Our 2019 Marketing Predictions and Adapting Your Strategy to Stay Afloat
/As your team prepares its strategy and marketing plan for 2019, there are several evolutionary shifts coming to the digital marketing landscape to keep in mind. From longer content to voice search and more, marketing in 2019 will look much different than it has in years past.
So, where is marketing headed in the coming year? What changes will the digital marketing landscape see? And, most importantly, how will we need to adapt in order to stay relevant, seen and trusted?
Here are our personal big-picture insights as to where marketing will take us in 2019 and how we as marketers need to prepare in order to adapt and capitalize on its evolution.
Shift to Long-Form Content
For so long, marketers have focused on quantity, quantity, quantity. The more the better, right? Because of this push for more, more, more content, our content assets have shortened by default. We attributed this to the de-evolution of our individual attention spans - with more content to read, our audience will only engage with shorter pieces.
We have seen and continue to see a greater shift in audience desire for depth and quality content assets. Meaning, long-form content is on the rise. With more content with which to engage, audience members are seeking to highlight in-depth, unique content that educates them in a deeper, more meaningful way. If they’re going to spend time reading content online, they want a trove of information and insight in the articles they invest in.
According to SearchMetrics, top-ranking content on Google has an average word count between 1,140 and 1,285 words.
Long-form content is actually preferred by Google, which means that investing in the creation of long-form content will not only provide more value to your audience, it will help your brand get discovered.
Personally, here at Humble & Whole we’ve always preferred long-form content because we believe adding supporting evidence, examples, lists and elaborating on facts is what truly makes content high-value and investment-worthy for our audience.
So not only will blogging continue to be an important aspect of effective content marketing, but long-form content will become a mainstay.
Continued Rise in Video Marketing
As our society becomes increasingly fast-paced, video marketing will rise in tandem. Not only is video perfect to consume on-the-go, but it warms qualified leads into paying customers.
In fact, according to Forbes, 90% of customers say video helps them make buying decisions, and according to Aberdeen, video marketers garner a whole 66% more qualified leads per year!
Video encourages people to stay on sites longer and remain more engaged, and according to Cisco, more than 80% of web traffic will be video by 2021.
Your marketing team can implement video in your strategy easily by:
Repurposing a blog post into a Facebook or Instagram Live video
Record a demo video of your product, software or app
Record what’s going on behind-the-scenes to build launch anticipation
Use videos in landing pages and sales pages
Incorporate video in your email newsletters
Videos don’t need to be long to be effective. Actually, in our research and experience, videos under 120 seconds perform best!
As video increases, audience expectations evolve to increasingly expect video from every brand, and soon, engagement will depend on it.
Increase in Audio & Voice Engagement
Yes, voice search is here to stay - at least for the time being, anyway.
As marketers, we’ll need to continue to implement and meld voice search tactics with our current SEO practices, as audience members increasingly use home devices like Alexa and Google Home to search for products, information and knowledge.
Voice search will likely have a stronger impact on local businesses, and longer-form keywords are essential due to the nature of human phraseology.
To prepare for an increase in voice search, local businesses especially should be incorporating longer-form keywords into their SEO strategy.
Podcasts, too, will continue to rise due to their versatility and accessibility. According to Forbes, podcast listening has nearly doubled since 2013 across all age ranges - and we expect that trend to continue!
Companies don’t need to host podcasts in order to reap the benefit of audio marketing, they can advertise on and sponsor podcasts that align with their brand.
We suggest researching the podcast landscape and make a list of podcasters whose brand aligns with your own - then pitch a sponsorship or advertisement on their show.
Stay on Top of the Game
Marketing will continue to evolve at a faster rate year after year, so knowing a few key foundations, principles and tenets of marketing will help your team stay versatile and adaptable as new trends come and go. Solidify your marketing knowledge with these great books by marketing geniuses we admire.
This is Marketing by Seth Godin
Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
Each book focuses on distinguishing your brand and clarifying your brand’s message, which we think is critical to success in marketing to keep your business afloat no matter what trends are occurring!
What trends are you predicting will evolve digital marketing in the coming year? Reach out and let us know what you think!
