7 Outstanding Digital Marketing Trends That Work for Most Businesses
Digital marketing changes year after year in order to keep up with the innovations in the technological world. New technologies are constantly introduced and every business has to incorporate them in its digital marketing strategy if it wishes to stay relevant and competitive in the market. The right combination can aid businesses in giving their sales and growth a good and solid boost that can assist them in getting the edge they want over their rivals. But, this is only possible if they keep up with the latest digital marketing trends.
Just like every year, 2017 has also brought on some new digital marketing trends for all businesses, whether small, medium-sized or large, and the top 7 ones are highlighted below:
Trend 1: Artificial Intelligence
This is the year when artificial intelligence will have a drastic impact on digital marketing. For advanced electronic applications to website design to assessing data analytics for predicting consumer needs and behavior, artificial intelligence is expected to have numerous applications. While it is not going to replace humans altogether, it is going to serve as a major helping hand. The most logical and time consuming matters can be dealt with by AI and marketers will save valuable time that’s better spend elsewhere.
Trend 2: Influencer Marketing
Another effective way for creating and enhancing brand awareness is influencer marketing. The term influencer refers to a popular celebrity or public figure who promotes a brand, product or service and their fan base will be more open to trusting their endorsement as opposed to any email or marketing campaign from the brand itself. Even with a small marketing budget, this digital marketing strategy can be used effectively.
Trend 3: User Engagement
Developing valuable and engaging content has become more important than ever in order to gain the attention of users so they can approve your content and share it. A business has to have a comprehensive content marketing strategy in place this year and their focus should be on producing quality and engaging pieces that can be repurposed in the future. Slide shares, infographics and blog posts are spectacular ways of curating original content that can be broken down and reused in the future differently. When you curate content for your target audience based on customer-centricity, you can increase user engagement and get higher conversions.
Trend 4: Cross-Platform Marketing
These days, people are using more than one digital device. Almost everyone uses a smartphone and a laptop or tablet, which means you have to have a cross-channel digital marketing strategy in place. Hence, you have to have an online presence on every platform that’s frequented by your clientele. You need to coordinate your marketing efforts so they are synchronized across various devices with different screen sizes and resolutions. For instance, optimizing a desktop website for mobile is a major step in cross-platform marketing and is closely followed by email marketing for desktop and mobile devices alike.
Trend 5: Video Marketing
Sure, we have already heard that video is the next big thing, but this year it is expected to explode. Almost every social media platform that we use today has integrated video functionality in its settings and video viewership has increased massively. According to Facebook, 100 million hours of videos are watched on its platforms and that’s just one social network. Due to this widespread adoptive of video, small businesses need to use video marketing in their overall strategy as it has the potential of improving customer loyalty and audience engagement. The best part is that you don’t have to be tech savvy for mastering video production.
Trend 6: Mobile Optimization
It doesn’t come off as a surprise to know that mobile will continue to rule 2017. Everything, from your email campaigns to your website needs to be optimized for mobile as use of mobile devices as opposed to desktops and others has increased exponentially. DIY app maker platforms for small businesses have also gained popularity because they now need to have mobile apps for reaching out to the audience. Tools like App Maker can be used for making a custom mobile app for the business that can provide customers and prospects with valuable information about the business and its offerings and make it easily accessible.
Trend 7: Storytelling
Telling something in an interesting way is the most enduring principle of good writing. You should write content in a way that users can envision what you have written and visualize the idea you are trying to get through. Storytelling websites can prove to be immensely useful for attractive prospective clients and retaining loyal customers because they offer an interactive and unique experience, which is exactly what they desire. Doing everything the same way as others will not get you results. You have to be different and storytelling is one way to do that.
