The Future of Internet Marketing

We live in the age of digital information where every piece of data is available on the internet. Take a moment and look around, you are shrouded by people having access to the internet, browsing on their smartphones or tablets. Now think, how many of these people have reached your business?

Either none or very few… right?

Internet marketing is not just a trend; it is one such thing that helps you reach your audience over the internet. Although traditional marketing is not dead, there are some flaws that only internet marketing can cover. Online marketing is quite a large term that encloses a bunch of marketing strategies and tactics like SEO, email marketing, video marketing, content marketing, PPC, social media, blogging, etc.

Every year we see plenty of transformation in online marketing as the technology evolves. The trends of digital marketing will strongly be affected by digital personal assistants and mobile phones from now to the year 2020.
Let’s take a peek into how online marketing will change over the next few years:

Personal Assistants

Personal assistants like Amazon Echo or Google Home have highly used a form of AI these days and its usage will grow in the near future. That’s because they read pages out loud.
You will need to focus on content that will be able to talk instead of just focusing your content to just rank. Along with SEO, you also need to start considering PASO- Personal Assistant Search Optimization. A plugin by WordPress called Wordlift transforms the text into machine-friendly content allowing you to make your content the answer of questions asked to PAs. The competition is rigid, as PAs only give one result.

Content Marketing

A content that is valuable or viral is going to be worthy of your marketing effort this year. Also, there will a great diversion towards video marketing. In fact, as per Ofcom Communications Market research, as compared to Google Search, YouTube ranks higher in unique audiences on mobile Google apps by 2 million!

It’s crucial to increase your budget for video this year. As mentioned by Falcon.io “By 2019, the video will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic” of which majority ones will be from mobile devices.

If you are really planning for video content in the near term, note that users are more interested in watching live videos than pre-recorded ones and tend to get more engagements/ comments. Ensure that you read the code of conduct as this is to cut down the risk of all the rage for fake news.

Because of the 2016’s controversy during the presidential election, platforms like Facebook have increased regulations. For those using Google Chrome, an ad-blocker can also be installed- as announced by Google.

Generation Z

The top marketers will switch their focus from Millennials to Generation Z in the next few years. 40% of consumers on the internet will be Gen Z, two years from now. Education, career and savings are the topmost priority of this group. They watch more YouTube videos than TV and are practical. Gen Z has developed the ‘8-second filter’ as they are the ones who never knew life before social media, smartphones and the internet. This is an advanced method that Gen Z-ers utilize to get the information they want instead of wasting time. A well-known business brand ‘Fast Company’ suggests uploading an engaging content to grab their attention.
Take into account that this age is habitual to mobile-first everything, so if your content/ website is not compatible, you will lack behind.

Mobile Shopping

A study shows that 93% of people make use of Pinterest to plan or buy any product. Thus, we can say that Pinterest plays a vital role in the future of e-marketing and e-commerce. This platform uses visual influence to sell ideas and products. As a result, over the next few years, Pinterest boards may significantly become a widely used platform for consumers to make a purchase. Check out these Pinterest trend predictions for 2019, that will help you decide what type of content to post.

Stories!

Remember how popular Snapchat had become in 2013, due to its story feature? Later, over a period of time, Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp took over Snapchat and boomed for quite a while. Over 50 million people post stories on Instagram more than Snapchat every month. A survey tells it will be double in the near term. This can be taken advantage of, by posting stories to your business pages regularly and making your consumers more familiar to your brand. Nowadays, you can even add a link to your stories to turn your social media followers to customers.

Customer Service and Artificial Intelligence(AI)

Along with e-commerce, customer service will be moving a step ahead. The chatbots powered by AI on websites or other apps offer a great way to solve consumer issues without the need of actual executive on the other side.
Also, with a great number of social media users, the audiences around the internet prefer to communicate with the brand more via messaging apps as it provides quick responses. According to Falcon.io, 85% of interaction by consumers will happen with chatbots by the year 2020. So don’t play a waiting game and hop on chatbots soon.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

Ever came across 360 degree photos in your Facebook feed? There’s more to come. The upcoming years are full of virtual and augmented reality. Back in 2017, VR technology became extremely popular in gaming and a more common household item that came along attachable headsets with phone packages.
An app called Houseparty is trending and gained a lot of fame among Gen Z. This is an evolved version of FaceTime or WhatsApp video call for a group video chat. Facebook took this to another level by introducing Facebook spaces. The Oculus Rift or HTC VIVE can be used to customize your avatar in Facebook Space. Once you enter spaces, this avatar can interact with your friends, play games, and go on adventures in the world of VR.

Closing

Online marketing is expanding rapidly. So, while you decide on your online marketing strategy, you can get stuck on where to start. At Rankraft, we know to help your brand get ahead of the competition. We’ll determine your goals and work towards taking your brand to new heights with your online presence.