Whether you are a small start-up or a global brand, digital marketing is something you can’t afford not to be doing. More and more of our day to day activities are carried out online - from shopping to streaming our favourite TV shows, reading the breaking news to betting on live sporting events - there is very little we can’t do online today and this presents huge opportunities for businesses.
According to Marketo, “digital marketing refers to advertising delivered through digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps.”
With all these potential channels available to reach out to your customers, how do you know which ones will be the most effective for your business?
We’ve broken down five of the biggest trends in digital marketing right now so you can make an informed decision about the right channels for your business.
1. Progressive Web Apps
Back in November 2016, Google announced that they would start to rank websites in their search engine based on the content on the mobile version of their website, instead of the desktop. This prompted a wave of new technologies in order to improve mobile websites around the world. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) was a Google-backed project that was mainly targeted at news websites and whilst there was some initial buzz around AMP, for many websites, the work involved in deployed AMP code to their site was not worth the time investment.
One trend that did start back in 2018 and that has carried on today was the creation of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). PWAs are a good alternative to traditional native mobile apps. They are relatively easy to manage and don’t require any ‘installation’ as they are essentially just web pages.
Here are some of the pros and cons of PWAs:
Pros
- Quick loading – Service workers allow your apps to load nearly instantly and reliably, no matter what kind of network connection your user is on. PWA pages can also be made available offline as content can be cached locally.
- Presence on the home screen – Web app install banners give you the ability to let your users quickly and seamlessly add your web app to their home screen, making it easy to launch and return to your ‘app’.
- Search engine friendly– Since PWAs are essentially websites, they are discoverable using search engines because of their W3C manifests and service worker registration, unlike native applications.
- Linkable and sharable – Since PWAs are essentially web pages, users are able to quickly and easily share and bookmark the URL, unlike native applications.
- Not all browsers are supported – While newer versions of Chrome, Opera, and Samsung’s Android browser support PWA, IE, Edge, Safari and many custom and proprietary default browsers do not. At this point, Safari alone has close to 50% of the mobile browser market.
- Not all native device software functionality is supported – PWA support is limited on Android devices, and they do not support functionality such as home screen shortcut prompting and notifications on iOS devices. In the U.S., iOS is about 50% of the mobile device market.
- There is no central download store – If you are thinking of replacing your current native app with a PWA, be aware there is no need for the App store which could make discoverability more difficult. Alternatively, there is no barrier to entry of people having to go through an App Store to discover your PWA which could be a potential plus point.
Cons
2. Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality or VR is the use of computer technology to create simulated environments. VR allows you to experience and interact with a 3D world that isn't real by putting on a head-mounted device for display. The device creates a 3D virtual world, which is immersive and almost authentic by receiving inputs from the computer.
The engagement potential of VR makes it a potent tool for learning as well as for entertainment. If used carefully, it can help users develop a range of competencies and talents.
Many industries are already embracing the potential of VR both as a marketing tool and as a way of improving engagement with new and existing customers.
In the automotive industry, brands such as BMW and Jaguar already use VR to hold early design and engineering reviews to check the visual design of a new vehicle before any money has actually been spent on manufacturing the parts.
Retailers, including ASOS, are attempting to bring VR into the shopping experience with body-scanning technology and VR combining to let us ‘try on’ clothes when we are shopping online.
In the gambling industry, online casinos are embracing VR to enable multiplayer poker. It’s just like being in a real casino where you can talk to other players and read their body language. Leading online casino sites like Betway are expected to roll this technology out to compliment their live casino experience.
3. Voice Search
It feels like we have been talking about voice search for the last five years, however, it finally feels like we have reached a tipping point where businesses need to seriously consider voice search as part of their marketing strategy.
According to a 2019 article on VYE, 58% of people reported that they had discovered a brand through voice search, on either a home assistant or their mobile device. 56% of voice searches happen on mobile devices and so it’s an important consideration for all businesses to optimise their content for voice search.
How voice search differs from traditional text-based searches is that there are no runners up spots. There is no opportunity to scroll and see the next result. It’s top spot or nothing with voice search so it’s important for businesses to understand how people are searching using voice search and then optimise our content to meet the needs of those searches.
4. Chat Bots
Chatbots enable brands to engage in conversations with their customers to create better customer relationships and drive more sales. Businesses have discovered the ease and efficiency of chatbots when it comes to consumer products.
Chat bots are quickly becoming a ‘must-have’ for businesses. It’s often far easier for customers to interact with a business using a chat bot than it is to sit and wait on hold on the telephone. In the new world that we live in, a report by Oracle found that, “More than one in three brands say customers and prospects prefer to complete a purchase or resolve service issues without speaking to a human associate, if possible.”
Chat bots can also help to cut down on the number of customer enquiries that come through over the phone or email, by answering frequently asked questions, freeing up staff time and helping a business to run more efficiently.
5. Personalisation
A tried and tested digital marketing tactic that is still highly relevant today is the use of personalisation throughout all of your marketing efforts, no matter the channel. The opportunities for personalisation are being helped by the adoption of AI through deep learning and machine learning.
Customers today expect brands to value their collaboration and to extend their complete support for the customer to have a good experience. These expectations are only going higher, and customers want relevant, targeted, and highly personalised solutions.
Digital marketing is essential for all businesses, large and small. In order to help your business to grow, consider these five digital marketing tactics and establish whether they could provide a positive ROI for your business.