Get the Low Down On This Year’s Digital Marketing Trends
Several new Digital Marketing trends are emerging this year and 2018 promises to bring about big changes in the digital space.
Get ahead of the rest with our top 8 Digital Marketing trend predictions for 2018 brought to you from our professional Digital Marketing Agency in Cork:
1) New Uses For Video
While 2017 saw a lot of advancement in video usage, 2018 sees new ways of video being maximised.
Think Instagram Stories and Facebook Live. These are both incredibly clever ways of live-streaming events or marketing your products.
Local companies are finding lots of innovative ways to use Live to showcase products and to take you on a user journey.
For example, influencers live stream events to make their followers feel they’re part of the experience, i.e. makeup masterclasses, fashion shows etc.
Apple TV is also becoming increasingly popular this year. West Elm-online furniture retailers are making great use of both Apple TV and YouTube for advertising, by coming up with creative and engaging video content ideas to both promote the product and woo the audience by using professional product videos.
2) New Art of Storytelling and Different Types of Content Marketing
It all started with Snapchat, and now platforms such as Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories are taking it upon themselves to reform the art of storytelling.
Behind-the-scenes content, filters, stickers, Bitmoji, Boomerang, video and text have all allowed people to create fun and engaging ways for people to become aware of who their brand is and what it is they represent.
People have become increasingly more interested in the lives of others and this new age of storytelling is connecting people on more than just a digital level.
3) A Mesh Between Digital and Offline Experience
The past year has seen offline experiences being enhanced by digital, and a seamless blur between these two platforms has been created.
The use of new technologies such as iBeacon among others, allows an experience like a gig, a game or a festival to become an even better experience by creating more scope for engagement by using geolocation technology to send discount coupons, information on bands/players, maps, itineraries and more.
4) Voice Marketing and Conversational User Interfaces
How many of you have had a chat with Alexa, Siri, Cortana or your smart fridge at this point? Conversational user interfaces are the next big thing and if you haven’t found yourself having a chat with your home’s in-house AI yet, you’ll probably find yourself doing so in the near future.
Google has confirmed that 20% of their mobile searches are currently voice searches, and marketers will have to prepare for the next stage in SEO by thinking through their voice content and by rethinking sponsored ad campaigns.
Pretty soon you could be sponsoring an ad to appear on a smart fridge! Voice marketing really is the next big thing!
5) Native Advertising and More Specifically Targeted Ads with Purpose
Brands are aware that people are hit with almost too many ads daily, hence the increased focus on native advertising and the heightened awareness of ad quality and relevance scoring.
Targeting is also set to change this year with brands targeting specific demographics who are searching for the product or service provided by the brand to increase conversion and goal conversion. There may also be a growth in Facebook and Instagram advertising due to increased mobile usage.
Combine these factors with the use of the correct language and cultural perspectives of the demographics that you are targeting your content at to make it more relatable.
6) More Consumer-Focused Marketing with Increased Privacy From GDPR
The consumer has become the central focus of advertising campaigns, and rightly so!
Thanks to Marketing 3.0, marketers want to take their consumers on an interactive user journey, where the aim is to understand the process behind the purchase, not just to push the product.
2018 will also see increased protection for consumers with GDPR.
Consumers should have the right to say if they want to be subjected to certain ad content or not, and GDPR will see the laws around data protection for EU citizens being increased, by allowing customers to opt-in or opt out of campaigns and to remove their data from certain databases if they want to.
7) Use of AR for Improved User Journey
Due to a marked improvement in technology and steady advancement in app development, there is plenty of scope for Augmented Reality to be integrated into marketing campaigns in the year ahead.
Augmented Reality allows for more immersive consumer interaction and could see brands using geolocation, video, animation and more as methods of targeting consumers with dynamic and engaging sponsored content.
AR apps-such as Pokemon Go, for instance, has already shown us some of the fun and interactive ways that AR can add colour to a brand and bring it to life. Snapchat has also helped to make AR part of our daily lives thanks to filters, bitmoji and dancing hot dogs!
8) Influencer Marketing
Love them or hate them, influencers are here to stay.
More and more brands are collaborating with influencers to increase both brand awareness and conversion this year.
In 2017, 84% of companies used influencer marketing for at least one campaign.
Big brands such as Amazon are also getting in on the act this year, having recently added a self-service tool for social media influencers. The Influencer Program is a place where influencers can build a page on Amazon with a dedicated vanity URL to show people the products that they recommend.
95% of marketers who currently use influencer marketing believe it’s an effective strategy, with subtle sponsored content that appears to be organic being extremely effective. We expect the number of people using influencer marketing to rise this year.
Now That You Know The Score, What Should You Do Next?
There are definitely a lot of changes on the cards for the year ahead. If you need help with your digital strategy, do get in touch with us here at EPresence Online Marketing and we’d be happy to help you with your Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategies this year!
