Marketing Trends to Look Out for in 2019

Customers are the drivers of a company’s success. Therefore, businesses would want to make sure they understand what their current demands are. The market is a dynamic environment where the trends are always evolving and for the businesses to stay ahead in the game, it is important to recognize consumer preferences and demands because this is the cause of market trends. Businesses need to gather statistical data and perform a market analysis to know their customers and their consumer behaviors.

It is essential to be ahead than your competitors which are why marketers are always on the lookout for the next edge over the other company.

Each year, marketers analyze the next trend that will influence the consumer market. Below is a list of marketing trends to look out for in 2019.

1. Consumer personalization

According to the market data, 75% of consumers prefer when they can have personalized shopping experience. It gives them a sense of being a part of the brand community. This is helpful to the company to convert customers to loyal customers. When the customers create a customer profile, companies can upsell and cross-sell based on their browsing pattern or previous purchases. Personalized emails increase conversion rates by 10% and click-through rates by 14%. Data show that personalized subject line of email results in a 26% higher rate of the recipient opening the email. This trend of consumer personalization is growing due to big data, social media, and flexible manufacturing and is here to stay. 86% of online customers agree to consumer personalization playing an important role in their buying decisions.

2. Micro-influencers

Micro-influencers are the upcoming social media influencers that have rising demand when usually it used to be celebrities who did the major influencing in the market. Micro-influencers are those who have between 1k–100k followers on social media. They are not particularly celebrities but do have a considerable amount of influence on consumers. Companies have been reaching out to them after surveying and finding out that consumers relate to their choices and their purchase habits are heavily influenced by them and they do come at a lower cost than hiring a real celebrity to promote their brand. More and more brands are using micro-influencers to represent their company on social media.

3. Smarter Chat

According to Grand View Research, 45% of end-users prefer to use Chatbot as a major means of communication in customer service. Chatbots like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant is integrated into the websites and offer real-time assistance to the user where they ask questions to understand the real problem.

Grand View Research reports that the worldwide Chatbot market will reach $1.25 billion by 2025, growing at an annual rate of 24.3 percent.

4. Augmented and Virtual Reality Marketing

Augmented reality drives consumer engagement and is the future. It is a way to bring static or unreal environments into a more realistic experience. Example, Snapchat’s selfie masks transform users into Chewbacca. It offers immediate feedback; it is delightfully interactive and removes any guesswork. Businesses have been using augmented and virtual reality marketing for creating brand awareness. The AR market is expected to reach $35.22 Billion by 2022.

5. Live Videos - More Stories

Data show that 80% of consumers prefer watching a live video from a brand instead of reading a blog. Live videos allow for direct interaction with the customers for real-time feedback thus improves customer relationships. Live videos also have a broader reach for a wider audience which boosts their social channels traffic.

Some of the most popular live video platforms include:

? Facebook live

? YouTube live

? Instagram live

? Twitter

? Periscope

2019 brings advanced technological updates with AI integrated technology, custom personalization and newer ways of interacting with your customers for better customer experience. The market trends are not limited to this list. The trends are ever-changing and marketers need to keep alert for any new trend to adopt before their competitor. But we all must understand technology-based innovative trends will be here for the long run.