5 TRENDS TO WATCH FOR IN YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY IN 2019

Every day I wake up on new notifications from my social media apps; indeed new changes are appearing constantly in the world of social media; new technologies are coming into our lives and algorithms are becoming more efficient and intelligent. But all these development are making digital marketing more precise, efficient..and in the same time more delicate to master.

Businesses nowadays can’t ignore the undisputed power of digital marketing and social media. If you want to reach your customer and upscale your business you need to have an active digital presence. Social media, streaming content, and the simplicity of generating and consuming digital content have made the net the place to be. So here are the top trends, I think every digital marketer should watch for in this New Year.

1. Facebook: rough start but the giant have always some tricks on the side:

After a difficult 2018 with a data breach that affected 14 million users and the 10 year challenge’ photos as a boon to Facebook’s facial recognition technology. Facebook had gained a reputation for being the platform of deception and political propaganda. It is continuously dropping in popularity with younger demographics; in fact it is undeniable that the relationship between the public and Facebook may be changing.

It’s like a hate love story, because despite everything it’s still the number one social media platform. In fact, Facebook ads are still the most accurate and target efficient, but at one condition: you really need to know who your target is or you're targeting the wrong social media platform.

2. Instagram my favorite rising star:

It’s the fastest growing app on the planet with over one billion users in 2018: Impressive, right..!!

The platform is optimized to make it very easy and fun for users to share photos and videos from their phone. But it’s important to mention that if you really want to connect and engage with your customers via this platform you need to master its two killer weapons which are stories and micro-influencers. One thing that I really love about Instagram is that you can humanize your brand or product by sharing emotions in your content.

Luckily for Facebook, they already bought Instagram, since Facebook is losing market share, due to its reputation as the social media platform for “old people.” Instagram on the other hand is popular among younger demographic, especially under 30.

3. Video is a must medium:

Videos now more than ever are on the rise; YouTube, Facebook and Netflix are all competing to be your next favorite TV channel. Consumers are demanding more and more videos and companies needs to adapt to that; In fact Cisco has predicted that in 2019 more than 80% of the web content will be in video format. Here some others statistics from Forbes to back this up:

- According to YouTube, video consumption is doubling every year

- 64% of the consumers are more likely to buy a product after seeing a video of it.

- Video ads now counts for more than 35% of all online advertising spending.

- One-third of the time people spend online is dedicated to watching videos.

- Buzzsumo has just published a revealing study of the success of videos on Facebook. After analyzing 777 million Facebook posts in 2018, it appears that videos gets at least 59% more engagement than all the other types of posts on Facebook.

Pretty good right..?! No wonders that in 2018 we witnessed the lunch of two expected major player of 2019: IGTV by Instagram and Facebook watch.

So whether you're making videos for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or even your own website, it is an incredibly effective digital marketing tool. You also need to remember to pair your videos with accurate and valuable user metrics of digital media to provide you with much more useful data on how specific your efforts are performing. You can capture and share a lot of information and build your brand's personality with videos. As long as you respect the fundamentals of good videos production, you can really make impressive revenues.

4. Live streaming is a distinct yet essential tool:

Most social media nowadays like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter offers the possibility of going live; Part of this is due to the massive spike in the streaming services. Today, it is almost vital to make live videos. Your audience expects more authentic and engaging content from you. That's the core of live video. Indeed, making live videos is an opportunity to:

- Show an event that you are attending and that your fans do not necessarily have access to (eg fashion show, conference, etc.)

- Do a Q&A session

- Start a weekly show

- Interview an expert or an influencer that your audience admires

Besides, live streaming is more valuable when combined with influencer marketing. Whether it's a new generation of social media influencers or traditional, such as celebrities, athletes, or musicians, having a live stream with an influencer who is interacting directly with comments is a massive magnet for audience. Also in 2018, Facebook has further improved the live video experience, especially with the arrival of live polls.

Keep in mind that the spontaneity and interactivity of live streaming can undoubtedly be a big draw when done right, remember to be real and authentic.

5. Voice Interaction is everything

As Gary Vaynerchuk said it voice is the new search, one on every 4 searches on google is by voice. Thanks to Siri, Google, Alexa, and a host of other “smart” devices, verbal interaction with devices is rising, simply because now talking is simply a favored way of interacting. And now technology is catching up to the way people want to search, shop, and discover the world around them.

However, some interesting challenges needs to be taken into consideration. In fact, conducting a voice search is very different from typing a request, especially in the results. When a person makes a text-based search, the screen displays one page at a time of results. But when someone asks a device to conduct a search and the device replies verbally, it may only give a few choices at most, and frequently, they supply just one choice. One other thing the voice search engine perform as best when in English, which can require more work.

Making voice searches is going to necessitate a different approach, but it's one area of digital marketing that can't be ignored because people are relying on it now more than ever. It’s expected that in 2020, 50% of search request will be by voice.

So these are 5 trends that I personally think needed to be taken into consideration when building your content strategy this year, and one more thing content, content and more good content…ALWAYS.

What about you, what others trends do you think will be important this year…?