In 2017, we saw a number of trends influencing digital marketing schemes and possibly they all were successful.
That way where brands using podcast and Instagram for advertising, 2018 will be interesting to see!!!
Well, of course, there are trends predicted to be followed this year also; have a look at them.
1) Indigenous Content
Social media or personal blog; if you want to see people checking your content and spending hours in analyzing the aspects of your curation; create such blogs or social media accounts.
For a long time, social media channels have been a subject of distribution i.e. marketers generating contents for getting back traffic from these sources.
But, things may be going to change this year and these social media platforms would work as a hub of personal contents.
Now, what is personalized content?
So, in the personalized content, you have to keep telling your own thoughts and observations and that should be different for diverse social media platforms.
Got it. No?
Don’t spin or spam.
Be away from such malpractices of content writing. Your native storytelling will always keep your content as a “King”.
2) Lousy Websites not welcomed
Well, the theory may look old, but it would again be worthy in 2018.
Yes, I am saying to explore the search engine and find out what kinds of relevant algorithms are available for your website.
Avail the kind of website demanded by your users and that should be smooth, user-friendly and seamless.
Mobile responsiveness will again be a key in 2018. Keep your website ultimately engaging on smartphone and such devices.
Whatever is your budget, if your site doesn’t stand on the basic standards of responsiveness and security, hire an expert for recuperating the bugs.
3) Considering Search Engine Upgradation
Before you make any move on the search engine for your website’s concern, explore and analyze.
We all know Google keep shifting the algorithms of its search engine every year and not only Google, other search engines also follow the same step for producing better results.
There are many factors that influence the ranking of your website on the search engine. One of them is obviously parameters of algorithms, but mobile responsiveness also plays a pivotal role.
Search engine confirms whether your website is properly accessible through all devices or not.
If not that could be a bad news for you.
4) Keeping Your Audience Engaged
You may have loads of users or clients, but, if you left the interaction with them, then that might sue your business agendas.
Make sure you are always in touch with your customers. Send them messages about your new products, offers and changes in the marketing policy, if made.
It will ensure them about your market activeness and maintain the faith in you.
5) Millennials & Gen Z Together
Well, brands have been exercising behind reaching the Millennials till now, but the time has arrived where Gen Z customers are also in consideration.
Undoubtedly in 2018, enticing Millennials is vital. But, brands are also shifting their attention in embracing people who were born in 80’s and 90’s and trying to decode Gen Z segment.
Kids born in the late 90’s and 20’s or Millennial starting to become adults and making buying decisions, brands try to understand how to pitch them.
- Here are some quick stats that show why Gen Z people would be valuable in 2018-
- The Gen Z population across the world is expected to reach 2.56 billion by 2020.
- 85% Gen Z people use social media platform for finding the new products.
- 32% of Gen Z people spend at least an hour of video content online every day.
- Approximately half of those in Gen Z category will spend 10 hours a day on the internet.
Brands are already into service of Gen Z needs, whether they know them or not. For example, 63% Gen Z consider seeing real people in adverts in place of celebrities. That resembles the emerging trend of influencer marketing.
And just in case you’re still not convinced of the impact a younger demographic can have, take a look at this example.
If you still unconvinced that a younger demographic can make, see the example-
“Benelab, a search engine for generating donations was found by Jack Kim, a Seattle teenager. When he established “no adults” rule, Kim started recruiting classmates to be part of his “nonprofit venture with a startup vibe” group. He is in high school right now, but his goals are to take to the sky.”
6) Sales Funnel Optimization
For a moment imagine, you weren’t a marketer. You are just a consumer who doesn’t know about social media ads or Facebook remarketing.
If you are browsing Facebook or Instagram, how would you consider the purchase of products promoted by such social media platform, even you are unaware of the purchasing terms and conditions.
Possibly not very likely.
Here’s an imaginary instance of what the common procedure looks like. Let’s imagine you are a brand that sells dresses and costumes. Depending on where the probable buyer is in the purchasing procedure, you need to approach them diversely.
Top of the funnel: Jane is an artist and she needs different costumes at one time for the performance purpose. But, not getting desired costumes.
Your marketing message: At this stage, you have to educate Jane on how and where you find your dresses. You’re not in the mode of selling anything, just giving information with the help of a video or blog.
Mid-funnel: John has been a bartender and keeps getting his apparel stained. So he’s profoundly looking for things like “how to cut stains perfectly from the dress.” He’s searching for a solution to his issue.
Your marketing message– Since John knows that what the possible reasons for staining are, as such your job is to show him products that really remove such hard or regular stains. A blog with examples or downloadable guide will help him to get the right cleaning product.
Bottom of the funnel– Mary is a teenager and loves shopping. She loves to have latest dresses in the cupboard. She’s profoundly searching for a solution.
Your marketing message: This is the time when you need to talk directly about your product and guide people to reach your product page in spite of educating them.
Most of the people engaged in social media are more at the top of the funnel, but marketers advert to them considering them at the bottom.
With the enhanced interest in content marketing, crusaders understand that the top of funnel people is imperative.
And now they are beginning to serve their content and marketing messages to those users when running FB adverts and generating other contents.
The best way to proceed for the top of the funnel is to attract the customers rather than directly asking them.
For instance, Crazy Egg’s blog has quality content that drives the consumers with complete information. Their CTA works perfectly in order to drive the customer towards the product.
7) Customer’s Eyes for Transparency
A few years ago, transparency was a “cool” thing for brands and merchandiser. It was necessarily needed while collaborating with other brands.
Comparing today’s business policies, transparency has become less an option. But, if you aren’t honest with your policies, there might be your business gets exposed.
So, try to maintain the transparency factor, a key for a long-lasting business relationship.
Additionally, 70% assume that social media has compelled brands to become transparent.
If you are keen to keep the transparency of your business at the highest, no channel would be better than social media platforms.
8) Live Videos are always valuable
Live video has always generated reliability and that a remarkable trend in 2017 and definitely will be the same in 2018.
Marketers are advised to pay attention to Facebook and Insta live video frequency. A survey reveals that Facebook invested more than $50 million to get content makers and media companies to make videos for Facebook Live.
While so many content creators and brands getting hassles in finding more engagements as Facebook algorithm changes as such live video is a perfect option.
Apart from Facebook Live, Instagram Live, there are many recommendable options YouTube, Periscope and latest apps for such activities.
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