With the unfolding of modern technologies, businesses whether small or large scale, are doing everything in their power to match up, be it bringing their brick and mortar businesses to an online platform or escalating the current marketing strategies with the help of digital marketing techniques. But whatever the effort, the central idea behind every marketing technique will always be the same, to capture the attention of as many viewers as possible.
For it is this process of attracting audiences (whether online or offline) that will differentiate a successfully thriving business from a failed one. And I am not talking about receiving tons of daily traffic as it will be equally useless if you are unaware of the art of converting leads into sales. What I am talking is identifying and keeping up with the current trends in digital marketing that will hold sway in 2018 to unleash its full potential. But what are these trends we should keep up to? Let’s find out –
Video Marketing
I understand video marketing is nothing new, but it is certainly proving itself to be one of the most powerful tools of digital marketing now more than ever. And it seems convenient as well, I mean why spend 15 mins reading an article when you can watch its video in 2 mins. But that’s not all,
- Videos attract viewers like magnets and that’s why search engines love videos.
- Using a video to promote your brand will triple your chances with conversions.
- Implementing video strategy into your email marketing campaigns will dramatically increase open rates along with decreasing unsubscribe rates.
- Eye-catching videos bore much higher chance of getting shared by consumers.
Chatbots
Brands have relied on semi-intelligent chatbots for user engagement for a long time now, but chats, with the help of Artificial Intelligence, are about to take digital marketing strategies to a whole new level this year. For e.g. we can expect chatbots to better understand users’ inquiries via Natural Language Processing Technology.
Also, chatbots are being upgraded to offer more human-like responses while interacting with customers. By offering a standardized customer service, interactive bot plays the key role when it comes to improving your site’s design and architecture for marketing purposes.
Social Media Advertising
2017 was the year you could have expected organic reach to provide steady traffic and customer engagement but those days are long gone since. Now, in order to gain any traction, you must advertise on social media. Unfortunately, it’s an expensive process. Though it doesn’t seem much expensive when you consider the Return on Investment which is roughly around 11 times more as compared to traditional digital marketing strategies. Nevertheless, this advertising cost is something you will have to bear if you wish to offer seamless UX to your visitors.
Voice Optimization
In 2017, you must have come across certain virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana etc. Well, this year there contribution to digital marketing is only going to get sky high with over 60 million people currently using these digital assistants in the US alone. Moreover, in coming years, websites optimized for text-based searches will give way to voice-based queries.
Personalised Marketing
As the year 2018 is progressing, so is the need to personalize the shopping experience of consumers. Automation has always been used as an effective marketing tool to help branch out people according to their behaviors, interests, and demography. Now, digital marketing is ready to take one step further by providing a personalized experience throughout the customer’s buying journey. Below are listed some such tips to help you with personalization,
- Using customized landing pages for different campaigns.
- Recommending products and services based on purchase history.
- Analysing visitor’s behavior and sending out lead nurturing emails accordingly.
- Offering customized games and other interactive features.
- Conduct personalized surveys and offer rewards for completing it.
Content Marketing
Content marketing will continue to gain even more importance this year and with it, the creation and distribution of content will also change radically. Some of these changes include laying more emphasis on remarketing technique to help with lead generation, creating more niche content that is extremely in-depth or creative, producing shorter and visually rich content to meet the ‘shorter than goldfish’ attention span of millennials, offering complete transparency with brand advertising and much more.
Conclusion
The time has come to shed old techniques and replace them with tools and strategies that will bring your business some jaw-dropping results. With the help of these above-mentioned trends, you will not only tell unique stories about your brand to your audiences but will also be able to provide astonishing experiences to your target customers. Though for this to happen, you too will have to keep a close eye on the latest features of the popular marketing platforms to create innovative campaigns for your audience.
Original Source: https://www.clapcreative.com/digital-marketing-trends-that-will-hold-sway-in-2018/
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