4 Digital and Interactive Marketing Trends to Watch in 2019

2019 is right around the corner.

And with a new year comes new hot trends in digital and interactive marketing to watch. As digital, and especially, interactive marketing becomes more important, you need to understand how you can integrate them into your business.

So while you’re taking this time to reflect on your marketing plans and strategies for the coming year, it’s important to understand what’s going to be hot — and where you can capitalize on it for an advantage.

Here’s what interactive marketers are talking about for 2019:

Video Marketing

Video has been hot the last few years and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down yet. But, there is one crucial component of video marketing that is essential today: storytelling.

Part of that is being authentic.

Consumers can see right through a campaign that feels like it was generated in a lab. The brands that are having success with video, and will continue to are those who are pulling in real user content, telling stories, and building a real brand persona.

GoPro is one example. They can create their own killer videos aimed at adrenaline junkies but they also tap into their current user base sharing all sorts of videos their customers create with their gear too.

It makes a GoPro seem like something a ‘regular’ person would want and can use in their lives. Yes, you too can wear your GoPro while making soup.

Micro-Moments

Ever seen something and had to pick up your phone immediately to learn more about it, or watch more of it, or even buy it?

The answer is probably yes. As a culture, we love our phones and they are likely never out of reach. That’s one of the reasons why the average American smartphone user spends over 3.5 hours a day on it.

Digital and interactive marketers are tapping into our increasing reliance on our phones and our need to get information on something specific right away by embracing micro-moments.

Google first tapped into the micro-moment concept as they noticed increases in people both searching for immediate information and now buying on mobile too.

Think about how you can harness these micro-moments in your customers. It can be as simple as creating short digestible content that is mobile optimized posts around buying keywords.

Email Personalization

This isn’t exactly a new trend.

Smart marketers have been shouting about personalization from the rooftops for the last few years. But, with marketing technology, you can do so much more with emails. And that’s especially true with interactive content.

In 2019, your emails have to stand out. They can’t just be a blast to everyone on your list and a hope for the best. Instead, work on delivering real-time personalization within your emails that are also focused on the behavior of your customers.

Here’s one example:

Giving a reader something that sparks their interest and leads them to content that is personalized just for them is a great way to generate more clicks and build an excited customer base.

Voice Search

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. And the next frontier of AI technology is going to tie in with voice search.

It’s predicted that by 2020 (and by the way, that’s not so far away now) about half of all searches will be via voice. Now, add to that the estimates that approximately 55% of households are going to have smart speakers in their homes.

It makes for a pretty compelling case, right?

Many brands are already looking for ways to add voice search capabilities to their marketing mixes. That includes thinking about your customers and how they speak. What questions would they likely ask about your product or service? What are the potential key terms that stand out on a voice search that don’t typically matter when typing?

Start preparing for those questions now, and you’re going to be ahead of the game when it comes to your competition.

Final Thoughts

In any given year, there are dozens of marketing trends that pop up. But as interactive marketing takes a bigger role in the digital marketing landscape, this is one area where it really matters to pay attention.

The more interactivity you can get your prospective customers to embrace, the better off you’re going to be in the long run.