With the start of Q4, it’s time to start examining and planning your marketing strategies for 2019. With the ever-changing market landscape, it’s more important than ever to keep current on the emerging 2019 digital marketing trends. As I look ahead there is one main theme I see weaving through all the other trends that are popping up. Authenticity. To win customers hearts and share of wallet brands and marketers to commit themselves to transparency and authenticity in all that they do.
As consumers are becoming more and more distrusting of advertising and marketing honesty is becoming critical for brands. From staying true to your brand, remaining clear, direct and calm, embracing open two-way communication both positive and critical on public forums, to developing a more human voice—transparency and authenticity need to be part of your strategy.
The three emerging 2019 digital marketing trends are nothing new. However, it’s the way they’re emerging, build off each other, the market and growing technology that makes them especially salient this coming year. And authenticity weaves its way through each and every one.
The great majority of consumers (86 percent) states that authenticity is an important factor when deciding what brands to support.(Stackla Report)
The Three 2019 Digital Marketing Trends in Fintech and Financial Service:
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Customer-Centric Marketing – much more than Hello, <<name>>
At CSTMR this is nothing new. We put the customer at the heart of everything we do. You’re probably thinking this isn’t a new concept too. Personalization in marketing has been around for a while now. But now it is so much more than Hello, <<name>>. With all the new data there is much more targeting available to us. AI and machine learning arms us with actionable metrics in a landscape where customers not expect but demand hyper-personalization at every turn – in every micro-moment. By focusing your brand on customer centricity, you’re ensuring your brand thinks about its customers’ needs first with relevant, useful and personalized communication – achieving reach and resonance.
So how does authenticity play here? In every way. 2018 taught us that customers engage with brands in micro-moments and the moment that engagement is negative they turn elsewhere. Customers will turn towards brands who listen and learn from their behaviors and who create genuine relationships with them.
In 2019, the customer leads not only the journey but the conversation. Brands will use the customer’s voice to continue to engage to enable true, authentic, customer-centric marketing.
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Channel Agnostic – from multi channel, to omni channel to no channel?
Over the past few years, we’ve been deciphering which channels to best deliver our message and then figured out it was all channels. Now the channel itself is becoming less important, it is the message that is king. Customers today don’t care much which channel they receive the message but what the message is itself. Now is the time to focus the communication to the message you want to deliver, and to whom to deliver it, not the channel you deliver it on. To increase reach and relevance the two-way communication between brand and customer will need to be at its most effective. Authenticity plays big here too. What is reach without relevance? To truly connect with your audience you need the communication to be genuine, to be relevant, and to resonate so they’ll tune in.
As brands begin to think more holistically about their communications instead of being more channel-centric they will also make the shift to becoming more customer-centric. Taking on a more channel agnostic approach enables optimized communication to existing customers while broadening reach and response rates.
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AI & Chatbots – automating the customer journey
Data-driven marketing has been a huge trend as analytics afforded us new ways to track audience behavior. In 2019, AI and machine learning are growing in sophistication as they’ll be able to anticipate and suggest more relevant marketing and support content than ever before.
With the uptick of AI, look for a higher implementation of Chatbots – the most widely used form of AI. Chatbots help brands offer a highly personalized customer experience and thereby, high levels of customer satisfaction. They are not only a more budget-conscious option than hiring humans but a faster option. Chatbots have the ability to inject humor and personality, offer personalized service and be always on. Above that, they can gather data to target marketing strategies and personalized messages and customer segments while increasing engagement.
Up to now most businesses outside of retail/e-commerce have only dabbled in AI and machine learning, despite its success rates, in 2019 look for that to shift. We should also expect to see a rise in other industries that have only experimented in the past like insurance and banking.
Authenticity and AI, well… authenticity for marketing starts with knowing your audience and offering relevant/personalized content based on their needs. That’s what AI is all about. Chatbots are able to offer a consistent brand voice to the customer while also mining for data.
Conclusion
The 2019 digital marketing trends are more personal than ever for CSTMR. They are what our brand has always been built on. Authenticity. Customer Centricity. Data Driven. In the coming year, they are flourishing as they build on new technologies and interact with one another for ultimate success in the new market landscape 2019 brings. Are you ready?
2019 is approaching and 4th quarter is the time to start building out the strategies to create success in the coming landscape. Messaging has to be more relevant and valuable to the customer and deliver actual value to audiences. Helpfulness and authenticity will combat relationships lost through tech and automation. Incorporating these strategies into your planning now will keep you well ahead of your competition and boost your potential for success coming into 2019. These are just a few of the 2019 digital marketing trends to look out for as you think ahead. There’s no one right way to build a marketing strategy and no one size fits all.
Are you ready for the 2019 market landscape? Take our marketing readiness assessment and find out!
