, yet it is so important. It can not only get your message across, it can also make it more personal and, what’s more, it can increase your Google ranking. You only have to look at the growth of platforms such as Youtube and Instagram to see what an important part this method of marketing can play.
The key is to engage your audience so that viewers spend more time on your webpage – the more time, the better! This increased “dwell time” results in Google identifying your video and the page it is showcased on as valuable. So, needless to say, the more dwell time you generate, the higher your pages will be ranked. Sweet!
Here to help
Do watch out for our subsequent monthly emails where we will look at many of these points, and more, in much more detail for you.
