2019 Digital Marketing Trends PART 1: How We’re Searching

Have you ever seen the Hunger Games?

It’s a story about a bunch of kids fighting for their lives in a continually changing environment. Either you adapt to what’s currently happening, or you die. And that’s especially true in digital marketing.

In this 3 part series, I will be unveiling what businesses should be ready for as we gear up for 2019.

We always do our research. Whether it’s purchasing a product, scheduling service, or requesting a quote. But HOW we are doing our research now is changing, and it’s changing fast.

Voice Search

Currently, 1/3 of all searches are done using voice search. It’s expected to climb to 50% of searches by 2020. Although we may not be purchasing from voice search yet, we are certainly doing our research and asking our personal assistants, Siri, Google, Alexa, and Cortana, for quick information.

So, what does that mean for your business?

1: Your website needs to be conversational for the upcoming increase in voice search. Of course, there is still a need to deliver technical information about our product or service, but we now want to read it as more of a conversational tone, and we want the information quickly.

2: We are asking A LOT of questions. When we do a google search, we see a box similar to this:

Visual Search

The next wave of search types is going to be visual. We are now able to take a photo of a brick and mortar building to receive details about a business. Also, we can take a photo of a product to have other product pages shown to us along with reviews, articles, and more. These are just two ways visual search will play an essential role for businesses.

So, what does that mean for your business?

1: We need to make sure we are on Google My Business. If a user is taking a photo of our business, Google My Business will serve the information they are looking for.
2: Adding high quality and optimized photos whenever possible throughout our website.

Chatbots & Messenger Apps

Now that the user has found your website after using voice search, visual search or organically, they will want their information fast. Chatbots and Messenger apps are becoming increasingly popular.

Chatbots: An automated program that is designed to simulate a conversion with users. Businesses can feed their chatbots information, and in turn, the chatbot will act as a customer service representative. The quick response and 24/7 support have 70% of consumers reporting a positive experience using a chatbot.

Messenger Apps: An instant messaging tool used to communicate between a human customer service rep and a customer. Users are now more likely to start a chat than send an email or pick up the phone.
One of my favorite benefits of chatbots and messenger apps is that all conversations are recorded, helping us design our marketing plans. For example:

• Users are always asking if we offer a product or service that we don’t provide. Is this something we should add to our business?
• Users keep asking the same questions over and over again: Should we had a new page to our website explaining this? Should we be clearer when selling the product?

We’re changing the way we search, and we are changing the way we communicate with businesses. Now onto the next question: After we hook them in the search engine, what types of content should we have on our website for them to move down the funnel? Find out in PART 2.