The year 2018 was a very busy one in digital marketing. We saw old and new trends being used to create better marketing campaigns. Some of them worked really well, and others, not so well. To get the most of your digital marketing in 2019, it’s important that you take vital lessons learned along with you.
Let’s take a look at the four biggest digital marketing lessons 2018 offered.
- It’s safer to use multiple channels
In a bid to serve the masses better, changes and updates were made by tech innovators. And these affected digital marketing as it thrives on technology.
Lead generation is integral to digital marketing. In most cases, you have no control of the mediums from which these leads are generated.
Social network giant Facebook was involved in a serious privacy scandal. Data of fifty million users were allegedly collected without their consent. In a move to save the situation, Facebook made changes to its privacy settings. If you focused solely on Facebook for lead generation, a change like this would affect your marketing efforts in some ways.
Google recently implemented its mobile-first indexing. If your digital marketing efforts don’t align with this technique, they automatically become ineffective. Identify multiple channels that are favorable for your campaigns. Highlight the strengths of each channel, and infuse it in creating your messages. If any of them becomes obsolete tomorrow, you won’t be stranded. You’ll simply continue with others.
- Artificial intelligence is the future
Despite reservations about artificial intelligence (AI) displacing humans of their jobs, it has come to say. AI is transforming digital marketing – and this was visible in 2018. The earlier you leverage it, the higher your chances of not losing your source of livelihood.
Rather than see artificial intelligence as the enemy, see it as the friend who can work in your favor. The tasks you waste time on can be executed at the snap of the finger with the use of AI technologies. You also get to save some money on making hires for positions that can be done under your supervision.
Marketing has moved from the era of generalization to personalization. With AI technologies like Chatbots, customer interactions can be collated, and used to create personal marketing campaigns for them.
Customers are becoming more intolerant to mediocre customer service. No one wants to wait for so long before being attended to. Automation tools like LifeChat facilitate instant communication. Customer issues are solved immediately without sending numerous emails back and forth.
- User-friendly content is key in search engine optimization
New digital marketing techniques keep coming up, but one that remained very relevant in 2018 was Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The internet is saturated with many marketing campaigns. There’s no guarantee that your money spent on paid advertising will be recuperated. Your campaign might get lost in the crowd. You can beat the competition by simply making your brand easily accessible.
User-friendly SEO content thrived in 2018. Keyword stuffing didn’t stand a chance. Not only did search engines boot it out, it lacked the capacity to hold the attention of the audience past the first paragraph.
User-friendly content educates and entertains the reader, making them come back for more. You also get organic links from such content – relieving you the stress of creating links by yourself.
Creating user-friendly content isn’t easy: it can be time consuming. But one thing is certain – you’ll enjoy positive results in the end.
- Micro influencers are driving influencer marketing
It’s common knowledge that influencer marketing is effective in today’s marketing terrain. Celebrities used to be the go-to people for brand promotion. But a new set of people came on board and dominated the influencer marketing space in 2018. They are micro influencers. These aren’t your very popular celebrities. They are everyday people making a difference in their little space.
Riding on the coattails of social media, micro influencers have been able to build a following. Displaying knowledge or competence in their chosen fields, they are perceived as expert by their audiences. Due to their moderate following, they have a closer relationship with their audiences compared to the big celebrities.
Having micro influencers aboard your digital marketing campaign will give your brand the extra push without going overboard with your marketing budget.
Digital marketing is evolving. Today’s trends are precedents for tomorrow’s innovations. Having a grasp of what worked this year will help you do better in 2019.
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