So what’s new in the digital marketing world? Well, in this ever-changing industry it is expected that new trends emerge regularly. Change is expected really, I mean we are dealing with humans so behaviours, views, and moods which are never static. Here are 5 digital marketing trends that show no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Social listening
Launching a well planned digital marketing strategy is always a great feeling, however monitoring its success is pivotal. This can be done by regularly checking metrics such as impressions, comments and link clicks.
Whereas social listening is concerned with tracking how people feel about your brand. If you’re able to keep up with your audiences daily conversations, then you can uncover opportunities to engage with them! Listening to what your audience is saying will help you figure out which type of content is performing well. 48% of brand actions that prompt customers to purchase, are down to brands responsiveness.
Don’t hesitate to start a conversation, whether that be you running a poll on Twitter or Instagram, or whether you are answering audience members queries. You’d be surprised by how many people actually tell you what they really think on social media!
New technologies
Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) have been circulating the internet for a couple of years now, it seems as though they are getting harder to ignore. Businesses will begin to incorporate them into their marketing strategies in hopes of enhancing perhaps their customer services. An example of this is Facebook chatbots that appear when you first enter a Facebook businesses profile. In fact, it has been forecasted that by 2020, 85% of all customer interactions will be handled by
Additionally, AI is able to analyse consumer behaviour and search patterns by using information collected on social media platforms, which in return helps businesses find out how their customers are finding their products and/or services.
Staying on top of emerging technologies is something you may want to consider dedicating time to. Make it easier for yourself and set up RSS feeds, it is one way of acquiring new information and staying in ‘the loop’ so to speak.
Personalisation
I was recently in an Uber, and when I had reached my destination I heard a voice say “Simon, you have arrived at your destination” (or something similar to that). I thought that this new update was a nice touch.
Consumers love personalisation! Whether its personalised emails, content or products, see where you could integrate it within your strategy. So many business do this now, take a look at Netflix, as soon as you log in it tells you what you may like. In this case, the inconvenience of having to search for something to watch can be eliminated.
Video marketing
Video marketing has been on the rise for a while now, yet so many businesses have not integrated it into their overall digital marketing strategy.
Why video you might be asking? Over 70% of people say that brands videos persuaded them to buy a product! People like to watch short and entertaining video content on their morning commutes, a video may help your audience understand what it is that your product does, perhaps more so than written copy would.
With there being so many social media platforms that have video capabilities now, it’s almost impossible to avoid using them. Facebook and Instagram stories are being used by just about everyone. Businesses are able to get up close and personal with their audience like never before, a brand could simply
Influencer Marketing
You can’t beat a good old recommendation from a friend can you? You’re more likely to listen to somebody that you like and get on with right? This idea has been taken offline, and been adapted to the online universe; one form in which this has taken place in through influencer marketing.
An Influencer is someone who has a large and loyal fan base. Influencer marketing is when collaborations occur between influencers and brands whereby there is an agreement for the influencer, to promote that brands product to their large and loyal fan base.
This is a highly effective strategy to implement into your overall digital marketing strategy because it humanises the process. Influencers can range from being bloggers, YouTubers, to Instagrammers. However, 93% of influencer campaigns use Instagram as their preferred platform. If you are on a tight marketing budget that won’t allow you to collaborate with an influencer who has 50k + followers, then you can always opt for the micro-influencer route. Micro-influencers are individuals who may have around 10k followers or less on their social channels. However, what they do have is a loyal fan base, this can have an equally positive ‘word of mouth’ effect.
Now you don’t have to implement all of these emerging trends at once, however introducing them to your strategy one by one will benefit your business. Knowing where in your strategy to integrate these trends, is something you can learn how to do using the second edition of my digital marketing strategy book.