We are almost heading to welcome the new year and it’s time to plan the strategies for the next year so that we are ahead of the curve. Adopting the new technologies ahead will lead to acquiring new business opportunities like the idiom says “The early bird catches the worm”.
The year 2018 witnessed a lot of improvement when it comes to AI and machine learning. Companies have started investing hugely in this sector and started believing that AI can contribute much when it comes to customer service and for other business solution.
I am listing here the top 8 marketing trends that will dominate in 2019 and in the future.
1. Voice Search
Search by speaking instead of typing text on google search in a computer or mobile phone is trending. Search results are displayed after the voice command. Google’s speech recognition supports 119 languages!
Almost one-third of the 3.5 billion searches performed on Google every day are voice searches and it is predicted that by 2050, almost 50% of searches will be through voice.
Other than voice search virtual assistant like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and smart speaker Alexa is simply great and entertaining. The technologies have drastically improved. According to Forbes, smart speaker users are growing at the rate of 40% annually and expected to hit 90 million in the USA this year! one out of 5 adults in the U.S uses smart speakers.
So it’s not just about voice search but voice command as well when it comes to smart devices!
Thousands of search results are displayed when typed on Google Search but you can see a few results or just one result when used voice search. So it’s crucial to plan your SEO strategy for voice search.
2. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
We have been hearing about this for years but looks like it’s catching up widely with the usage of Chatbots, AI Assistants like Google to book hotels and Alexa to switch off lights. AI products are slowly penetrating into our homes and workplaces. AI is not just about cool gadgets or automation but it includes fundamentally rethinking on solving worlds’ problems.
Chatbots can be integrated with a website or an application, Facebook offers chatbots for it’s messenger application. They also gather user information that can later be used to better tailor marketing strategies.
People no more believe that AI is simply a robot programmed to do some tasks but it’s just an extension of their business.
Now let’s go through the AI technologies to watch in 2019:
25% of customer service will use chatbot technology by 2020. Businesses adopting AI in 2019 will be able to save costs and accelerate growth, getting an edge over their competitors.
Now, with the advent of AI enabled chatbots it’s widely used by business enterprises across the world. Chatbots are able to reduce huge costs by reducing the support desk staff and offer 24X7 customer service. Chatbots can even assist in booking a meeting or making an online payment!
Now more companies have understood the value of artificial intelligence. Business owners are seeking transparency in AI and they need to know how models are designed and how it works so that it establishes trust with the users.
We also need to understand the limitations of AI and human intervention needs to fill the gap to achieve success!
3. Marketing Automation
For the past several years we have seen that Marketing Automation tools helps marketers better manage their routine tasks such as sending email campaigns, posting on social media, drip marketing, setting workflows, generate leads etc.
Now things are changing and AI plays a major role thereby simplifying the marketing automation process. It is expected that by 2019, 33% of marketing companies are increasing their investment in AI.
4. Future of Search
Gmail results will be displayed on the right side of SERP’s if the entered keyword exactly matches with the email in the inbox or sent items. only top five newest emails will be displayed. The Gmail results will be based on the Gmail account you are logged in.
Google sees this feature as part of a bigger effort to offer “Universal Search”, showing all results in one page as Google+ data is already showing in the standard web results.
Classic looking Google homepage may get crowded soon highlighting the repeat search topics as 1 in 8 queries in a given month are repeats.
Like Facebook and Instagram stories, Google is planning to incorporate stories into search results with the help of AI. Stories will be generated from articles, images, and videos.
When it comes to images, Google Lens provides us with a larger scope of the future that is getting shaped. Just point your phone at something and you will get all information about it. The Google Lens identify not just the objects in the image but will be able to read the texts contained in it. This is powered by advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence. Google Lens has much to contribute when it comes to Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality!
5. Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is an interactive software headset equipment with which user can experience a three-dimensional environment which is virtual and does not actually exist, it just simulates a real experience. Examples of VR include Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear etc
On the other hand, Augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are “augmented” by a computer-generated display like sound, images or text.
Unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment, augmented reality uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it. For example, the game Pokémon Go creates an augmented reality experience. The game allows users to see characters bouncing around in their own area.
AR applications use global positioning system (GPS) to pinpoint the user’s location and its compass to detect device orientation.
Today none of the AR/VR systems will give a completely immersive experience and are in the state of development. There are issues such as resolution, 3d capabilities, battery life etc. but it is predicted that within 5 years customers will start using AR/VR and will become the mainstream applications. This year has seen big businesses experimenting with AR/VR prototypes projects and 2019 will see many of these projects mature into full-scale productions and AR/VR will continue to demonstrate it’s potential.
6. Micro Moments
Micro-moments occur when people reflexively turn to a device, most probably a smartphone, to act on a need to learn something, do something, find something, watch something, or buy something. They are intent-rich moments when decisions are made and preferences shaped.
Marketers need to understand the Micro moments because sometimes people take quick decisions such as what to buy, to booking a travel or movie ticket, which restaurant to eat etc. Micro-moments provide the right information when customers need it.
So to be successful in the future, marketers should be able to optimize micro-moments across all channels and devices.
7. Video Marketing
Earlier most companies were of the beleief that creating videos is time consuming and it’s an expensive affair. Now things are changing and 2018 witnesses a lot of companies using videos as their marketing tool. With the new video creation software in the market like Camtasia Studio, VideoScribe, Adobe Premiere Pro etc. it has become a lot easier to create powerful creative videos without much time!
Live streaming videos are getting popular across Facebook and Instagram and it adds more engagement and most viewers stay till the end of the video. Videos are also getting search friendly as AI enabled systems can translate the voice recordings in a video.
The Recent introduction of 360-degree video enables viewers to experience a more interactive immersion!
Vlog or video blog is getting popular.
8. Web Trends – AMPs & PWAs
There were times when companies were in a hurry to build apps so that their website will look good on mobiles and then came the responsive design where the web page will render well on all kinds of devices like smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
Later on found that in smartphones, responsive sites are taking much time to load as the responsive design loads all the data for all the devices.
AMP is short for accelerated mobile pages and is the technology produced by the AMP Project — an open source project started by Google. AMPs are just web pages and the project was created solely for the purpose of loading the web pages quickly in mobile devices.
Basically, AMP is just a stripped-down form of HTML Here is the AMP plugin for WordPress!
PWAs are mobile web pages enhanced with features that provide an immersive, fast, app-like experience.
Learn more about the future of the mobile web – PWAMP!
So let’s get prepared to face the challenges and have a wonderful year ahead!
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