To answer that question, we have to go back to the very definition of digital marketing. It’s the concept of delivering advertising through digital channels.
It may be your website, online ads, social media, apps, or email. It’s a very broad term that grasps the essence of a modern marketing campaign: reaching the online audience.
Without a strong online presence, the marketing campaign for a business is not complete. It’s not good enough.
So it’s clear: every business needs a digital marketing campaign. Moreover, every business and marketer has to follow the trends in digital marketing. Let’s focus on the aspect of trends, shall we?
The Digital Marketing Trends of 2017
To understand where we’re going, we have to know where we’re coming from. In short – what notable digital marketing trends made 2017 special?
Big data – online marketing campaigns were based on predictive analytics, coming from market and customer insights.
Internet of things – it’s a trend that just started, but it’s changing the way small businesses approach to content
Influencer outreach – we’ve seen almost every social media influencer promoting something.
Mobile advertising – it’s going stronger by the day.
Live videos – people mostly use them to share moments of their days, but marketing experts are slowly finding their ways to benefit from this trend.
Marketing automation – since businesses have to be present on several online channels at a time, they are automating parts of the marketing campaign.
We’ll just stop there. Some of these trends will be growing in 2018. We explore and expand them to a whole other level.
Now, let’s look forward. What digital marketing megatrends will make the upcoming year different than 2017? What should business owners and marketing experts focus on?
Virtual Reality Is Getting Bigger
VR is better with friends. That’s the motto of a new Facebook project, which is still in its beta version. It’s called Spaces, and it brings virtual reality to social media. With this feature, people will get to be themselves in a different kind of reality. They will use their Facebook photos to build the VR character.
How will brands translate this trend into their digital marketing strategies? We’re sure of one thing: the opportunities are endless. They can create their own VR characters and stories, and use them to build relationships with the target audience.
Big data was one of the most notable marketing trends of 2017. It continues to grow bigger! We’re seeing more people getting connected with more objects, using more services, and sharing more of their preferences.
We’re constantly getting an increased volume of data to work with, and that helps us elevate the effectiveness of our marketing strategies.
The forecast leaves us in awe: the revenue from big data and business analytics on a global level are expected to reach $168.7 billion in 2018.
What customer is tracking data sets will we see in the upcoming year? Digitally-mature brands will rely on customer journey data and customer experience mapping. With these techniques, they can understand the experience of their users and deliver a personalized service. A business that doesn’t rely on this trend risks wasting time and developing ineffective marketing campaigns.
It’s not something new, but it’s a trend that will definitely grow.
Conversational Marketing
All businesses are aiming towards the very responsive to messages badge on Facebook. When people see that badge on your profile, they are encouraged to drop you a message with their questions or comments.
If they want to get in touch with the customer support to solve any issues or get answers before buying the product, they expect quick answers. With this badge, you prove that your support system is impeccable.
Facebook’s Messenger allows businesses to interact with the audience at a fairly face pace. That’s part of the marketing process, too. It’s the type of conversational marketing that’s going to be huge in 2018.
Let’s say you’re trying to buy snow tires for your car, and you found few local businesses on Facebook. They all sell different kinds of tires with different prices. You may write on their profiles, but maybe you don’t want all your Facebook friends to know what you’re looking for.
You’re just interested in the offer and the price, so you want to directly contact the support. If you do that via Facebook Messenger, you’ll most likely choose the business that does conversational marketing well.
Generation Z Is Now in the Focus
Move over Millennials; Gen Xers are about to take the spotlight. In 2018, the older representatives of the Generation Z (also known as Post-Millennials, Homeland Generation, or iGeneration) will be hitting the workforce.
They will have their own money to buy our products and services. Thus, marketing experts will have to include the needs of this generation in their promotional processes.
What makes this generation different than the Millennials? For starters, they prefer Instagram and Snapchat over Facebook. They are younger and more vibrant. They have more free time on their hands.
They use more devices in a day, and they are experimenting with every platform you throw at them. They would rather type a message than have an actual conversation.
Most of all, Gen Xers are Internet experts. Thus, your digital marketing campaign will have to live up to their standards.
Social Media for the Entire Organization
Digital marketing will no longer be limited to the marketing department of a company. We’ve seen this in action: employees promoting the company in its best light. MAC Cosmetics involved its employees in a social media campaign back in 2012. That gave a more “human” touch to the entire marketing process.
The online audience does not particularly trust corporate marketing. They want a subtler approach. When a company involves its employees in the process, they deliver what the audience expects: direct contact with the brand. Plus, they get to promote products and services along the way.
Chatbots are everywhere, yes?
Chatbots
What does a chatbot have to do with marketing? Isn’t it mostly for customer support? It is. However, the customer support process is part of a good digital marketing strategy.
If you have an impeccable customer service department, it will promote your business in a good way.
Chatbots saw a quick rise in 2017. We still haven’t seen the TacoBot, but we expect it to revolutionize the concept of the chatbot. We have to admit one thing: the marketing campaign developed around this tool is pretty great.
The chatbot itself is smart, effective, and it has a sense of humor. It gives us a hint into a very special trend: chatbots are the future of customer service!
Personalized Content Marketing
Internet users are demanding personalization. They want it in the customer support processes. They want it in the service delivery. However, they also demand personalization in your content marketing campaign.
According to Monetate, “94% of in-house marketers believe that a personalized website experience is “critical to current and future success.”
Personalized web experience – that’s where content marketing gets merged with the process of personalization. Most visitors share names and emails to get valuable content, such as eBook or long-form articles. We can use that basic data to provide a more personalized content marketing campaign via email, as well as on the site.
Video Marketing
According to Forrester research, a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. Whoa, that’s a bold statement, isn’t it? But, it’s true. A video is much more effective than written content. Content is in the essence of video marketing, so we’ll still need writing services like Essay Geeks in 2018. However, chances are we’ll be needing more video scripts.
If you check your Facebook or Instagram feed, you’ll notice that videos are dominating the platforms. As you scroll down, a video will catch your attention, and you’ll stop for a moment thinking “let’s see what this is!” That’s exactly how most social media users react to videos, and it’s exactly why digital marketers will focus on this element of their campaigns.
Infusing Marketing into the Customer Journey Mapping Process
The customer’s lifecycle tells us a lot about the way the user approaches our products or services. The process of customer journey mapping is quite complex. It goes through three important stages:
Outlining the buyer persona
Defining all stages in a customer’s journey
Designing a customer journey map
Through this map, the business understands how their ideal customers behave. Why is this important for the marketing campaign? The data you get helps you design a truly effective marketing campaign. You understand how your target user considers, buys, uses and maintains your product or service.
In 2018, we expect to see an evolution in the way marketing strategies are designed around a customer’s journey. It’s easy for us to start thinking from a user’s point of view and trigger the action we want them to take.
As highlighted in Econsultancy’s Content Strategy Best Practice Guide from July 2017, “solid understanding of the customer journey through customer journey mapping can establish a firm foundation for success.” In 2018, digital marketing strategies will be moving in that direction.
More Influencer Marketing
When you think of influencer marketing, you think of Instagram. It’s the center of this trend. We’re seeing people with millions of followers promoting all kinds of brands, products, and services through the platform.
But that’s not where it stops. Influencer marketing is present on all other social media channels, too. It involves bloggers, who influence to convince people to try anything they recommend.
This is a prominent current trend. With the rise of Instagram stories, it’s taking a different dimension. We expect influencer marketing to grow in that direction throughout 2018.
Through their stories, our favorite Instagrammers are not only sharing moments of their days. They also make recommendations that we trust, and they don’t seem intrusive by doing that.
Since the platform doesn’t serve this content in your feed, you see only the stories you want to see. That’s why you trust them more. That’s why brands can benefit from this marketing method.
Digital Marketing Growth Is on Its Way
With the ten upcoming trends we described above, we tried to predict how businesses will approach digital marketing in 2018. That brings us to the final and most important trend: digital marketing growth. It’s a never-ending process that doesn’t allow us to remain in any comfort zone.
Many of the old trends are still persistent, but we keep adding new ones in our practices. Digital marketing transforms the way businesses operate. In a good way. Does your business have a specific digital marketing growth program in place? It should have. Consider the above-listed trends and make sure to include them in your strategy.
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Chris Richardson is a journalist, editor, and a blogger. He loves to write, learn new things, and meet new outgoing people. Chris is also fond of traveling, sports, and playing the guitar. Follow him on Facebook and Google+.
