Get your marketing ready for 2019 with these trends

Get your marketing ready for 2019 with these trends Marketing has existed in one form or another since the dawn of capitalism itself. And it’ll exist as long as there are products and services for sale. That said, it does evolve and adapt to the world around it. Billboards and signage were followed by radio ads, which led to television spots, and finally, to the digital marketing we see today. The ad men of the 50s and 60s might not recognize the form, but the goal remains the same: right product, right person, right time. Marketing is nothing if not able to go with the flow. So what’s next for it as we enter 2019? Here are three trends to keep an eye on in the coming year. 2019 Templates to get Organized Before we dig into trends, download these 2019 tools to get organized in the new year. Youll get: Marketing Plan Outline Template (Word): Document your entire 2019 marketing plan. Marketing Strategy Template (Excel): Plan every part of your strategy. Content Marketing Strategy Template (PowerPoint): Plan  tactics  and  channels  to complement your strategy. Email Marketing Strategy Template (PowerPoint): Email is a big part of marketing in 2019; use this template to get it right. Social Media Strategy Template (PowerPoint): Start the year off right with a clear social media roadmap. Audience Persona Template (Word): Finally get all your user personas on track for the year. Marketing Budget Template (Excel):   New year, new budget! The Arrival of Voice Search Voice search is taking over in a big, big way, and there’s no reason to believe it’ll slow down anytime soon. Popular digital assistants like Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant have fundamentally changed the way we interact with our mobile devices, to say nothing of how we search and consume information. Then, of course, we also have the prevalence of smart speaker systems like Amazon’s Echo, Google’s Home, and Apple’s Homepod. It’s no stretch to think that we may say ‘goodbye’ to manual data entry entirely in the not-too-distant future. Consider: Half of all online searches will be conducted via voice by 2020 Gartner predicts that nearly one-third of searches will be conducted without a screen  by the same year Nearly 40% of adults use voice search  at least once each day Voice shopping accounted for roughly $1.8 billion in 2017, but will reach $40+ billion by 2022 U.S. voice-enabled digital assistant users are growing by leaps and bounds, and are expected to top 39 million millennials, 17 million Gen Xers, and 10 million baby boomers  by 2019 Image Source The writing is on the wall, or more accurately, being spoken aloud: voice search is here to stay. What does that mean for you and your marketing? Plenty. Kenneth Burke, Marketing Director at Text Request, says that â€Å"Google and other search engines have already been tailoring search results to match speech, meaning conversational writing and SEO is increasingly more effective than keyword-targeted writing.† Consider your own interaction with Google or Siri for a moment. We don’t ask for information the same way we would type it, opting to say ‘Hey Siri, where’s the nearest coffee shop?’ whereas we might have typed ‘coffee shops Seattle’. That switch in tone and structure needs to be reflected in your marketing copy. It’ll need to be written conversationally so the voice-enabled assistants can read it aloud and present results the way people talk. Furthermore, Burke believes there will be â€Å"a continual focus on search intent  rather than word choice, and my bet is this will play an even more significant role in 2019.† What do people want, and how do they ask for it?

How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others How much of your day do you spend obsessively comparing yourself to your friends or colleagues? Your best friend from college makes more money than you do, even though she’s been at her job for less time. Your cubicle mate always gets complimented by your boss, even though you know she spends half her workday on Facebook. If you’re a frequent player of the comparison game, you know it always leads to you  feeling terrible about yourself. Yes, everyone on LinkedIn is doing better on the ladder than you are. And yes, everyone on Instagram is living their best life. But did you know that without the whole story, you really have no basis for comparison? Here’s how you can make sure to not fall into the trap of needless comparison. The next time you play the â€Å"here’s why he’s better† game, simply remember these tips, take a deep breath, and work on improving yourself rather than holding yourself against impossible standards.1. Realize that c omparisons don’t tell the whole story.Are you comparing what you know to be your worst against what you judge to be someone else’s best? Are you comparing your beginning to someone else’s middle? Your early career to their glory days? Your entry-level salary to their 40-year career? Remember that comparisons require metrics, which are hard to come by even when you aren’t trying to compare apples to oranges or seeds to trees.2. Understand that you’re wasting precious time.Every hour you spend comparing yourself to someone else is an hour you’re not spending doing better, learning more, acquiring new skills, and moving forward. Comparing yourself to someone else shifts your mindset away from where it needs to be- on you- by putting it somewhere else much less productive. Focus on yourself and what you must do to be where you need to be, and cut out the rest of the noise.3. Know that social media is not your friend.The next time you fall down a n Insta-hole of perfectly posed pictures, turn off your device (or at least shut down your app) and force yourself to spend at least one hour without logging back on. If you spend that hour working on a self-improvement project, that’s all the better. Work on building the kind of life you can be proud of. Focus on the present, not on how many â€Å"likes† you got on your last post. Do something for yourself or someone else that will actually matter.4. Turn that frown upside down.Address whatever negative feelings are lurking in the back of your brain and try to turn them into positives. Use your jealousy and insecurity to spur you to grow faster and more. In fact, instead of viewing the person who’s making you feel less-than as competition, you can think of him or her as a muse or an inspiration to do better. You might even reach out to that person in a mentorship or brain-picking capacity!5. Keep your dignity.You have nothing to gain in comparison situations, b ut everything to lose- not just your time and energy, but your drive, your passion, your pride, and your dignity. You’re only in control of one life- your own. Do what you can to make it the best it can be, and don’t become bitter and jealous while forgetting to make something of yourself in the meantime.