A new year brings new trends in all aspects of marketing. We narrowed down our top 10 trends for 2019 and brought them to you in a two part series, with our tips on how to apply them to your business.
- Reputation Rebuild
Whilst Facebook remains the most popular social media platform, last year’s Cambridge Analytica data breach tarnished the company’s reputation with users. Rebuilding trust across its 1.74 billion active users will be an important step in ensuring long term growth and sustainability across the social media sphere.
This development will not only affect Facebook, but all digital brands and social platforms. As these sites evolve, so too does the public’s perception of privacy and data management.
As Facebook’s relationship with the public shifts, its place as a core marketing and advertising tool could also transform. Facebook is experiencing a downward trend in younger demographics as its reputation as an ‘older users’ platform expands. Whilst in the past Facebook was seen as a ‘go-to, fail-proof’ strategy for any brand and any market, this trend will paint a new image of its most prevalent users, their interests and their usage of the site.
As such, we recommend brands identify a clear target market and consumer profile, rather than merely narrowing an audience on Facebook Ads. Further, we suggest observing the analytics of each social media site, its user demographics and methods of engagement. It will be imperative for brands to observe these new means of navigating the marketing sphere, as Facebook may no longer be the appropriate communication channel for every strategy.
- Instagram remains a hit
Despite social media distrust growing, Instagram has experienced the most rapid growth out of any other social media platform.
Instagram is the app of choice for those 30 years and under, with children a core demographic of its over one billion users. With its user-friendly, mobile optimised design, it is clear that the younger userbase of Facebook will remain more loyal to the app as it adapts alongside content trends. This presents a favourable environment for potential marketing campaigns targeting younger, trend-oriented audiences.
We recommend our clients examine the functionalities of Instagram and assess their application to their brand strategy. Does your beachy fashion label want to reach out to a younger audience? Implementing specific, user-relevant hashtags, geolocators and Instashop capabilities can help new demographics discover your offerings. These could be #teenfashion or #beachykids, in a coastal suburb like ‘Sunshine Coast, Queensland”.
Look into who you want to see your brand, and think about what social media platform is most able to facilitate this link. Instagram is best for young people, high quality videos and photos, whilst Facebook is best for older demographics and a broad array of products, videos, posts and events.
No matter your focus, all brands should maintain a consistent presence on Instagram, whilst integrating content across to Facebook as appropriate (as the app is owned by Facebook). Instagram pages, alike a website or Facebook profile, now act as landing pages for audiences. Despite younger demographics drawing to Instagram, this presence builds a foundation of familiarity, without having to communicate directly to your potential consumers.
- More personalisation
The increased trend toward a more personalised digital experience proves data breaches have not directly impacted consumers’ perception of privacy. Whilst basing content, products and emails on consumer data is nothing new, 2019 will bring more of it.
An enhanced personalisation experience means consumers will increasingly expect more movies to be linked to their taste, more products linked to their purchase history and more sales on holiday locations they’ve been to.
With 96% of marketers believing personalisation advances their relationship with customers, it is clear that targeting ads to items a consumer left in their shopping cart or sending an email reminder about their favourite band coming to town will be a strong digital marketing move that brands ought to key into.
We recommend identifying your consumer profile, monitoring your website analytics and pixels and observing key activities and trends across your digital brand network.
- Chatbots get talking
As with personalisation, comes the need to speak to a real person and the ability to be able to do it whenever you want. Chat Bots will increase in popularity and usage this year, as the capability extensively used across websites, online stores and Facebook becomes more accessible, and therefore, in higher demand.
The ability to seamlessly, efficiently communicate with users allows an instant response, rather than a delayed reply that damages brand reputation. Virtual assist allows users to interact naturally, as though in a text conversation to ask for help, write an enquiry or complain. Text chat windows are widely prevalent, but verbal options will become increasingly available as mobile usage continues to surpass desktop.
Advancing Chat Bot functionalities to provide reports on the weather or traffic delays capitalises on roles that devices such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa have been playing for years. Implementing this chat function on your brand’s website or Facebook messenger will allow an instant connection to your consumers whilst uplifting your reputation for polite and timely responses.
- Video grows again
Video will yet again dominate the content market, in line with its year on year growth. Experts predict 80% of what we consume online will be in video format and live videos will similarly see growth as more people turn to a ‘real-time’, authentic viewing experience. Preference for interactivity means bigger and smaller social media stars alike will turn to this form of communication as fans comment and ‘heart’ alongside similarly enthusiastic fans.
Stories (the quick video snippets originally from Instagram) have also made their way up the ladder, with their ephemeral nature engaging younger viewers with shorter attention spans. Video also emphasises viewer trust and engages them in a way images and words cannot.
This trend clearly emphasises the growing preference for genuine engagement on social media and allows brands to communicate effectively and positively with their clients on a personal basis.
Contact Evolve Marketing today to discuss how we can boost your digital presence by leveraging these trends and applying them to your current business strategy. We are available on 07 3254 1911