Digital Trends to keep up with in 2019

If you’re not riding the wave of digital marketing successfully, you should be – and soon. As of the third quarter of 2018, there were 4 176 active Internet users globally  and 3 908 unique mobile Internet users. These numbers are set to explode in the very near future. So what digital marketing trends should you be watching out for in the digital space for the coming year? We, at the Digital School of Marketing, have put our heads together and have come up with a three key points that you need to focus on. Here’s what we think.

Digital Trends

Artificial intelligence will continue to make our lives easier

In the media, there has been a lot of talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the impact that this is having/will have on our job market and digital marketing strategy. The truth of the matter is that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is nothing to be afraid of. In actual fact, it’s already happening and we’re benefitting from it.

Applications such as Google Maps and Waze, which kindly guide us as to where we need to go, are both good examples of the beneficial impact that artificial intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are having on our lives. We predict that the impact of artificial intelligence is going to grow in 2019 to benefit the entire population. For example, we’ve seen that Facebook has developed capabilities to have a visually impaired person’s timeline read to them. This allows these individuals access to technology which they otherwise would not have.

The continued predominance of social in digital marketing

It is a fundamental need of people to belong to something, be acknowledged and feel proud of what they’ve accomplished. It’s not going away anytime soon. Social media has harnessed this and has created forums for people to feel that they are part of a community. The well-established channels – such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – have deeply entrenched followers and their audience numbers continue to grow year on year. We’ve already seen them develop new functionality and, we predict, they will continue to do so in the coming year.

A need for innovative advertising as part of your digital marketing strategy

Digital marketers are struggling to maintain their click-through rates for their advertisements.  This is as people have become suspicious of banner advertisements because of their propensity to bring with them unwanted computer viruses.

Because of this mistrust, advertisers will need to exercise their creative juices and become cleverer  in terms of designing their marketing campaigns. We feel that we’re going to see a rise in the use of gamification which introduces an element of fun into an advertising campaign so that people don’t realise that they are being marketed to. A real-world example of gamification is the trend of major retail outlets giving away plastic figurines when goods to a certain value are purchased. The desire to collect a complete set of these figurines outweighs the amount of money that is being spent. In fact, this desire almost trumps the rands and cents being spent. In this way the promotion increases sales effortlessly.

As people become pickier about how they want their social media experience to be, native advertising – which delivers users advertisements based on their preferences – will also be on the rise. This form of advertising and marketing makes adverts fit seamlessly into a social media platform and only shows the advert if it is appropriate for the user. If he or she doesn’t want to see it, or finds it offensive, they can choose to ignore it.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

The world of digital marketing is exciting because it changes as quickly as technology develops. This means that it’s vital for you to keep up to date with what is happening and to constantly upskill yourself so that you can develop a digital marketing strategy for your business. At the Digital School of Marketing, we specialise in bespoke, accredited digital marketing accreditation. We have digital marketing courses on subjects such as SEO, pay-per-click advertising, content marketing, digital copy writing as well as social media marketing and management. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! Visit our website today to find out more and to register.