Top Digital Marketing Trends Of 2019
Each year, dozens of marketing trends infiltrate the market with the promise of increasing consumers, improving conversions, and boosting online revenue.
Some leave as quickly as they came and others (such as content marketing) become staples in business growth.
But the trends to watch are those that are innovative, proven to increase conversions, and not yet utilized by every brand -- like these 5 major digital marketing trends below!
What Is A Digital Marketing Company?
A digital marketing agency takes your brand and creates a well-rounded identity around it, promoting it across a wide variety of collateral. These assets include print ads, email campaigns, social media initiatives and more.
Digital marketing agencies help expand your business and drive results in the form of conversions, web traffic, and retention rates. They help your brand connect with your audience and open up the door for new business relations.
In order to successfully promote brands and businesses, digital marketing agencies have to stay on top of growing trends, utilize top talent and tools and put creativity and ingenuity first.
These digital agencies often combine a number of techniques — from digital to creative and traditional marketing efforts — to drive your business forward and reach goals.
What Is Digital Marketing?
We all know that modern businesses need to invest in digital marketing -- but what does that really mean?
It turns out that digital marketing is far more complex than simple promotions, especially with the ever-growing importance of the internet. In reality, digital marketing is the act of creating a cohesive promotional strategy that spans several channels and targets highly valuable audiences.
So, how do marketing experts execute a digital marketing campaign?
Types Of Online Marketing Company Offerings
Internet Marketing Advertising
Digital marketing agencies manage marketing and advertising across a wide variety of platforms. These tactics can include:
- Retargeting and remarketing
- Paid search
- Paid media
- Pay-per-click advertising
- Native advertising
- And more
These initiatives can be executing on many platforms, including:
- Google
- Bing
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- Email
- Other publications
- And more!
Content & Social Media Marketing
Multimedia content and social media are steadily replacing outdated traditional advertising tactics, such as radio spots and expensive TV ads. Top digital marketing agencies can conceptualize, create and publish all sorts of content, such as:
- Blog posts
- Articles
- Brand videos
- Social media posts and content
- Infographics
- User-generated content campaigns
- And more!
This content is tailor-made for your brand goals and strategically crafted to reach your target demographic, promote your products or services, and increase revenue.
Search Engine Optimization
Digital marketing also encompasses search engine optimization (SEO). This robust initiative is the act of technically optimizing your web design and corresponding content to rank higher on relevant search results. Unsurprisingly, most companies optimize for Google.
Some common (and helpful!) SEO tactics are:
- Improving website code
- Identifying keywords
- Writing content optimized for keywords
- Increasing site speed
- Mobile optimization
- And more!
Additional Digital Marketing Services
Digital marketing is so complex, which means that there is nearly an endless list of digital marketing campaigns that can be implemented to grow your business. Additional digital marketing services are:
- Email marketing
- Marketing automation
- Affiliate marketing
- Native advertising
- Data and analytics
- Inbound marketing
- Digital public relations
- And more!
What Do Top Digital Marketing Firms Do?
An Online Marketing Company Works On Interdisciplinary Teams
Digital marketing is an interdisciplinary business. There’s simply no chance of meaningful, long-term success if you rely on a single channel or approach to generate results.
Taking an omnichannel approach to your business operation and digital marketing campaigns are the only way to fulfill the needs of the consumer.
For this reason, award-winning digital marketing agencies work in interdisciplinary teams populated by employees with wide-ranging online marketing expertise.
There’s value, of course, in having generalists on your team. But specialists with high levels of technical skill in one or two key areas are necessary to manage the finer details.
Marketing agencies often differentiate themselves based on the breadth and depth of knowledge of the employees assigned to each digital marketing campaign.
The Best Digital Marketing Firms Are Data & Results Driven
The best marketing agencies use data to benefit their client campaigns by revealing actionable insights about what works and what doesn’t.
The most respected agencies in the digital era invest heavily in analytics teams and automation that provide the data that informs and shapes the direction of their campaigns.
The best marketing agencies know that when brands make a substantial investment in their online presence, they need to see results. These agencies build campaigns that speak to the client’s bottom line and align directly to a set of goals established early on in the engagement.
Trustworthy agencies spend a substantial amount of time up front learning about the client’s challenges, objectives, and goals. These are used to inform a digital strategy that acts as the blueprint for the campaign.
Be wary of agencies that are unwilling to discuss expected campaign outcomes. Be equally suspicious of those who make promises that sound too good to be true, for they almost certainly are.
Digital Marketing Agencies Do Custom, Experimental Work
It’s easy enough to replicate the same marketing tactics client after client, but what takes true expertise and skill is creating custom campaigns each and every time.
This is what separates the amateurs from the true professionals. A top online marketing company will create custom marketing and advertising strategies for their clients.
These are informed by each client’s unique set of needs. They innovate and iterate based on observed user behavior. And they never hesitate to change course if that’s what’s required.
Digital marketing is a field that rewards the bold. Continued experimentation is required in order for brands to see continued success. That’s because things change quickly in the digital media landscape. Those that don’t innovate are quickly left behind to flounder.
Popular digital marketing companies are able to keep their clients in a position of constantly looking toward the future, prepared for changes to come, and keeping out ahead of the competition when it comes to their online presence.
These agencies pride themselves on their commitment to experimentation and progress. The best digital marketing agencies in the world adopt a pioneering spirit as a core tenet of their operating philosophy.
The Best Digital Marketing Company Services
Marketing Companies Use Email Marketing To Boost Retention Rates
Top rated digital marketing agencies utilize welcome emails to increase revenue by 320 percent alone!
But that’s not all. The best digital marketing firms also develop regular newsletter strategies that complement other initiatives such as product launches, rebrandings, and content marketing schedules.
Although we live in the age of social media, the importance of email marketing is alive and stronger than ever. Eighty percent of retail companies say email marketing drives the highest consumer retention rates. Plus, every dollar spent on email marketing can create a return on investment of up to $38.
The Best Digital Marketing Agency Utilizes Search Engine Optimization To Widen Your Reach
Digital marketing is a vast business growth arena. But the top marketing agencies understand that optimizing a brand website for search engines is arguably the most important strategy for meaningful business growth.
93 percent of online experiences originate from a search engine.
The top digital marketing agencies around the world have the tools and expertise to audit websites, analyze traffic. They can also tailor everything from title tags and code to content marketing around carefully chosen keywords that consumers are searching for online.
By investing in search engine optimization (SEO), your digital destination becomes much more discoverable to their target audience. This increases valuable traffic and, ultimately, revenue.
Many businesses think that search engine optimization (SEO) refers to optimizing written content for certain keywords -- and they aren’t wrong!
However, proper SEO optimization also includes technical elements such as image size and site speed. These are two factors that directly affect the number of people who will even stick around on your site long enough to convert.
According to Adobe, 39 percent of users will stop engaging with a website if the images don’t load and 39 percent will also stop engaging with the website itself if it takes too long to load.
By enlisting a great conversion rate optimization (CRO) company, businesses will have a team of experts on hand to suggest and implement technical adjustments. This includes image and site loading times that will encourage visitors to stay on a website, explore, and convert.
Digital Marketing Companies Foster A Strong Brand Identity Through Content Marketing
Leading digital marketing agencies have teams of content experts who brainstorm, develop, write and publish long-form articles and blog posts. They do this to increase brand awareness.
These team members also work collaboratively to determine who will create the content and how it will be effectively promoted to your existing audience as well as new potential consumers.
Content marketing is a simple and effective way to foster a strong brand identity. Content marketing organically promotes products and services, generates content for social media platforms and email marketing campaigns, and increases revenue.
According to Hubspot, the more you invest in content marketing, the better your bottom line looks.
B2C companies that increased monthly blogging from four to five times each month to 11 or more saw four times more leads.
Businesses looking to grow online should search for a partner marketing agency that can create an effective content marketing strategy.
This content can be used across a variety of platforms — including social media. Unsurprisingly, every brand should invest time and energy into proper social media marketing.
Seventy percent of the U.S. population alone has at least one profile on a social media website.
Plus, social media marketing (both organic and paid) is relatively low-cost, particularly when compared to traditional advertising. It also provides a strong return on investment.
The best digital marketing and advertising agencies understand the value of social media for expanding brands.
Allowing these professional digital marketing firms to handle your social media campaigns is wise. It’s especially wise if they are already managing other forms of online marketing for you, too.
By outsourcing social media to a great digital media marketing agency, you’re allowing top-level marketing experts to create an effective omnichannel strategy that promotes your business on multiple channels without detrimental overlap or confusion.
The best digital marketing companies look at analytics, determine your demographic, focus on the most valuable social networks, and adjust the strategy as needed.
An Online Marketing Agency Focuses On Retargeting Initiatives
Forty-six percent of search engine marketing experts believe that retargeting is the most underused yet valuable digital marketing strategy.
The best international digital marketing companies understand how to integrate this tactic into an overarching initiative.
Essentially, retargeting drops cookies on a visitors browser when they land on your website or digital marketplace. If they leave, those cookies will serve them ads for your brand as they peruse other sites. This implores them to click and revisit your digital destination.
Great digital marketing agencies have dedicated teams, designers and programs in place to effectively facilitate this dynamic form of advertising. And that’s a good thing — retargeting perform up to 10 times better than regular banner ads.
31 Questions To Ask A Top Digital Marketing Agency Before Hiring Them
Digital marketing agencies are a valuable resource for brands and businesses big and small. They provide a wealth of opportunity and put your business on the path to growth and success.
But choosing the best digital agency that’s right for you can be challenging. There are a lot of factors to consider and a number of questions that can make the whole process seem like more of a nightmare than anything else.
But the value of these agencies far surpasses the stress of finding the digital marketing agency that’s right for you.
If you’re looking for the best digital marketing agency in the world, consider these questions and suggestions.
- What digital marketing tactics do you think are the most valuable and why?
- How will you create and prioritize our marketing strategy?
- What information or deliverables will you need from our team?
- How often will we meet to discuss marketing strategy?
- Who will our point of contact be?
- How will you ensure the project is on track?
- What programs or process do you use to streamline communication between teams?
- How do you plan to integrate all digital marketing initiatives into one comprehensive strategy?
- Who will be working on our project and what will their role be?
- What expertise do they have?
- What successful projects have they worked on and what was their role?
- Tell us about an unsuccessful project and what you learned from that experience.
- How dedicated will they be to growing our brand? Will they be working on other businesses too?
- Do they have experience in our industry or solving business growth/marketing problems that are similar to ours?
- How will you audit our current marketing campaigns, initiatives, and online presence?
- How do you stay on top of the latest trends?
- What tools, programs or resources will you use to identify, execute or track valuable strategies that our brand should implement?
- Will we have access to these tools?
- Will we need to pay extra for the resources needed?
- How will you track results?
- What analytics or metrics do you track? Why are them important and/or how do they show business growth?
- How often will you report on them?
- How do you plan to use data and analytics to continually inform the marketing strategy?
- What results can you guarantee for each digital marketing service or campaign?
- What is your pricing structure? Do you charge by the hour, a flat fee, or per results achieved?
- What services are included in your fee?
- Are there any services, programs, etc. that may cost extra?
- Which team members are my fee “paying” for?
- Do you require a time commitment from us?
- How much will it cost to add additional marketing services during the project?
- Are you willing to sign a formal contract with these items detailed inside?
How To Find The Best Digital Marketing Firm For Your Brand
Understand Their Marketing Expertise & Services
Brands looking to grow their brand should search for top online marketing agencies with strong expertise in several marketing areas.
Not sure where to start? Take a look at your current marketing plan and research what your competitors are investing in. That will give you a baseline guide of what services you should be searching for in a leading digital marketing agency.
Ensure They Can Deliver Successful Results
The best digital marketing agencies have a streamlined process from start to finish. This empowers them to create a comprehensive marketing strategy. This strategy comes complete with due dates, drafts, deliverables, and desired outcomes.
How a winning digital agency creates a strategy, ensures deadlines are being met and facilitates follow-through is what takes a marketing company from good to great. Thus, it’s imperative to find a marketing partner that delivers. You need them to give you the level of attention, organization, and communication you need to achieve your goals.
View Their Professional Portfolio
The best internet marketing agencies in the USA and beyond have robust client lists and detailed portfolios full of successful projects. These prior campaigns are telling signs if an agency can deliver for you, too.
However, don’t just take them at their word. Do your own research and ask to speak to one or two of their clients to get an unbiased opinion on their professional work. Then, ask them even more detailed questions about these projects.
Ask questions such as what were the exact results and how were they achieved. Plus, don’t forget to ask potential partner agencies about their missteps, too. Everyone has them, but the best marketing firms will recognize projects that didn’t go as planned and tell you what they learned. Lesser quality companies will skirt over the details and brush them under the rug.
The Best Digital Marketing Agencies Create A Results-Driven Marketing Strategy
If you want your business to thrive, you need to promote your products and services to the best of your abilities.
But what sets some digital marketing agencies apart from the rest? How do the great digital marketing agencies stand out? What makes them unique?
You want a marketing agency that innately understands your business and your needs. And with a little digging, you’ll be able to find that diamond in the rough.
Identifying the right global marketing agency to partner with first requires that you have a clear sense of what you’re looking for. Knowing what’s important to your company is a necessary first step in identifying the agency that will be able to fill those needs.
Do you want an agency with a global reputation or one that has the absolute best local talent? One that will push boundaries, or one that will hold your hand throughout the process?
The way leading digital marketing agencies differentiate themselves is a great way to get an introductory sense of who they are and what they value most. Below are some of the key value propositions of the top digital marketing agencies.
But what makes a good digital marketing agency one of the best?
Top Digital Marketing Companies
The Best Digital Marketing Companies Around The World Provide Effective Strategies & Strong Returns On Investment (ROI)
The best digital marketing agencies in the world have a lengthy roster of marketing specialties that meet your criteria. The best digital agencies have a team of expert professionals who are experienced and passionate about the work that they do.
These top marketing agencies have a portfolio of success and innovation. They can show you past projects and connect you with top-rated referrals to help you better understand their past work in your industry and niche.
But ultimately, what makes a digital marketing agency the best in the world is highly dependant on what you want to get out of it.
A Top Digital Marketing Firm Has Extensive Marketing Services
Digital marketing agencies offer a number of services — from email campaigns to social media initiatives to influencer outreach and more.
In order for an agency to be at the top of its game — at least in your eyes — it has to meet your business needs.
Digital marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The best local and global marketing companies understand that.
What’s more, not every digital marketing agency offers every available online marketing service. However, brands DO need to find a digital marketing company that offers solutions to their marketing needs.
To get the best value and return on investment from a successful digital marketing company, take stock of your own requirements and vision first. Then, as you meet with various digital marketing firms to find the perfect fit, ask specific questions.
Ask them what they think the most valuable tactics are, where they see the industry going in the next few years, and what services they both currently offer or plan to offer shortly.
Digital Marketing Companies Value Communication & Partnership
The best digital marketing companies understand the importance of fostering a healthy, happy relationship. These relationships are mutually beneficial for all parties.
The best agencies for you will be able to establish that helpful and happy relationship so both parties can thrive. They will also be able to communicate with you when and how you wish to speak.
For instance, if you’re a brand that needs constant updates, but your agency only checks in once a week or month, you will want to look elsewhere.
You should never be kept in the dark about the progress of your campaigns. Top digital agencies make accountability and reporting a core tenet of their business practice.
Before signing a contract, ask the agency who will manage your account. Then, understand how communications between your business and theirs will operate.
A successful digital marketing agency should be happy to set a regular reporting schedule. They should set standards for responding to calls and emails that will ensure they’re kept accountable to results and client communication.
This will help your business grow because it establishes a precedent of communication. This way both parties can convey their ideas and their data. This will lead to actionable insights that drive conversions-increasing campaigns.
Digital Marketing Firms Have Reasonable Costs & Contracts
Pricing is another area that separates the good digital marketing agencies from the best. The winning digital marketing agencies will be well within your price range and will be able to work with you in terms of payment and costs.
Digital marketing firms can be pricey. So it’s important that your business has its budget in check. This will make it easier for you to narrow down your list and decide on the winning firm.
Once you’ve determined if a marketing company is the right fit to grow your brand online, take the time to cement the services you will receive, results you can expect, and associated fees. But sometimes a higher upfront cost can culminate in a stronger return on investment later, so weigh all the pros and cons.
The final step is then to document everything in a formal, comprehensive and legally binding contract. Although this step can be daunting, it is important.
Top agencies won’t balk at the task, either. A contract eliminates any confusion, solidifies a process, and ultimately protects digital agencies and clients throughout a project.
Now that you understand what makes for an award-winning agency, let's look at how these agencies add value.
How A Digital Marketing Firm Will Grow Your Business & Add Value
A Top Digital Marketing Company Focuses On An Effective Marketing Campaign
All leading digital marketing agencies know the value and importance of a digital marketing strategy. A strategy is necessary to guide the direction of marketing campaigns and ensure they are aligned to the brand’s goals and objectives.
The best creative digital marketing agency will build a strategy based on the information gleaned from the client during the discovery phase of the project. This will acquaint them with the client’s unique challenges, target audiences, and previous marketing successes and failures.
All of this information is used to inform a strategy that unites the agency and client teams. This charts a path for the execution of the client’s marketing campaigns.
The Best Internet Marketing Company Provides Customized Solutions
Every brand is unique and that means that the marketing strategies your digital marketing partner comes up with should be tailored to your business.
Popular digital marketing agencies emphasize the custom nature of their marketing plans and don’t blindly replicate what’s been done before for other clients.
It’s natural to expect that a top digital marketing company will apply learnings and strategies that worked for other clients to subsequent campaigns. However, they should never offer cookie-cutter solutions.
Look for a digital marketing agency that recommends ideas and tactics because they believe they’ll help meet the specific objectives of your brand.
The Best Marketing Agencies Are Results-Oriented
Digital marketing is all about moving the needle for your business. That’s why it’s so important to work with a major digital marketing agency that focuses on getting results.
A good online digital marketing expert will be upfront about setting goals and outlining key milestones for your campaigns. They’ll be transparent in detailing what results you can expect to see from the work you’re investing in.
Of course, they won’t be able to predict traffic or conversions with 100% accuracy. Regardless, they should be comfortable setting targets.
This kind of transparency is key to making sure the award-winning digital media marketing agency you’re working with is motivated to achieve results. It also ensures the client is comfortable knowing what to expect from their investment.
How The Best Online Marketing Company Manages Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Through Internet Marketing Services
Top Marketing Firms Research The Digital Marketplace
The best conversion rate optimization companies can conduct comprehensive research on a client’s industry and target audience. This investigation will determine standards, best practices, and layouts that foster the highest click-through rates.
Additionally, robust research will help identify your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. By understanding items such as bounce rates, time on site, drop-off points and heatmap data, businesses will be able to better formulate comprehensive marketing, design and business growth strategies that work together to capture consumers.
An Internet Marketing Firm Utilizes Strategic Calls To Action
Calls to action are necessary for inspiring website visitors to take the desired action -- after all, some users simply need to be reminded of what they are supposed to do.
However, an effective call to action (CTA) is more than slapping a button on a web page and hoping for the best. That’s where great conversion rate optimization companies enter.
CRO agencies will, firstly, analyze your website to determine which calls to action are effective and which are not fulfilling their duty. Then, they will craft carefully-placed CTAs, often using eye-tracking information, where users are sure to see them.
Top CRO agencies can also test thee buttons -- particularly the compelling language inside -- to see which ones create the highest number of conversion, then implement them on the live site.
The Best Online Marketing Companies Focus On User Experience
Conversion rate optimization companies have a team of design experts on hand to ensure that a client’s website design isn’t just beautiful, but easy to use, too.
By investing in better UX design, businesses can create a streamlined customer journey that visitors will take throughout the site. This journey, of course, will lead them directly to converting actions that drive revenue, such as an e-commerce shopping cart and checkout page.
In fact, a report by UX Design shows that even small UX design adjustments can improve conversion rates by up to 75 percent!
Some of these improvements include better demographic targeting, mobile-friendly design, and removing a menu bar from checkout pages so users can’t get distracted while their in the middle of an action.
Top Digital Marketing Companies Provide Endless Business Growth Benefits
The biggest digital marketing agencies have a lot to offer your business. They are full of expert talent, actionable insights, and rewarding campaigns.
The best digital marketing companies in the world pride themselves on their extensive services and results-driven approach. They understand the importance of digital campaigns and marketing initiatives and how they promote business growth.
Your brand can benefit greatly from this list of digital marketing agencies — all of which have a proven track record of success.
Whether you’re trying to drive conversions, increase web traffic or retain more customers, these effective internet marketing agencies have the tools, resources, and ideas that will give your business the boost it needs to thrive.
To find the best marketing partner to help your brand grow, check out the comprehensive list of top digital marketing companies above.
