With the New Year comes change: digital marketing is no exception. As different technologies advance to target a wider audience and allow companies to appear more visible to customers, you’ll want to make sure you’re on board and up-to-date on the latest trends. You’ll also want to keep updating your strategy with quarterly reviews, throughout 2018, to monitor your progress.
So, what steps should you be taking? Here are a few areas you’ll want to highlight in your digital marketing strategy for 2018. Pay attention, or else, you might be left behind, giving your competitors the opportunity to swoop in. (And, if you’re curious, these were the predicted trends for 2017.)
Brands Will Take Advantage Of Social Media
As social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, are generating complex features that allow for greater engagement amongst brands and customers online, it provides more opportunity for targeted outreach through augmented reality. With greater use of mobile and other devices, emphasizing AR is easy, and super smart as a marketing tactic. Such include using videos, graphics, and other real-world sensory input.
For instance, companies can use a location feature on a platform to figure out where to place content to effectively gain the greatest interest and response. As social media continues to advance, only more doors will open for linking AR with such platforms. From there, you can also create more targeted ads that are generated with a specific purpose in mind. With these, you’ll want to highlight a specific term or conversation-starter to draw customers in and create engagement.
Tracking Customers & Getting Inside Their Heads
Figure out where your customers are going and follow them there. By using data, from Google Analytics and other tools, you can figure out what pages and terms they’re looking for, which types of products or services appeal to them, and how they go about making purchases. By doing so, you can get inside their heads and see which steps to take to compel them to visit your site, browse your products, and open up those wallets. Think about getting to know your customers’ journey—seeing what makes them tick.
Using Professional Live Video
You’ve probably been doing video for a while now—however, it’s time for professional live video to have its moment. Social media platforms, like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, are all about using live video now, where you’re sharing a current moment with your targeted audience to generate an effective response. By expressing yourself and keeping your customers up-to-date on your and your company’s happenings, you’re able to maintain a general sense of intrigue, where they’ll keep coming back for more.
What’s more, video is a great form of digital marketing, as it integrates content in a catchy, more visible way. People in general are very visual beings—video content will improve your SEO ranking and increase website traffic and conversion rates. Just make sure your video is fun, interesting, informative, and maybe a little silly, too. Go with whatever mood your audience is looking for.
And, to go a step further, using video to produce experiences through offline channels, such as during sporting games or at live concerts, can enhance the in-person, “live” experience amongst consumers. This will spark intrigue and make your products or services appear more desirable.
Voice Marketing
As a better way to use content marketing, integrating voice marketing in response to searches can be really helpful in increasing engagement. In fact, Google claims that 20% of its mobile inquires are voice searches.
For instance, think of Alexa and Siri—you’re engaging with another human to build some sort of connection. Brands can use voice to target customers on searches and compel them to buy certain products by coming from a place of familiarity and human instinct.
You can also use voice marketing for tutorials and other direct conversational aspects, over sticking with basic blog posts or listicle features. This adds an extra element to spark engagement and interaction amongst users.
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