The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) is a distinguished international association of board-certified plastic surgeons. Each quarter, they publish Aesthetic Society News, a newsletter that provides information, innovations, and updates surrounding plastic surgery that helps surgeons and marketers expand their reach and stay up-to-date on the latest industry developments.
This quarter, Plastic Surgery Studios contributed an article about digital marketing trends for the Spring 2019 Issue of Aesthetic Society News (page 107).
4 Top Digital Marketing Trends Reshaping 2019
There are 4 major trends having a significant impact on the digital marketing ecosystem in 2019. They are the rise of voice search, live video communication, video and interactive ads, and being able to find a deeper understanding of user intent.
1. Voice Search Growing in Popularity
Between having them on your phones, tablets, televisions, cars, computers, and home devices, virtual assistants have permeated our culture within the short span of a few years—and it isn’t hard to see why. Rather than having to type “traffic in Los Angeles” into a search engine every morning, people are now just asking, “What’s the traffic like in Los Angeles today?” out loud to Siri, Alexa, the Google Assistant, or any other virtual personality that can give them information. It’s quick, easy, and beginning to dominate the search environment.
If someone does find themselves at a search engine instead of a virtual assistant, they can still opt for the voice search feature from the search bar rather than having to type it in themselves. This means that phrase searching is becoming less and less popular.
Marketing agencies are having to adapt quickly to these changes to keep pace with best practices for SEO.
2. People Love Live Video
Video is easy. It doesn’t require the audience to read rows of text to receive a message and allows the content to be distributed in a more emotional, entertaining way. Streaming services are becoming increasingly advanced, which means that the preference toward video marketing will only continue to grow.
Marketing professionals are capitalizing on this trend by incorporating live video streaming into social media management and creating multimedia ad campaigns for consumers. Another growth channel is OTT (over-the-top) Smart TV video ads that are aimed at reaching a younger audience with OTT devices in their homes and no cable subscriptions.
3. Interaction Is Key
As the popularity of social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook continues to rise, so too does the expectation of having an immediate response from a business. Many people now use social media as a way to troubleshoot problems they are having with products or as a direct line of communication to receive more information about a service. The most successful companies are those that foster this relationship.
By incorporating interactive elements into advertisements and artificial intelligence (chatbots) into social media pages, businesses can build an immediate level of trust and satisfaction during the potential customer’s first interaction with the business. The advent of messenger marketing has also provided a new means for brands to reach audiences on the go.
4. Huge Strides in Understanding User Intent
The use of artificial intelligence and more sophisticated marketing algorithms are increasing the amount of insight that marketers can tap into. This insight provides valuable information on how to increase the conversion rates of people who visit websites and are exposed to advertisements by creating personalized user experiences. Data is key, and brands can leverage their data-sets and funnels to tweak the customer journey and create a joyful experience that can produce a potential for referral and repeat business.
