Every year technology gets more sophisticated, affiliates need to be smarter and more innovative in their efforts to keep ahead of the key online marketing trends. 2019 will be a year of innovation as online marketing trends look deeper into system lead automation to grow audience engagement. We have outlined what we think are the most significant online marketing trends will be in 2019.
Embrace the Age of Artificial Intelligence
There has been a lot of chat about artificial intelligence and it’s use in online marketing. Lots of people have opinions, but very few people know what it really is or how to effectively use it. Think of AI as computers that can analyse data at a fast pace. This allows them to be able to gain a better understanding of user behaviour , customer engagement and what their purchasing or entertainment patterns are. Using AI to analyse your site data or your databases can help your marketing team with fresh insights of where to focus your efforts or even what kinds of content help you to get. better rankings and audience interactions which is vital for your business growth. You could also use it to get some deep insights and information about your competitors. Affiliates who want to grow their businesses smarter in 2019 need to be looking at whether they can incorporate more effective AI tech into their overall marketing and business strategies.
Create Chatbots
Chatbots have been around quite a while – but still don’t really seem to be implemented as quickly as they could have in the affiliate marketing space. Effectively, they can be used as a CRM tool for potential players looking to make deposits on operator sites. Chatbots can ask all of the questions that you would expect a human to ask and can be created in such a way that it’s conversational, so the interaction seems totally natural. The technology around chatbots and their implementation on sites is continually improving – dismissing this tool as part of your lead generation strategy could be a mistake, and it’s not that time consuming to implement. Engaging audiences within your brand is a good way to obtain valuable feedback to ensure you are focussing your efforts in the right places and not missing out on opportunities to do better.
Smart Technology
With the rise of “in-home” technology services such as Alexa and other smart technologies, being invited into our personal and habitable spaces, the way we search and interact for information online isn’t limited to just one channel any longer. This means affiliate marketers should be thinking about being in more places than just one site. You can ask these devices whatever questions you like and get pretty much an instant response. This means that queries online, will be a little different to how they’ve always been typically typed in and searched for.
Content writing will need to change
The use of language and the way in which questions and answers are written becomes vitally important for ranking and can provide an opportunity to obtain niche area’s of traffic, where nobody else is currently looking or servicing client requests. Content requests will be more conversational – meaning that you will need to take this into account for your SEO strategy. For example, you wouldn’t say “Alexa – sports betting site” – it’s more likely to be something more longtail like “Alexa, what sports betting sites have the best odds on the Grand National”. FAQ sections can be a great way to incorporate these kinds of queries for content relevant voice searches.
Influencer Marketing will continue to rise
Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular, and we expect that a lot more affiliates will include this type of promotion in their marketing strategies for 2019. Affiliates will realise they are influencers too. The ecosystem of promotion will develop, tools and networks will form cohesive ecosystems and early adopters of this content stream will benefit from immersion. Taking time now to research who the influencers are in your niche when it comes to social channels like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and others will stand you in good stead. Once you have done that research – you can reach out to them and see if they can help you get your affiliate site or program brands put out to wider audiences that are targeted to your offering.
Live Video Is now KING
Video content is fast becoming more popular than standard content generation, and we are likely to see much more live video content being posted on multi channel platforms – as that’s what the user wants. We process video a lot faster than words on pages and our attention spans are growing shorter too as we learn to consume much more data than we ever did. You need to make sure that you have the correct content strategy in place for building your brand this and bear in mind what your visitors find useful and use that to generate ideas. Q&A’s tend to do very well and can be a great starting point as well as how to or instruction guides for understanding new game plays. Make sure that you focus on the correct platform for your brand, and keep your videos engaging, short and fun to watch. Sharing videos is a vitally important part of viral marketing and it costs very little to promote yourself using your audience as the tool.
Self lead learning will help you stay up to date…
These are just some of the digital marketing trends that we feel that will be important in 2019. Self lead learning will be key to keep ahead of the changes taking place in the online space. Our Affiliate Bootcamp events, taking place 21-22 March (London) for sports betting affiliates and later in the year for iGaming and Esports affiliates help to keep affiliate businesses well informed. Our speakers will detail the insights you need to keep ahead of digital disruption and competitive in the iGaming space. You can also register for our weekly newsletters which are filled with insights just like these!
