Travelling back in time could be fun, especially if you are doing so to trace the evolution of digital marketing over the years. In 1989, we saw the advent of the World Wide Web and in 1998 Google was born, ushering digital marketing into its golden years. The year 2000 was marked by developments in AdWords, and in 2003, there were massive changes in the online current with content targeting services. In 2004, SEO was beginning to be a bit of a buzzword and everyone was suddenly talking a lot about a thing called Facebook. Well, the rest is history!
Since then Google got smarter, SEO grew up, digital PR became extremely powerful, social media saw a burgeoning growth, and most importantly content became the king. However, today, the digital marketing arena that we know of is a different thing all together. It is a world ruled by princesses like Siri and Alexa.
So, What’s going to happen in 2018? Which digital trends will shake things up big time? Keen to know? We already found that out for you!
Micro-moments marketing will become indispensable: –
In fact, it already is and will continue to be so. The powerful gadgets in our pockets have transformed the way in which we interact with the internet. Those predictable daily online sessions have been replaced by fragmented interactions that happen instantly, thus giving rise to micro-moments. To a digital marketer, these I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-be, I-want-to-do, I-want-to-buy moments are beyond precious. These are the ‘intent-rich’ moments where decisions are made, perceptions are formed and preferences are shaped.
When the need strikes, 96 percent of the consumers use their smartphones to do an instant search. For a brand to come out on the winning side of the digital tug-of-war for customer attention, it has to know exactly how to encash these micro-moments, and market the right content to the right audience at the right time. This kind of marketing aims to level the base for trust, loyalty and lasting consumer-brand relationships. Micro-moment marketing will continue to gain momentum in the future.
Video marketing will continue to gain importance: –
Nothing says it better than numbers, and should you look at it, the rate at which video marketing is growing is absolutely stunning. Every day, over 500 million people watch videos on Facebook. At this rate, it can be estimated that 80 % of all internet consumer traffic will come from videos over the next 4 years.
Why do videos have such a staggering popularity among consumers? This could be for a number of reasons. The story-telling format often has a deeper resonance with the viewer. It helps in building trust, induces retention rate and accounts to increased social sharing. The crux is, for whatever reasons and in which ever ways, video marketing has vastly changed the way in which brands communicate with their audiences, and will continue to do in 2018 (even more so).
Native Ads will account for the greatest visibility –
Native ads comprise of the subtle art of hiding things in the plain sight. To a user, the gigantic clutter of pop-up ads is not only disruptive but also downright annoying. A consumer understands when his attention is being coaxed and knows exactly how to overlook such attempts. Also, most people eye ads with suspicion (knowing that there is a sales element lurking somewhere in the corner) and adhere to the content with a pinch of salt.
Such trust issues are not easy to dissolve, especially when the internet is flooded with such irksome pop-ups. Native ads win the ball game here, without even trying. They seamlessly merge with the environment, and the consumer may not always spot them as ads. According to research, native ads on mobile gadgets have a 4 times higher CTR rate than non-native ads. That alone should explain why this digital marketing trend will continue to do big in 2018.
Personalised content will continue to rule the roost: –
Content marketing has already been dominating the digital realm for some time now. While that dominance continues to grow, the focus has shifted to creating personalised content for the users. But how can you tailor your content according to the need and the preferences of every user that hop on to your website? The key is to create a dynamic website and leverage smart automation to deliver right content to the right person at the right time. With 88 percent of content marketers actively endeavouring to include personalised content into their strategy, it’s not difficult to predict that this trend will continue to ‘shake it up’ in 2018.
Influencer marketing will become highly influential: –
Nobody does better PR for your brand than a content consumer. Once you win them over with perfect understanding and correct timing, they are likely to freely promote your product, services, app or website anywhere and everywhere. And people will listen, intently. Yes, that’s the power of user experience. And the credibility of this kind of promotion is unquestionable. To add an additional edge to the snowballing effect, many brands collaborate with famous celebrities, bloggers and YouTube sensations to do the talking on their behalf. The outcome: brands are blessed with a better reach than they could have imagined and a trail of fans and followers who are becoming loyalists. Courtesy of the brand awareness spread by influencer marketing, it’s power will not hover in 2018.
The buzz around AI is not going to die down anytime soon –
Forget about dying down, the buzz has only begun. Like other areas of life, in the marketing realm too, artificial intelligence has permeated processes in ways one can hardly imagine. And, as a marketer, unless you had the foresight to combine your marketing expertise with a stint in computer, it can be difficult to keep up. Image recognition for Social Media, machine-mediated consumer conversations and robot content are some of the AI trends to watch for in 2018.
With all said and done, digital marketing has long out-stretched its boundaries. It is no longer confined to just SEO, PPC, Google Adwords and Social Media. Like always, the volatile world of digital marketing will never fail to take you by surprise. If you thought that 2017 is as good as it gets, wait till you find out what these five digital marketing trends have in store for you in 2018!
