9 Digital Trends for the New Year

Over the last 2 years, the digital landscape has experienced a huge shift and the digital trends for 2019 will continue to evolve. With new digital trends and strategies emerging in the tech world, organizations must find ways to use these new trends and strategies to succeed in their digital efforts. Remember, what worked in the last 5 years may not work this year.

Here are digital trends I-ology believes you should keep an eye on as we enter 2019.

1. Mobile-first strategy
   Organizations need to shift their web strategies to focus primarily on developing in a mobile environment, then move to the tablet, followed by desktop. Each year the number of individuals that interact with brands through their mobile devices increases. This includes viewing websites, opening emails, purchasing products and viewing digital advertisements.
2. Personalized user experience
   Users are seeking brands that are tailored around their own experience. They are shown products and services relevant to their needs on easy to navigate platforms. It is essential to begin any digital project with a quality User Experience (UX) design to ensure user ease of use that drives satisfaction, engagement, and conversion.
3. Accelerated load speed
   In addition to creating mobile responsive sites, the speed of the site will have a large impact on the results. Users are quickly bouncing from sites with slow page loads. Google is also decreasing the search ranking for sites with low load speeds, affecting site SEO. Sites that fail to accelerate their load speed will encounter the negative impact it can have on their SEO and website analytics.
4. Chatbots
   Consumers are looking for instant customer service, and chatbots are a great way to address this need. Chatbots allow consumers to instantly communicate with an organization to receive responses and basic resolutions to their customer service inquiries. Many companies adopted this communication method in 2018, and it is expected to continue to dominate digital trends in 2019.
5. Cybersecurity
   Between Google updating their SEO algorithm to put a higher emphasis on secured sights and Europe passing new data privacy laws, there is a huge emphasis on cybersecurity. It is vital to create strategies around keeping both organizational data and consumers data secure. It is also important to be transparent with consumers as to how their data is being used and to stay compliant with global laws.
6. Video marketing
   With over 50% of videos being viewed on mobile and social media platforms, it is crucial to include a form of video within your marketing campaigns. Keep in mind, that these videos are being viewed on smart devices that have a different dimension than desktops. Analyze what size video will work best for the platform(s) it is being marketed on.
7. Email marketing automation
   It is important to engage customers early and build customer relationships through strategic email campaigns. Creating an automated onboarding process for new email subscribers will forge customer loyalty from initial contact by making them feel valued.
8. Paid social media ad campaigns
   Social media platforms continuously update their algorithms to determine which posts are most relevant to the user. Most platforms are shifting to show users content from the profiles they interact with regularly. Paid campaigns and boosted posts are the best way to share premium content and ensure that messaging is being viewed by the target audience.
9. Voice searches
   At the beginning of 2018, 1 in 6 Americans owned a smart speaker. With sales continually growing, more consumers are using Google Homes, Amazon Alexa’s, and Siri to perform searches and find information about items they are seeking to purchase. To ensure SEO optimization, it is important to understand how each device calculates the responses they generate.

The tech world continuously evolves, leading organizations of all sizes needing to shift their digital strategies. As trends surface throughout each year, help your organization succeed by hiring a digital partner. At I-ology, we help our clients develop a digital roadmap, a digital strategy, and lead them through their Digital Transformation.

If you have a project or further interest in creating a digital strategy for your company please contact us.

Resources

“43 Social Media Advertising Stats That Matter to Marketers in 2020.” Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard, 29 July 2020, blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising-stats/.
“75+ Mobile Marketing Statistics for 2020 and Beyond.” Blue Corona, 5 Mar. 2020, www.bluecorona.com/blog/mobile-marketing-statistics.
Gilliland, Nikki. “12 Stats That Show the Importance of Personalisation.” Econsultancy, 12 Feb. 2020, econsultancy.com/12-stats-that-prove-why-personalisation-is-so-important/.
“Is HTTPS Good for SEO?” Blue Corona, 30 Oct. 2019, www.bluecorona.com/blog/https-and-seo.
Jennifer Pepper on December 10th, 2018 in Conversion Optimization | Be the first to comment. “7 Page Speed Stats Every Marketer Should Know.” Unbounce, 27 Feb. 2019, unbounce.com/landing-pages/7-page-speed-stats-for-marketers/.
Perez, Sarah. “39 Million Americans Now Own a Smart Speaker, Report Claims.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 12 Jan. 2018, techcrunch.com/2018/01/12/39-million-americans-now-own-a-smart-speaker-report-claims/.