Top Marketing Trends of 2019

How to stay ahead of the game when it comes to reaching your audience

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This post comes to you from the future...Yes, welcome to your Brave New World of our top marketing trends for 2019...keeping you updated and resourced for how your marketing and communications landscape will be changing over the next 12 months.

Here’s how you can stay informed of what’s on the horizon:

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1. Video

Video is still king.As we move into next year we can expect video marketing will skyrocket, with videos making up 85% of the total traffic online by 2019. This means that if your business is yet to enter the video space when it comes to your marketing investment, you can’t go wrong when it comes to ROI - the demand is too big to ignore. If you felt like it was too late, rest assured the timing is simply perfect.

Another report has also indicated that the tide of live video is becoming much stronger, and also presents a big opportunity for businesses who want to take ground when it comes to marketing.

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2. Social Media

There’s no stopping the rise and rise of social media...and 2019 shows no end in sight.In fact, The Yellow Social Media Report for Businesses 2018 shows that on the whole, businesses are cutting down their other marketing spend channels (print, TV and the like) in favour of beefing up next year’s budget for socials. Yellow’s stats indicate the average expected increase in social media investment is 15% for medium businesses and 11% for small business, with print advertising taking most of the hit. This means the competition on social media will be intensified, but with this, comes opportunity.

‍Brand purpose and social activism will work together to create a more cohesive communication approach. As you get to know your target market better, and connect your business with their priorities, organic social media momentum can help guide and build your business. Spend some time considering what causes align with your business values, and how these can create meaningful connection points with your people.

‘Micro Influencers’ are set to take the social landscape by storm next year, which is great news for small business. The appetite for genuine and meaningful social media experiences is still growing, and small to medium players tend to dominate in that space. So this is the perfect climate for your business to test and grow your ideas, new directions and explore new markets.

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3. AR and VR:

If you’re scratching your head wondering what AR and VR even stand for, it’s time to get with the game so you don’t miss the next big wave that will change marketing for all future generations.

We’re talking about augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). These might sound the same, but they’re very different things - and AR is set to take the world by storm over the next year or two as the right tech just made its way onto later model smartphones.

VR creates an immersive, multi-dimensional experience where the user can actually see and move in real space from an alternate point of view. A VR experience requires a special headset, and because of the limited scope, it reaches just a few users at a time. AR however, overlays physical reality with a virtual reality...remember Pokémon GO in 2016? Or think of Snapchat lenses and Messenger video call filters today. So with the whole world acting as the stage, the application for AR in the communications and marketing space just exploded.

With AR, you can create and place virtual objects in real space. With the Apple ARKit for iPhone, users can access this virtual reality in real time and space. What’s exciting though, are the possibilities for business to create new experiences, unique product placements, virtual challenges and games for followers, and a treasure trove of user-generated content.

Stats presented on ABC’s The Drum, reported that AR can increase dwell times of up to 85 seconds, and increase interactions rates up to 20% - with click-through rates to purchase up by about a third. These numbers point to more than just a phase...AR is definitely the new black!

With Millennials now saying they are more likely to trust a recommendation over a product description, here we have AR taking this to a whole new level with shared experiences and real products in a virtual world in real time and space.

As we watch this space into 2019, we’re excited about the possibilities for how AR can help businesses engage with their target markets in new ways - as the bounds of shared experience are pushed even further. Whilst the tech implications for medium enterprise may still be a small hurdle away, it’s time to start thinking about how you can use it to enhance your communications.

It all depends on you… All of these opportunities rise and fall on how well you invest time understanding the people you’re connecting with.

However you decide to break down your marketing investment next year, resource yourself with the knowledge that the outlook for business is excellent when it comes to these exciting new opportunities. Keeping up-to-date now will mean you’ll be prepared to take full advantage of the exciting new opportunities in this space over the next 12 months.