Digital Marketing Trends to Watch For in 2018

Digital Marketing Trends to Watch For in 2018

Digital Marketing Trends to Watch For in 2018

In 2017, we saw automation and mobile marketing take off at record levels. And while they will still be important for digital marketing in 2018, big data, influencer marketing, and customer-centric experiences will be more imperative than ever before. Here’s what you’ll need to watch for in 2018.

 

Personalized and Customer-Centric Experiences

Personalized content (also known as “smart content”) engages the right customer at the right time and is typically automated and triggered by specific behavior a user exhibits when they interact with your brand across mediums. In 2018, most brands will work toward designing the most personalized experiences possible, for every prospect and customer who comes in contact with their brands. If you’re on the fence about offering personalized and customer-centric experiences, consider these numbers:
  • According to BCG, brands that create personalized experiences are seeing revenue increases from 6-10%, two to three times faster than those that don’t.
  • Over 50%of consumers say they’re likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t make an effort to personalize communications specifically to them.
  • HubSpot recently conducted a study that concluded that call-to-actions directed toward specific users did 42% better than generic call-to-actions.

Many marketers will begin to execute personalized content via new and improved artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Such technology will be programmed or utilized by marketers to do things like automatically offer targeted ads based on a user’s behavior or suggest other marketing content based on voice searches in search engines, or what users click on in real time, as well as what videos a user watches, etc. 97% of business leaders feel the future of marketing will consist of clever human marketers working in collaboration with machine learning-based automation entities. Customer-centric marketers will also create content for micro-moment touchpoints with mobile technology in 2018. According to Google, 96% of users reach for their smartphones to get the information they require at the same instance they’re curious about something. This offers a mobile micro-moment opportunity for marketers. Competitive and successful brands will be able to anticipate and address the exact micro-moment needs of their users by quickly providing the right information to them at the right time.

 

Advanced Influencer Marketing

In 2018, digital marketers will strive to hold the reigns for influencer marketing as much as possible by petitioning and benefiting from important and well-known influencers. With social media, customer review platforms, email, and other technology, it’s easier than ever before for a positive review to spread like wildfire. And having a celebrity, or a well-respected individual within your industry, endorse your products or services makes influencer marketing even more valuable for your business. Just think of the impact an endorsement from Bill Gates would have for a new software development company. Influencer marketing is typically tied to social media outlets, since that’s where influencers will typically discuss what they think about a product or service… Or is it? Don’t forget that users and influencers are still sharing content with others across mediums that aren’t typically monitored (e.g., messaging apps, personal email accounts, native mobile apps, secure browser windows). Marketers are beginning to dub this type of content sharing as “dark social.” Reports determined that dark social is responsible for 84% of outbound sharing, which indicates this is not an area to ignore in 2018. Businesses shouldn’t only strive to gain influencers and track influencer social media engagement and web analytics, or they may dramatically underreport the value of their influencer marketing efforts. To find what works best for your business, consult with digital marketing companies in NYC or wherever you see fit.

 

Use of Big Data

According to research conducted by Smart Insights, Big Data is the second most important thing marketers are concerned with for their 2018 goals and objectives—second only to content marketing. Now, marketers expect to build marketing plans using customer data for “actionable insight.” They will collect user data from all mediums (e.g. websites, email campaigns, social media, and others) to determine what technologies, content, and techniques they should use when personalizing their customers’ and prospects’ experiences. They will strive to eliminate as much guess work as possible when tailoring content for their customers and prospects. With big data, marketers will have a much clearer idea of what content is being engaged with the most, in addition to where and when and by whom. This will allow marketers to design better customer channels and funnels, tailored to exactly what they want and when they want it. According to IDC, the big data industry will be worth around $102 billion by 2019, which means most businesses will be using it over the course of the next couple years to do things like enhance their marketing efforts. In 2018, you’ll need to utilize big data and technologies that allow you to personalize your content in real time, as well as build an army of influencers across all channels (even if they’re “dark”), if you want to have high returns on your digital marketing efforts. We also recommend finding outside help. BlueSwitch is one of the top digital marketing companies in NYC that can help your company!