Digital Marketing Trends for 2019

Debbie Larry-Izamoje

I love what I do. Running a digital marketing agency like Image Boosters with the most formidable team gives us young professionals the ability to work with different businesses in different industries. And although briefs often vary one thing that is constant is that brands want to be seen regardless of how visible you might think they already are

The minute brands see that there is some kind of trend online they jump on it, and although this works in their favour sometimes, this isn’t always the case as we have seen severally what the impact of a bad digital marketing strategy can have on a brand. It is therefore important that your brand focuses all efforts on communicating effectively this year as opposed to jumping on different trends. Find a trend that works for you and stick to it.

Below is a list of trends to expect this year digitally;

1. Micro Moments: This simply means telling a captivating story in just a few seconds. With the fleeting attention span of people, storytellers will have no choice but to captivate the audience within seconds. This puts pressure on creatives to help tell a story that will last a lifetime.

2. Personalized Chatbox: Social media managers or business owners that have social media accounts will have the luxury of responding to clients without really being there. This takes the pressure off the owner of the account, you don’t have to worry about unanswered messages anymore, you can reply to them at your convenience. This is an exceptional feature for those of you who sell products via Instagram especially.

3. Personalised Marketing: Have you ever had a discussion with someone about a place you want to go or something you want to buy and the next thing you see is an advert about that exact thing? Spooky right and no search engines aren’t monitoring you, they are just monitoring your interests and tailoring adverts that suit you.

4. Rebuilding trust in social media: Social media is growing strong and so far it is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, Facebook has more than 2 Billion active users per month. Talk about mind boggling numbers, however consumer confidence is at an all time low with they sheer amount of unconfirmed and downright strange information that people see on the internet.

Young people have zero chill when it comes to tolerance for marketing or information that comes off as dishonest. Brands and people will need to look for ways to build trust, this means focusing on ways to highlight their humanity. You will need to connect with your audience on a meaningful level. It’s like feeding a child vegetable but coated with something sweet.

5. Captivating stories: This works well with micro moments because social media’s popularity is rooted in the fact that it allows people share our different life experiences. Social media is adapting and embracing new ways to allow people tell their stories and share narratives to the world. Different platforms are embracing this and it is changing the way we consume content.

Brands should be encouraged to share more human stories of their own which will inspire consumers to test their products.

6. Quality over Quantity: Creatives usually like to go overboard with content especially when things are trending in hopes of riding the wave. Like I stated previously, nobody has time to sift through voluminous content. Keep it simple and short or else you risk losing the audience.

7. Humanise your brand: Put a human face to your brand, in as much as people like captivating graphics, nothing beats the human factor. I wouldn’t patronise a brand that has no face. Would you? Exactly! This will naturally connect users to your business. It gives you an edge of brands that do not.

8. Influencers continue to grow their communities: Influencer marketing is still growing strong on all social media platforms. Much like personal branding when done well, it helps to give a human voice to brands. Influencer marketing is less than direct than traditional forms of advertising, but it can effectively create authentic ways of connecting with users and with customers.

About the Author
Larry-Izamoje holds a BSc in Information management from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. And Msc in management from University College London (UCL). She has also secured certificates in user innovation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Innovation and strategy from Harvard University.
She is on a mission to raise a generation of young established or soon to be established professionals who are more vocal about business difficulties while providing solutions through public speaking, article writing, training, workshops and coaching.

She is the founder of Image Boosters a Communications and strategy agency aimed at assisting SME’s, with core services in social media management and business strategy consultation.
Website: www.imageboosters.com.ng Instagram: @dee_larry @imageboosters_
Email: contactus@imageboosters.com.ng or debbie@imageboosters.com.ng