As 2017 enters its final phase, it's the perfect time to look ahead and predict the Digital Marketing trends of 2018. There are a clear number of industry trends that have exploded onto the scene this year - trends that are bound to flourish further into 2018.
These Digital Marketing trends of 2018 could be divided into three key prediction categories: Social Media, Sales and SEO. Let looks at what's in store...
Video Marketing
Video really is the future of content marketing and it's a format that's gained serious momentum in the last 12 months. It shows no signs of slowing down as we move into 2018 and with social media giants like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter investing more energy and money into improving their video capabilities, it's time to ask, why is this? Here's why video is set to be one of the biggest Digital Marketing trends of 2018.
According to industry experts, "adding a video to your website can increase the chance of a front-page Google result by 53 times". This is definitely something to think about.
It’s clear that video has become a major player when it comes to driving engagement. According to the Content Marketing Institute, audiences are around "10 times more likely to engage, embed, share, and comment on video content than blogs or related social posts". This is because video speaks one universal language, meaning you're able to connect with many audiences right across the globe.
According to Brainshark, 65% of viewers watch more than ¾ of a video, which is more than we can say about text-based content. Want to get an important message across or convey brand image, then choose video.
Micro-Moments
Another trend being carried over to 2018 is that of micro-moments. These occur when people turn to their devices (increasingly a smartphone) to act on a need to learn something, do something, discover something, watch something, or buy something. They're intent-rich moments. "If 69% of online customers agree that the quality, timing, or relevance of a company's message influences their perception of a brand" (Think With Google) it's worth knowing about micro-moments.
The brands that do the best job of addressing our needs in each moment will win. Here's how you can create the best micro-moments:
Geo-Targeting
Sounds fancy right? It's actually just tailored location-based marketing and below are some ways you can use geo-tagging in your digital marketing efforts:
Local search ads display only to users in the relevant geographic area. A user inputs a search term with a specific location, such as “cafes in London” and a list of businesses in that vicinity will show up.
You can tailor messages to locals searching for your product or service and increase your visibility and help potential customers find you more easily by setting up a search ad on Google (as well as on other major search engines).
On Facebook, unlike most other social networks, you're much more in control of geo-tagging. To 'check in' all you need to do is enable location setting and then add a location to your status. This capability also allows other users to see how many people have checked into a certain place, as well as status updates from other visitors.
Geolocation marketing lets brands target mobile device users. With geolocation marketing, businesses can reach consumers as soon as their phone’s GPS is nearby. For example, a coffee shop offers “Mobile Order and Pay” which allows customers to purchase items and pick them up at their nearest store.
A great example of this was the phenomenon that was Pokemon Go. As an augmented reality app, it used location data to guide users and provide branded entertainment. Remember those people running all over the place trying to catch Pokemon? We do, it was a big hit!
Influencers
If 2017 was the year of micro-influencers (influencers in a niche field), then 2018 is set to be a year of integration influencing. There will be a growing demand to formulate integrated influencer marketing strategies which will weave together mega-influencers, macro-influencers and micro-influencers as well as merge other well-established word-of-mouth strategies such as loyalty, advocacy and referral programmes.
Chatbots
The chatbot which functions solely with an artificial brain (AKA artificial intelligence)is proving to have an increasingly larger role when it comes to dealing with customers via chat interfaces. They're really set to be one of the biggest Digital Marketing trends of 2018, so watch out, because they're popping up everywhere.
Clothing brands like H&M and makeup retailer Sephora have both used chatbot technology to their benefit. Sephora has used it to offer their customers bespoke and tailored customer interaction, tips, treatment and advice, whereas H&M have offered their users a personal stylist Chatbot. It's clear that Chatbots are creating new and dynamic ways in which brands provide customer service.
Social Proofing
It's easy to see why 'social proofing' is set to be one of the biggest Digital Marketing trends of 2018. Really, it's just a fancy way of describing the sense of collectively affirmed assurance that shoppers feel when they read about positive online experiences in reviews, through testimonials or via social shares.
As a concept, social proofing can really make customers feel much more comfortable about buying from an eCommerce store.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is fast growing and indications already suggest that it's going to be one of the big Digital Marketing trends of 2018. Several Apps are already using augmented reality including Pokemon Go and Specsavers.
As a concept, it's set to improve the way businesses and customers communicate with one another, as well as how we engage in marketing. It allows for the creation of a three-dimensional thinking, where users not only see ads ahead of them but also around them.
The latest retailer to launch an AR App has been IKEA. Having experimented with augmented reality as early as 2012, flat-pack furniture giants, IKEA, have come back with a brand new AR App called IKEA Place, which used the Apple ARKit framework.
Voice Search and Digital Assistants
New voice-enabled devices such as the Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant have been a breakout hit with consumers in 2017 and trending products on Amazon. It's clearly set to grow and expand even more to become one of the biggest Digital Marketing trends of 2018.
Whether we like it or not, voice search affects SEO and incorporating voice command into our websites as well as increasing the amount of quality, conversational style content are imperatives. But what optimisation strategies can we use?
Long Tail Keywords
While it’s unlikely that one word, short tail keywords will ever vanish entirely, but they don’t exactly fit in with the natural, conversational tone used in voice searches. The truth is, we don’t want to feel like we’re talking to machines anymore. We need to focus more attention than ever on personalised, long tail keywords.
Informal Content
If you're writing content in a natural, conversational tone — you’ll be speaking the consumer's language, the language they use in voice search. Since Google doesn’t penalise for voice search, the websites that are seen to adapting to the voice search world are the ones incorporating (voice) search strategies for typers and talkers, alike.
Schema Markup
One of the latest evolutions in SEO, is a new form of optimisation, a semantic vocabulary code used on websites is here to help return more detailed, informative results for users.
For example, if someone searches for a music venue or concert tickets, by applying Schema to the SERP, (Search Engine Results Page) you can instruct the results to show a list of upcoming dates beneath the original search. This helps to promote your own business but also giving the searcher extra, additional information, without having to ask for it.
Personalised UX
"56% are more likely to return to a site that recommends products, using simple customer data such as account details, shopping history and my potential shopping needs".
Personalised Products and Product Recommendations
Really, this is just a better version of upselling. Automatic, built-in product recommendations help generate personalised suggestions for customers based on past purchasing behaviour and present browsing behaviour, combined. This is simple but effective personalisation at its finest.
Personalised emails
There's so much to be said for personalised emails hitting the right note with customers. All you really have to do to hit is to include simple email features like: 1) customer name greetings, 2) content segmentation and 3) personalised email subject lines.
Retargeting
Did you know that “97% of people who visit an online store for the first time leave without buying anything"? With these stats, it's no wonder that retargeting is a trending marketing topic right now and set to be one of the big Digital Marketing trends of 2018. At the core, it serves advertisements to people that have already engaged with your business, in an attempt to draw them back to your eCommerce store to buy.
Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is HTML content on your website, forms, landing pages, or emails that changes based on the viewer. As people match the criteria you set for your dynamic content (like an industry, job title, or even a score or grade), a variation of content will display that’s relevant to that viewer.
For example, a national retailer could have their “locations” page only provide the three closest stores to a viewer’s location. A B2B firm, on the other hand, could use dynamic content on their case studies page to highlight the most relevant content based on each viewer’s industry.
Featured Snippets & Quick Answers
Rich snippets or featured snippets really are a hugely popular emerging trend, firmly set to be one of the biggest Digital Marketing trends of 2018! In short, a featured snippet is a summary or an answer to a user query or question that is entered into a search engine. This answer is displayed at the top of Google search results. This result is found because it has been extracted from good on-page content that best responds to the search engine query.
Keywords
Use a keyword research tool to find a niche or less popular keywords that are ideal for your site. The Moz Keyword Explorer tool is very handy.
Strategic Content
When it comes to creating your content it’s important to always keep in mind the featured snippet – but equally, ensure your content isn’t repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural – that’s keywords stuffing and Google doesn’t like it.
Consider the viewpoint, tone and approach of the user and produce content that would appeal to you as much as a user.
Tip: A good rule of thumb is to pick a keyword, then write copy adding the keywords in at the end.
QA Formatting
It’s worth devoting a complete landing page to a single question, as well as attempting to incorporate actual FAQ’s or even ”FAQ-style” content onto your pages. With the growing rise of voice search, people are no longer searching for isolated keywords, but in complete sentences.
Slice It Up
Make it easier for Google by slicing up your copy with subheadings, listings and tables. These content strategies form part of a basic understanding of on-page optimisation techniques that are crucial in today’s world.
From an analysis made by STAT, where they analysed one million high-CPC queries for its latest study, "they discovered that 70% of the featured snippets didn’t come from the very first organic result".
Visual Search
Though the tech isn’t new, it’s finding new life in eCommerce websites and mobile apps. Visual search works by comparing the pixels in imagery to identify and return results that are similar. So, instead of typing in a keyword such as ‘black mini dress’ - which will return thousands of general results – users can upload an image to help narrow it down to something much more specific.
Visual search offers an advantage over keyword-matched search. This is because search results are only as good as the searcher’s ability to describe an item.
Final Thoughts...
This is a round-up of some of the items and products that specialists believe are going to feature as the prominent Digital Marketing trends of 2018. So assess what works for your business and your customers - and get planning!
Source
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