Digital Video
in 2019 you’ll see a big increase in digital video advertising. According to eMarketer, the number of video ads transacted programmatically (video ads that you see on online and on streaming video channels) will be double the amount you saw just 4 years ago. Plus they will continue to be more targeted at you. The reason for this is the huge number of cord cutters leaving their cable companies.
Machine Learning
In 2019, machine learning will grow exponentially. Today, online marketers are finding greater success in using machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence) to market to hyper segmented audiences. Now, it is not enough to just have good keywords and a high-quality score to get to the top of a Google Search page. To be competitive you have to employ some sort of machine learning. Now, with software like Googles Cost Per Aquisition and Conversion Tracking, online marketers can track online shoppers to determine which shopper is most likely to convert to a customer or a phone caller. This is done by If you just want people to call you, google can find them with machine learning too. So if you are doing an online search you need to consider how to utilize the many new options that your competitors will be using if they are not already. Learn more about Machine Learning at this blog by Benjamin Ligier from convertize.com.
Multi-Channel Advertising (formerly known as Mixed Media advertising)
When was the last time you saw an ad on TV without checking your phone or computer before you bought? Before the internet, most serious advertisers would advertise in more than one media because they knew they had to reach their audience many times before they would get a conversion. If an advertiser could not afford to use all the available media, even using two or three would dramatically increase the chance of getting the sale. The reason for this is most people could be reached on any two or three media. So the chances are, if you run two or three media like radio, cable TV, and billboard, you could reach many people two or three times more. Plus you may reach some people that you may not have reached if you were on just one media. Digital advertising is the same. If you are just running pay per click, competitors who are also running billboards, or boosting posts on Facebook will have a big awareness advantage. One last but very important thing to keep in mind is to make sure your message is consistent across all media.
Voice Search
Smart Speakers like Amazon Alexis and Google Home are already in almost a 100,000,000 homes compared to only 40,000,000 last year. By 2020 it is predicted to be 225,000,000. So what does this mean? When you open Google on your browser and type in your search query, you’ll see hundreds of pages of search results. It’s not that hard for your business to be one of them. But when you ask Siri a question, it will give you just a few results. Many times, only one. If your website is one of them, the CTR (Click Through Rate) can potentially be much higher. But it needs to be there in the first place. Therefore, tailoring your SEO strategy for voice search is crucial. Learn More here.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
You have used this when you call companies that have an electronic voice answer questions or on some online text chats. AI is also used by marketers and Google, and Facebook to find online buyers. Google helps marketers find prospect by seeing what they are doing online and interpreting it to determine what people want to see, buy, learn about, etc. A place you are likely to see more small businesses utilize AI is with smart chats on their websites that can answer questions and give support without humans.
The Take Away For Future Proofing Your Small Business
- If you do TV advertising, consider buying streaming video channels where your TV ad will only appear on TVs of people you target. You buy this kind of TV advertising from a company like Jam Loop.
- If you are doing online pay-per-click consider using a setting like Google’s average cost per conversion or hiring a company that has software that extends Google and Bing’s ability to find prospects with machine learning and AI.
- If you have a website, consider how to make your site work better with Alexa and Google Home Searches. Doing this may be hard because it takes quite a bit of new SEO knowledge. But you can find some tools out there. Check this site for more information
- If you are just using one media, consider adding at least one additional media to your advertising. Plus (this is important) keep the message consistent across all media.
- If you have a website and would like to be able to engage visitors better, add a smart online chat.
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