10 digital marketing trends to propel your brand forward
Regardless of what industry you’re in and what products and services you offer, you cannot ignore digital marketing trends. Not too long ago, companies only needed a well-designed website and a social media page. Today, with the digital landscape constantly evolving very quickly, it can be tough to keep up. At the moment, there aren’t too many successful businesses that do not have an online presence. Moreover, new technologies and tools are developing by the second. For this reason, marketers have needed to adapt to the situation to keep their organizations relevant in the industry.
In order to fully understand how to create a successful digital marketing campaign, it is essential first to understand the trends that you can plug into for success. You need to take into account search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click strategies, content marketing, and social media. As you can imagine, trying to develop and manage a comprehensive campaign can be overwhelming. As technology evolves and search engines focus more on creating an optimal user experience, digital marketing will only become more challenging.
After over two years of stay-at-home orders and lockdowns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, people realized how important online business is. At the moment, more people are still working remotely than ever before as businesses are growing beyond borders. As a result of the new nomadic lifestyle and accelerated business growth, we will most likely continue to see the necessity of online businesses for years to come. Let us now look at some of the biggest digital marketing trends.
1) Voice Search
Technology for recognizing and understanding human speech patterns is rapidly evolving. Voice search is becoming increasingly popular, whether people use it on their mobile devices, through Alexa or Google Home. This means fewer searches are being typed into search engines. More searches are being conducted using virtual assistant questions.
At the same time, many of the terms used in voice searches are different from those used in standard text searches. As a result, search language and structure have shifted toward a more natural, conversational tone. Meanwhile, search engines have had to adapt to stay relevant. The most effective marketing teams are adjusting their strategies accordingly.
Voice technology has become such a standard part of everyone’s lives. As a result, many businesses have started incorporating voice search technology into their online marketing campaigns.
These businesses are reporting positive results in growing revenue and attracting new customers. People genuinely love devices that will pay attention to their instructions and act accordingly.
The development of smart speakers
Smart speakers are among the most current innovations that have pushed voice search technology to the next level. These speakers are widely used throughout the world. Alexa and Siri were among the first smart speakers. However, they were initially only designed for entertainment purposes. The initial versions could not perform a wide range of functions.
Over time, however, service providers have learned to improve their features further to provide customers with a more personalized touch. The usage and manufacturing of these voice-activated response gadgets will increase as people become more acclimated to their capabilities. Voice search isn’t limited to smart speakers; other smart technologies offer comparable functions. People can now use voice search on their cellphones to find information. This is fantastic given the capabilities of smartphones. They can also use mobile devices to access Google’s voice search. This functionality can be accessed in their preferred language, as it is available in over 60 languages, which is a significant advancement.
2) Video Marketing
People enjoy seeing videos that cover topics that they would otherwise have to read about. In 2021 and 2022, video marketing was quite popular, and it will only get more popular in 2024. If you want to appeal to a wide range of audiences, there are several ways to use video marketing to your advantage. For example, you can use Facebook and other social media platforms to host live broadcasts that instantly attract attention and engagement.
You can also design videos that demonstrate the features of a product or service. Shooting videos of events is a great way to leverage people’s sense of FOMO. Likewise, conducting interviews is frequently a terrific way to promote your company as a thought leader in its field. In-depth chats and how-to tutorials are also among the more popular digital marketing trends.
Some trends in video marketing include hosting webinars, Google Search, live video streaming, and omnichannel marketing.
How a webinar can help
A “webinar” is a combination of the words “web” and “seminar” and refers to an educational lecture delivered via online video. They’re sometimes referred to as “web seminars” or “webcasts.” Webinars are a type of content marketing in which businesses present helpful information to their target audience to entice them to their company. As with any other content, a webinar can help a company establish itself as an industry authority.
Webinars help in building awareness of the brand and retention of customer loyalty. If you’re wondering what kind of content to include in your webinar, consider helpful instructions and tutorials, or exciting statistics and numbers about your industry. You can also add some insightful and thought-provoking comments on breaking news and developments in your field.
3) No-Click Searches
A no-click search, also known as a Featured Snippet, means that users don’t have to visit a website to acquire the information they desire from search engines. No-click searches are highly convenient for consumers. On the other hand, this is one of those digital marketing trends that may be quite frustrating for businesses that are looking to convert those users into customers.
While there’s no assurance that visitors will visit a company’s website from a no-click search, firms can improve their chances by optimizing for Featured Snippets. People may want more information beyond the snippet in some circumstances, prompting them to click through to the snippet’s source.
The rise in no-click searches comes from two primary sources: improved SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) and Increased Mobile Searches. As mentioned previously, featured snippets are text, charts, videos, or lists that are boxed-off answers to your most common Google queries. These snippets are the product of Google’s ongoing efforts to make its platform more user-friendly than before. Google isn’t alone in these efforts. Facebook and other social media platforms have taken steps to improve the overall user experience at the expense of companies and advertisers.
4) Interactive Content
Today, watching or reading stuff isn’t enough; consumers want to engage with your content. People can connect with emails, social media posts, and other sorts of content in various ways. For example, companies could create polls and surveys for audiences, or encourage people to take part in a contest with user-generated content. They could also provide calculators for rough estimates and quotes. Additionally, they can include options within the content that customizes the content for the user.
A fundamental component of successful marketing is creating bespoke experiences for customers that allow a company to engage with people. The engagement offered by interactive marketing provides consumers with a memorable experience. According to studies, more and more audiences, particularly millennials and younger generations, appreciate personalized experiences. They want to know that if they’re going to spend their hard-earned money on a product or service it’ll be a good fit for them or address an issue in their lives.
Finally, interactive content marketing provides clients with a better marketing experience and is more likely to turn them into brand enthusiasts.
Quizzes and polls, for example, generate a higher percentage of engagement than other types of material. They also allow companies to obtain information about their consumers. This can take the form of collecting their names and email addresses to add to a lead’s database in exchange for access to assessment results. With this information, you can increase your lead generation pool. You can also learn more about what types of content your clients like to see and even what items you want. This will help you to fine-tune your brand’s marketing as well as product development.
5) Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities today make it easier than ever before for businesses to optimize their marketing strategies. AI can be used in a variety of ways in digital marketing. Compared to the previous days of SEO, Google RankBrain’s AI aims to push more relevant results for consumers, with a far better grasp of context signals. On the other hand, other types of AI are making it more challenging to rank in search engines. Marketing firms can also utilize AI-enabled solutions to automate operations and gain a better understanding of user behavior. Without the need for many manual processes, AI can also help you adapt your content to the buyer’s journey based on each user’s preferences.
6) Chatbots
People want companies they trust to respond quickly, and they don’t have much patience for poor customer service. You should have live chat functions on your website where possible. However, it’s not always feasible to hire someone to run a chat 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For this reason, you should always have a chatbot as a backup with realistic contextual responses for those times when you don’t have someone available to do a live chat.
An effective chatbot will answer basic questions, connect individuals with the right team member, link them to a contact form or another webpage, and help schedule consultations or calls. The best chatbots also perform other duties that keep consumers moving through the sales funnel.
7) Social Messaging Apps
Companies can also utilize social media messaging tools in addition to chatbots. Every month, billions of people use Facebook Messenger. In other words, if you don’t take advantage of the messenger, you’re missing out on a critical opportunity to engage with your customers. You can use messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and others to provide leads and customers with a simple way to reach the firm at any time.
8) VR and AR Applications
You can provide audiences with a unique experience using virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technology. After all, people are now demanding involvement beyond primary interactive material. For example, you can use VR and 360-degree cameras to give tours of back offices or other facilities in a more engaging behind-the-scenes video. Ultimately, customers will be excited to “try” a product by engaging with it in AR through a virtual depiction.
As VR and AR technology advances, additional opportunities for enterprises of all sizes will become available.
9) Online Reviews
Prospective customers want to know what previous and current customers have to say about a service or product before making a purchase choice. You can have the best website and high-quality material to advertise your products. Even so, reviews that depict your organization as shady could be a deal-breaker.
People trust recommendations from friends and family, but they’re also willing to believe a stranger’s testimony if it appears genuine. For this reason, if you want customers to finish their transactions and choose you over your competitors, then you should encourage favorable reviews. If you receive negative feedback, you should not dismiss it, no matter how untrue it may be. Instead, you should respond immediately with an apology and explanation, demonstrating that you care about consumer experiences. Thanking customers for favorable feedback might also help persuade others to buy from you.
10) Smart Bidding and Programmatic Advertising
Previously, advertising and administering Google Ads campaigns required manual labor, but that is no longer the case. Digital advertising is becoming easier and faster thanks to programmatic advertising and AI-powered automated bidding. For greater results and efficiency, use smart bidding in your PPC ads.
All of these digital marketing trends listed above will continue to shape the digital marketing landscape long beyond 2024. You will build a more competitive brand if you can keep these trends in mind and tailor your efforts to take advantage of them.
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