As we embark into the year of 2019, the digital marketing landscape that encompasses SEO, social media, PPC and content marketing and more is witnessing a dramatic shift. There are many new digital marketing trends and strategies this year that are evolving in the current high-tech, internet-connected era especially for affiliates. It would be important to use them to succeed in your efforts because what worked for you last year, but not work this year.

Here are 5 Digital Marketing trends to look out for and incorporate for 2019.

1. Personalization

If you want to stand out in 2019, you need to personalize your marketing efforts such as, producing more distinguished content, products and emails for specific audience groups. Don’t worry! If you think this is just going to take up more of your time, there is where you are wrong! Custom content is made much easier with the availability of data like purchase history, consumer behavior and linked clicked. Therefore, by analyzing these data, you will be able to segment your audience into different groups based on their interest. It is believed that personalization also advances customer relationships. So why not take this little extra step that will make you stand out so much more 😉

2. Email and Marketing Automation

Efficiency is always a priority in any business. Marketing campaigns becomes more time-consuming with an ever increasing database. Marketing automation streamlines all your channel outreach efforts into one seamless platform. Having said that, let`s bring what our very first point about personalization.

Personalized, triggered emails based on customer’s behavior performs better than batch and blast emails. As we all know, email continues to be a major channel of communication with over billions of people still using it for not just business but personal purposes. It is important to note that email marketing is evolving, hence making generic marketing emails less effective. It is now a combination of automation PLUS personalization that makes email marketing important for 2019. So in this new year, trigger your email marketing efforts to something more specific. For example, with data collected, you can view a customer or audience browsing a particular product or post on your website. By following up with a personalized email, it will not only be the final trigger for a potential sale or action, but it will create an appreciation from the user.

3. Creative content

Now everyone always says that content is key in the digital marketing industry. However, diverse, creative and interactive content is the wave of the future. Simple and basic content such as articles might not do it anymore. Hence it is important to employ a mix of different formats such as quizzes, infographics, polls and video content to keep the audience engaged across multiple platforms. One such content that is seeing greater engagement is video content! Video content has play a major role in brand communication in 2019. It proves that video is a more interactive concept than a passive one. Videos are more than something that we can just watch by leaning back and relaxing. They are also something that we can lean forward to, interact and engage with. It catches our attention much quicker and longer as it is not just a stagnant photo to view in a second. So if you haven’t already incorporated videos or other creative content in your strategy, now is the time to do so. Start formulating an interactive content strategy fueled by creativity and value-added pieces that the audience can`t help but engage with.

4. Full stack marketing (Omni channel marketing)

Gone are the day where you can simply rely on only one or two channels to grow your audience or business. There is a need for full stack marketing approach which includes Google ads, Pay Per Click, SEO, Social Media, display ads and many more. The more channels you use, the higher chances of growth and success. Apart from multi-channel marketing, 2019 is looking more into Omni-channel marketing.

Omni-channel marketing provides a better experience for your prospects because it provides a seamless and consistent communication process with your audience across all channels. The main aim of this is for you to be able to keep track of the prospects interactions even though they might be interacting with you through different channels. This ensures you don`t lose a possible sale or interest in your post or product.

5. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

We all know how frustrating it is when a site takes FOREVER to load! It is so important to have a website that runs smoothly and quickly especially on a mobile device. Why you ask? Well, search engines drive a huge amount of traffic particularly on Google. And a large percentage of that comes from mobile devices ALONE!

As a website load time increases, its bounce rate increases as well which could negatively lead to a lower google ranking. We definitely do not want that now do we? Being an affiliate or an e-commerce businessman/woman with a growing audience, this is not a good thing at all.

Sooo, the AMP project was initiated by Google and it loads pages in less than 1.5 seconds resulting in a lower bounce rate for your page. On the other hand, PWA is the combination of your normal responsive website and a native app. It offers a faster loading time of your website on a mobile device. This will in turn improve your bounce rate and SEO visibility. It also gives the user a better website experience on their mobile. Unlike some mobile sites where you might be able to use all the features as compared on the actual website viewed on a desktop computer. Last but not least, users can also create a shortcut of your mobile site on their smartphone which allows them to access your website easily and efficiently at any time. Isn’t that just lovely!

It`s only January and here are 5 trends that we can expect and should look out for in this year. Technology is ever evolving and progressing, creating new opportunities and tools that makes the life of any digital marketer easier. We hope you enjoyed this article and stay tuned for our next article where we dive into more trends but this time, aimed specifically for Affiliate Marketers!

Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Contact us at marketing@benefit.sg for more information. All rights reserved by BENEFIT Pte. Ltd.