In the not-too-distant future, all of our marketing efforts will be digital.

From automated email campaigns to performance-based marketing and content curation, the lines that distinguish traditional marketing from digital marketing will blur. And, as a marketer, you’ll need to learn how to code, design, and implement successful digital marketing strategies if you want to keep up with the trends and be prepared to serve your audience as they increasingly demand to be served.

Cross-Platform

With the explosion of devices and digital marketing platforms, brands need to understand how to engage with consumers on all fronts. What was once considered desktop and mobile marketing are now just facets of a single, massive marketing machine. To succeed in this environment, you need to be able to craft a cross-platform marketing strategy that can be implemented on all the different channels we use to communicate.

The good news is that the lines between channels are blurring. Thanks to the rise of sophisticated AI, virtual reality, and big data, we’re able to better target specific groups of consumers with specific offers and messaging across all channels. The difference is that, at this point, consumers are used to interacting with brands via multiple channels, so being present on all of them is key to developing and maintaining a brand identity.

Personalized, Conversational Marketing

Another huge trend that will continue to influence marketing in 2019 and beyond is personalized, conversational marketing. Thanks to a combination of artificial intelligence, human interactivity, and big data, it is now possible to tailor our interactions with consumers to be more personal, more relevant, and more effective. This approach to marketing builds a conversation with the consumer, identifying their individual needs, wants, and desires, and using that data to create relevant offers and messaging for future interactions. Think of all the marketing you’ve ever seen for a clothing brand, for example — that’s personalized, conversational marketing in action.

Targeting the Right Audience

There is a caveat to all this AI-fueled, personalized, conversation-based marketing, however. To be most effective, these strategies depend on having a clear picture of who your audience is and what they want — which, in turn, requires you to precisely target the right audience for your content.

The truth is that, as marketers, we don’t always have the luxury of being able to target the audience we really want to reach. Sometimes, we need to resort to alternative methods, such as demographics or psychographics. Thankfully, there is another option: using the tools that network marketers already know and love!

When you utilize the targeting features within HubSpot, you are able to precisely target individuals based on their interests, hobbies, behaviors, and demographics. And, since these features are connected to the major social media platforms, you can also curate content based on your chosen criteria and send out targeted, personalized invitations to connect on social media.

The Importance of Measurement

Lastly, it is important to keep in mind the importance of measurement when utilizing digital marketing strategies. Just because you have a plan for A, B, and C does not mean that those A’s, B’s, and C’s will automatically show up as gains. One of the most important things you can do as a marketer is measure the success of your strategy — whether that’s a web analytics program like Google Analytics, which provides you with traffic and demographic data, or a CRM program like HubSpot, which tracks leads and conversions. Without measurement, you have no way of knowing whether or not your efforts were effective — and that’s never a good thing in marketing!

To see how all of this will play out, check out our blog post on the Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2019.