Experts in any industry are key to keeping up with new trends and shifting strategies. Digital marketing is no different. Whether you are a small business owner or an executive at a Fortune 100 company, relying on experts to provide tips for digital marketing is key to your strategy. We’ve reached out to the top web design and digital marketing experts to get their take on what is trending in 2019.
Simple Website Designs
“Even for the smallest businesses where marketing expenses may be a stretch, they’re finding that a simple website legitimizes them in the marketplace and increases positive customer sentiment that leads to growth in physical traffic,” says Mack Gullickson of Dynamark.
Influencer Marketing
“In recent years we have seen the emergence of chatbots and with developments in machine learning and Ai, more sophisticated applications will continue to change the digital marketing landscape,” mentions Sean Wingad of Fudge. “Also, the growth of influencer marketing continues to give rise to new and innovative Saas products to help the company navigate this digital marketing channel.”
Local SEO
“Having been in this space since 1999, we have seen a lot of changes in Search Engine Marketing techniques. Currently, we are seeing a lot of demand from businesses looking for Local SEO. This is great, and will have a big impact as voice search starts to pick up even more traction,” echoes Sarvy van Maris of Register IT.
Chat Boxes
“The best business tools in 2019 are chat boxes and they are setting a new trend in how businesses communicate with their clients via their website,” says Christopher Hamilton of WebTrusive?
Relevance
“We have been seeing “relevance” continue to trend strongly for our clients,” says Jason Wright of Marketing by Data. “Getting backlinks from relative sites or from relative posts is having a big impact compared to just looking at the DA. Making sure to have outbound links to relative sites vs just the Wikipedia page is also showing some great results.”
Google’s September Update
“With Google’s latest algorithm update, we predict that long-form content will play an even greater role in site ranking. Long form content proves both expertise and authority on a subject (because who can make up content for 1500+ words?) and also gives you more opportunities to slip in long-tail keywords,” says Ian Hecht of Nash Web Marketing. “Plus, if the content is really valuable (which it should be) then that gives you more backlinking opportunities. Rather than more frequent, small blog posts, try a longer 1500+ word post, and see how it affects your site’s rankings. “One way to create great content is to use a blog headline generator tool.”
“We’ve noticed that most of the natural linking strategies, such as guest blog posts on non-spammy websites, have improved rankings for some of our less competitive keywords… we see some of our colleagues who posted in every blog, regardless of quality, take a small hit. In either case it did not seem like a major shift,” echoes Serj Sagan of Sagan Marketing.
“My key takeaways from September 2019 update would be: To look for a major overall improvement in your website. Aim not just to match your competitors, but try to beat them in all areas that Google deems important. If you do so, Google is more likely to pick up several different signals about your site that could lead to improvements during major core updates like the September update,” says Amit Ashwini Bhagat of Zibtek.
“This update doesn’t feel all that different from other core updates,” says Ryan Amen of Nifty Marketing. “Many of the noticeable improvements seem to have stemmed from somewhat recent content & optimization efforts (or gaining quality links to specific pages) that hadn’t been fully taken into account up to that point. As weve seen with other core updates, the best approach to fixing drops is typically analyzing the pages that have seen ranking or traffic losses & making further improvements to those pages (and potentially increasing quality backlinks). Looking at competitors sites to see what you can do better can be helpful.”
Focus On Reviews
“Focusing on reviews will be more important than ever. With the rise of voice, people will ask their phones for anything they are searching for, i.e. asking for the “best (insert service or product) near me”. Since Google dominates searching, and now voice, Google reviews will be vital in outranking the competition. When this happens, companies will have a stronger focus on customer service because of the fear of a bad review. All in all, reviews will be a major factor moving forward because of the fact that voice/ai will forever change the way we search,” says Christopher Narine-Fivenson of Fivenson Studios.
“At the end of the day its a great thing for customers/clients, but its also quite scary that the success or failure of your business is dependent on another company. I speak from professional experience: two months ago our digital agency was the most reviewed company in our area, which brought in a lot of business for us. We were asked to remove one of our Google business listings because we used a PO box as an address. Since that time, we have been waiting over two months for our reviews to be migrated to our new business listing. Its a very difficult situation to be in, and has really showcased for us the importance of having customer/client reviews.”
Stop Using Your Corporate Website
“I stumbled across the Internet back in 1997 when it was called the “World Wide Web”. What started as a hobby making money online grew into being a successful and profitable business. Through the years I had noticed a lot of people promoting their corporate website and losing sales. This is how our business came to fruition.”
“My tip is for anyone that is in network marketing or real estate agents. “Stop Using Your Corporate Website!” Too many times individuals promote a company’s corporate website and wind up losing sales,” says Tony Molinaro of Your Marketing Page. “Have you ever given a business card to someone only to find out they did not order the product from your site? Maybe you’re a real estate agent sending your clients to your corporate website to view your listing? How do you make sure that lead is going to you? What if they start browsing other homes on the website? Is it possible they could be referred to another agent?”
“One reason is your website address.”
“If you are using your corporate website address similar to this
www.CorporateWebsite.com/JaneDoe/123456/”
“You need a Marketing Page.”
“Most people will just type in the corporate name without the extension that directs that sale to you. Other times the person will misspell your name (or extension).”
Create New Content
“In a world where eyeballs are the indicator of success, putting out content at scale is one of the biggest variables to achieve your goals,” says Kaushal Kakadia of Sociallyin.
