[PRESS OFFICE] As happens at the beginning of every year, digital marketers make predictions about what will be happening in the space in the year to come. The beginning of 2019 was no exception. Now that we are halfway through the year, we take a step back and look at what the predictions were and whether or not they have actually come to pass.
Video marketing
For the past number of years, video marketing has proven to be extremely popular among users of the Internet. “Recent statistics,” says Lisa Schneider: managing director of the Digital School of Marketing, “state that 54% of Internet users are requesting that they see more video content. To respond to this, 87% of marketers are ramping up their use of video content.”
But why do people engage with video content more than other types? The simple answer to this is that video is effortless to engage with. The Internet user doesn’t have to concentrate on reading a 750-word blog post. All they need to do is to press ‘play’ and listen to see if the video interests them. If it does, then they can dedicate their full attention to it.
As our lives are so busy at the moment, and so many things are competing for our attention, the easier we – as digital marketers – make it for users to consume our content the more likely it will be for us to get an engaged audience.
Chatbots
Another trend that was forecast at the beginning of 2019, chatbots have now become commonplace on platforms such as Facebook. They allow a company to deliver increased levels of customer service by providing people who enquire about your services with pre-populated answers depending on the query that the user makes.
“Facebook has make the use of chatbots accessible to the owners and admins of Facebook Pages,” says Schneider.” For example:
- You can set up a chatbot in the messages function of your Facebook Page to respond automatically to people sending your queries.
- You can install the Facebook Messenger App on your website so that start a conversation with your website visitors.
- The Subscription Messenger Feature allows you to send non-promotional content to your Facebook Page fans. So, for example, you could send them a newsletter that is exclusively for them.
Stories
First made popular by Snapchat, the Stories function on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram has allowed brands to post spontaneous content onto the platforms and converse with their followers almost as if they were face to face with the fan or picked up the phone to chat to them.
As Stories only have a shelf life of 24 hours, this increases the exclusivity of the message being portrayed as only dedicated followers of the brand will have access to the content as they will be dedicated to the feed.
“We’re going to see a lot more interesting ways that brands use stories,” concludes Schneider. “As Stories allow brands to give themselves a face, this messaging allows the opportunity to identify with them and so become brand ambassadors and advocates.”
The digital marketing space is constantly evolving and we are sure that the second half of 2019 will be equally exciting. To get into this industry, you need to keep on top of these trends and have a solid foundational qualification in digital marketing. The Digital School of Marketing is an online provider of accredited digital marketing education which will allow you to get an edge over your competitors. To find out more, visit our website on www.digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za. call us on 0861 428 710 or e-mail: info@digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za. Join the conversations :
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