I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s almost 2019, and with the new year comes a new set of digital marketing challenges.

Don’t worry, though. We’ve got a list of the hottest trends you can expect to see next year and lots of tips to get your business ahead of the competition. Let’s get started.

Focus on the Entire Digital Experience

Your #1 digital marketing trend for 2019 will be that businesses and marketers are now focusing on the customer’s digital experience from start to finish — and at every touchpoint.

Think of it as the new customer experience. You don’t always know how customers are finding you, but you know if they have a good experience from the get-go, they’re more likely to choose your business and become a loyal customer.

So, what can you do in 2019 to bring those customers in? Make sure it’s easy to find and interact with your business across the most popular platforms as well as your website.

Our Digital Experience Tips:

1. Search for your business in Google. Do you show up? Is your info correct? Is there a link to your website or photos of your business? Think of your local search presence as your digital storefront. It needs to be an accurate depiction of your business in the physical world. If it isn’t, you’re doing yourself a disservice. And, you’re probably losing customers to the competition.
2. Take a look at your website. Is it responsive and optimized for various screen sizes? If your site doesn’t look good on smartphones or takes too long to load, you’re going to lose customers. This has actually been proven.
3. And, your website needs to give customers all the info they need to know. Does it feature your address, phone number, hours, a brief backstory and links to your social profiles? If not, you’ve got some work to do.

Future-Proof Your Business by Focusing on Voice Search and Intent

It’s no secret that voice search is the future. In fact, 43 million Americans own a voice-activated speaker and 40 percent of adults use voice search every single day.

But, did you know that 40 percent of those voice searches are locally focused? They are trying to find a business or local info. Either way, your business can gain a huge advantage in 2019 by focusing on showing up for relevant voice searches.

Before you get started, though, let’s talk about intent. Every time we talk about voice search, we say to show up for conversational, long-tail keywords that allow you to match the way people talk.

But, Google’s getting smarter. The search giant knows that voice search is tricky. It’s about more than just keywords or long-tail keywords or other types of SEO. That’s why Google is learning to focus on the intent of a search.

That means that when a person searches or asks Google a question, Google is focusing on the full idea of the search rather than just matching the person up with relevant keywords.

And, it’s not as hard as you’d think to optimize for voice search and intent.

Voice Search Optimization and Intent Tips:

1. If you have access to the terms people use to search for your business, focus more on the idea of what they’re saying/asking.
2. If you don’t have access, use a tool like Google Ads to find long-tail keywords for your business. Look at the intent of those keywords.
3. Once you have focused on intent and the ideas that come from those searches, create content on your website that focuses on that idea. Write pages or blog posts that answer the question or match the intent.

This will help you show up for the right voice searches and future-proof your business, since voice search is only getting bigger and bigger.

Find the Right Types of Online Ads for Your Business

It’s no longer enough to just show up in the right searches. While that will certainly give you a head start, you’ll need to reach customers through multiple platforms.

That’s where paid advertising comes in.

With paid ads, you can reach more customers, hyper-target your ideal customers and expand your reach to new markets. But, it can be tricky. In 2019, though, you can’t let your business get caught up with the technical details of paid advertising.

That’s why we made this list. These are the types of ads your business should try in 2019, depending on your industry.

Paid Advertising for 2019 Tips:

1. Search ads and responsive search ads are great for businesses with a lot of search volume by helping you meet demand.
2. Try retargeting if your industry has a longer buying cycle or a high ROI — or to reach customers across the entire buying journey.
3. Health, fitness and wellness businesses can see a fantastic return with Facebook and Instagram lead generation ads.
4. B2B or commercial businesses should give advertising on LinkedIn a try. It’s the best place to reach other businesses.
5. Service-based industries, home services and service-area businesses can try Local Services Ads to build consumer trust.
6. Businesses that want to drive foot traffic to their stores can give YouTube ads a try to improve in-store sales.

Step Into the Future With a YouTube Advertising Strategy

YouTube is a great way to reach customers through crucial moments in the buying journey, and its usage has skyrocketed.

The video platform has 1.9 billion monthly users, and people watch 1 billion hours of video every day. That’s huge.

Plus, YouTube ads can be extremely effective. Google has seen a huge 150 percent rise in ad conversions, and 70 percent of YouTube campaigns were shown to improve in-store sales!

That’s right; YouTube ads can bring people to your business and improve your sales.

YouTube Advertising Tips for 2019:

1. Our attention spans get shorter and shorter, so create short video ads. Longer videos will cause people to lose interest and stop watching.
2. Since YouTube ads can be extremely effective at driving in-store sales, remind your audience where you’re located or tell them how to get directions. Telling them exactly what they should do is a great way to make your ads more effective!
3. Hiring a video team is your best bet, but newer smartphones typically have good cameras you could use to create a video. Just make sure you have a good editing app so that your videos are as high-quality as possible.
4. If you’re shooting for YouTube, make sure your phone is in landscape (horizontal) and the area you’re filming is well-lit.

Note: If you’re a RevLocal customer and your business has video ads, send those to us and our team can handle the advertising aspect!