The Lee Kenny column: Looking at possible marketing trends for 2019

It is a big year politically, and while that could cause some uncertainty, how the business shapes up next year 90% is under our control.

I sat with the team here at Snowflake Media HQ to list out some marketing strategies to keep your business ahead in 2019.

Live Broadcasting – Yes, yet again I am going to promote the use of live video. We’ve come such a long way in this area. Gone are the days when you needed to spend £2,000 to get a five-minute corporate video shot. Now you can simply point, click and done! All the media channels, Google, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc are desperate for content to keep users on their platform.

Brand – This is a longer term strategy but one that will be crucial as algorithms change and your competitors start to spend more money. Creating a brand and communication on every platform possible will help your business stand out.

Live chat – If you own a website you really should be making things convenient for customers. Not having live chat is like unplugging the phone or locking the doors to your shop because you have paperwork to do. The under 45 demographic is far more likely to engage with a live chat option than to call a phone number or send an email.

Direct Mail – In an era of “digital this” and “social media that” I’m thrilled to say that a physical piece of mail such as a letter or leaflet is going to be huge in 2019.

Don’t worry I’m not suggesting junk mail is going to go crazy, quite the opposite. As budgets tighten, “expensive” postal marketing tends to get dropped.

Look at your inbox, how many messages did you get yesterday? Mine is over 600.

How many marketing letters or flyers did you get this week?

I love signing up for “junk mail” and I only have a handful. So get creative and stand out from the crowd.

Tactical Marketing Support – You can’t possibly do everything yourself if you are hoping to succeed. However, adding extra staff on to the books can be challenging

More and more people are tactically asking for short term help. Whether this is freelancers or interim sales and marketing staff who come in and handle a specific project, this is going to be increasingly prevalent in the year ahead.

It has been a very common thing within the IT and Development and finance roles, but have a 30 day social media boost or marketing strategy specialist come in and help out will be more normal as the year progresses.

Email automation – If your business captures emails, there’s a good chance they go in to a bucket (aka CRM) like mailchimp and then wait for the next time you have a) inspiration, b) 5 minutes spare or c) a panic that sales need a boost. Not the most effective way of nurturing and serving your customers. 2019 will see an increased amount of pre-programmed automation.

We aren’t talking robots and Artificial Intelligence here, just common sense follow up. After all, it takes seven or more contacts before most customers buy from you, so creating messages in advance is a smart way to go.