7 POPULAR DIGITAL TRENDS THAT CANNOT GO IGNORED

We are today living in an era of creative revolution. Technology is evolving daily and correspondingly encouraging rapid improvements in almost every sphere. There was a time once when one could’ve easily mocked concepts like artificial intelligence and visual scanning as just eye-catching concepts used in science-fiction films, but such is not the case anymore. We are leading ourselves towards a better future today; therefore, we are adopting such techniques in the real world for making our work more comfortable. Newer trends have emerged in Social Media as well. Social Media Marketers use various trends on their applications today for attracting a broad customer base and ensure that they don’t get bored by browsing through their websites. Often, there is a new trend rather a new concept which one encounters in a very short span every time he/she visits websites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Reuters, etc. An expertly executed marketing and advertising campaign can serve the needs of any business and increase the demand for the product or service that they offer. There are many trends found today all-over various fast-developing websites. Let’s take a peek into the 7 popular Digital Trends that cannot go ignored today.

1. Artificial Intelligence

AI is being used heavily to obtain information about consumer behavior and their areas of interest. They become helpful in analyzing consumer’s search patterns. AI picks on data that has been accessed by the consumer on various social media platforms and utilizes it to understand what entices the consumers so much that they keep visiting those websites quite often. AI also offers tips and information by getting into conversations with customers. Floating Chatbots on various web-pages is also an excellent example of AI that obtains essential information about customers who have visited their webpage. “Businesses that are adopting to AI in 2019 will save costs and accelerate growth getting an edge over their competitors.” — Gartner

2. Personalization

In today’s generation, people have become more interested in communicating only to the ones who know their choices, likes as well as dislikes beforehand. Therefore personalization of content can play a vital role by straitening the consumers towards their interest areas. The availability of data like search history, number of links clicked, etc. are very easily obtained via AI that could help online marketers segment their target audience.

3. Video Advertising and Marketing

When the marketers saw people giving up on reading newspapers and magazines and started flocking towards the digital medium because of its pace, they too began publishing advertisements of their products online. This is because online ads can also be live and in the format of a video that would have more impact rather than a print-ad. With decreasing costs of filming-equipments and an increase in the camera-quality of smartphones, marketers are finding it much more convenient to move towards video advertising rather than publishing ads first on print and then sending direct mails to the interested customers. The 2–3 minutes animated videos can share all the information about the product at once and that too in a beautiful manner. Now, the 360-degree video concept is on the rise. The circular eye-like symbol on the top corner of the video determines that it can be viewed from all angles inside 360 degrees via sliding it from left to right and top to bottom while it is being played.

4. Social Media Messaging

Statistics tell us that over 2 billion people remain active online throughout the day on the top 5 social media applications at least which are; Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. Therefore it is not a bad idea for marketers to advertise their products/services to in such applications where their potential customers like to hang out always. It also promotes the personalization of content, and it is beneficial because one can directly market the product to the customer via conversating with him in a personal space where he would be more comfortable.

5. Social Media Stories

Social Media Stories have been one growing trend recently. After “Snapchat” launched the concept of “My Story” even Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp adapted it. A social media story could be any image/graphic/ photo/video/song that appears as a “status” for a set period on your profile. Savvy marketers/businesses make stories that depict and promote various events, product launches, etc. that their active followers can view. The most significant advantage of a story is that it is live; hence, it helps the marketer to share something which they don’t want their customers to miss out on. He can also share a link on his story which would lead the viewer to the desired web-page for grasping on more details regarding the same.

6. Voice Search

The improvement in smartphone-speakers has reduced the errors committed by Voice-Search-Engines like “Google, Siri, and Alexa.” Customers prefer to voice-search their queries instantly instead of taking time off and typing them. Voice-Search helps in providing relevant information regarding the search as an audio-answer. Marketers are adapting to the method of Voice-Search to cope up with the use of technology and make maximum revenue from sales. For instance, Domino’s Pizza has used Voice Search Engine in its marketing strategies that enable customers to place their orders directly via Alexa.

7.  Micro-Moments

The age of rapid improvisation in technology has made us so fast everywhere that we tend to become impatient if we need to wait for a particular piece of information for more than a minute. Today, we make decisions on what to do, where to travel, where to chill, what to buy, where to eat, etc. quite instantly. This is because we have access to applications like Google, Google Maps, Just-Dial and Amazon in our phones. Behind the curtains, these companies are conducting in-depth research and studying consumer behavior, patterns, and psychology. Therefore, answers to a few questions like “I want to know, I want to do, I want to go, I want to buy, etc.” also termed as “Micro-Moments” are readily available to you whenever you are searching something.

2019 is just another year in the 21st century. All these innovations had occurred 4–5 years ago. It is okay to say that advancement in technology contributed largely to the improvement of the standard of these concepts, but the future awaits more customization in the scope of digital marketing. Therefore, one who hasn’t yet adapted to the above concepts would find it even more difficult later on.