The emerging trends you need to integrate into your 2018 plan
We are through Q1, and the top companies have the habit of launching plans for Q2 next year if you have started planning your marketing strategy and budget for 2018, then to face questions about those techniques. Be prepared for what you are using, which will be better with most of your customers, and most importantly, the strategies of which can result in the most efficient conversion.
To plan a top-notch marketing strategy for your business in 2018, go through the seven trends explained here and incorporate them into your planning process. From personalization elements and mastering micro-moments to moving visual and analyzing the authentic data, we will go through all the best strategies for acquiring leads, conversions customer connections, and engagement.
1. Master Micro-Moments
Mobile gadgets have proved to be a major influence in engagement with customers and brands with brands around the world. But surprisingly for most people, it is the concept of “minute-moments”, which has made changes on mobile phones. From long-term goals such as planning to purchase a home, or something as small as acquiring a quick grocery from the nearest store or even locating the ingredients of a dish from your phone, etc., countless of these micro-moments stimulate the impulse to reach out for our mobile phone.
According to the idea with Google, the minute moments are highly critical and evaluation touchpoints where customers expect to meet their needs with reliable information, regardless of time and place.
Whenever a customer feels the need to inquire about something, an astounding 96% of users reach for their smartphones to conduct the required research at that very instant. Only successful brands need to provide the right information at the right time, according to customers the need to accurately predict and accurately predict the needs of the micro deal needs.
A useful, quick and one-touch access to the needed information becomes the basis of acquiring customer trust and building long-lasting relationships.
2. Visualization More Important Than Ever
For all the exciting and informative things funds online, whether it is a couple of kittens playing, a baby laughing, or a top commercial featuring a popular model, there is always an element of video. With a video, people tend to accept and attach on a much deeper level due to the usage of visually-rich and interactive elements depicting a proper message or story. And as a consequence, the audience is tempted to take considerable action in terms of likes, sharing, etc.
Over time, brands have been able to introduce highly attractive video features on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
For this trend, we are going to focus on video aspect only since businesses are seizing the opportunity to differentiate their brand in the competitive industry.
Mobile users are tending to spend more time than ever with their smartphones, with the excitement to watch videos online being proportionate as well. It is clear from the following states that online video is growing rapidly in popularity.
- YouTube records more and more TVs during TV TVs during the TV hours of more than 18 years of age and more than any cable TV network.
- Advertisers on prime time broadcasting TV could gain 56% more audience of 18 to 49 years-old through advertising on YouTube.
Plainly from statistics, it does not come as a surprise that Facebook recently revealed the count of 1.65 billion active users (data from April 2016) watching about 8 billion videos each day.
Consumers have more tests than videos because they experience visual effects on-screen elements. Feeling the need, the trend of promoting high-quality video content is likely to take a higher flight in the future.
3. The Best Visibility with Native Ads
To get a simple vision demonstration in front of the right audience, original advertising has become one of the most demanding marketing methods. Most users find interactive ads disappointing and irrelevant. For example, browsing a website and instantly an out-of-context advertisement is decided from anywhere, which is a big no number for the user.
This is a common concern, which is best catered by native ads. It allows brands to market their offerings in a fairly non-disinterested manner, which easily mixes with the environment, is the most comfortable with a user.
Native ads blend in such a seamless manner, that customers may not even spot them when viewing let it be advertorial, instant content, search advertising, recommended content or sponsored listings form of native advertising. Rather than approving it as a deceiving aspect, the point is to put the right information in front of the viewer when they actually need it.
According to data provided by the polar and BI intelligence, the rate of CTR for premium original ads on mobile gadgets was four times as compared to the number of non-native display ads. Data also emphasized that there are basic ad calls for better engagement rates on tablets and smartphones than desktop systems.
4. Say ‘Yes’ to Personalized and Customer-Centric Content
This year, one thing is for certain that content marketing is going to be the core focus when devising a marketing plan while running hand-in-hand with a very important goal: a personalized experience for each customer. But the glaring question remains in place:
How can you know that each customer’s specific needs are perfectly catered?
The key is to remove dynamically rich content from traditional static content. The best practice is to create a dynamic website and a smart marketing automation plan that delivers top content, it creates a unique experience for the customer that matches their specific needs and priorities. Consider this scenario:
A new visitor just navigates on your website. The message you want to communicate them would be different than the message running for an existing customer. For this new visitor, a standard message containing a ready-made snapshot of your offers and a chunk of engaging content will go well. For existing customers, individual messages related to their specific needs can be thrown to retain and pull them back so that a new product can be acquired which was recently entered in your listing.
What is smart content?
As HubSpot defines ‘smart content’, “content that is intelligently personalized to your customer’s needs”. Without needing to execute the ‘one-size-fits-all’ philosophy on a macro level on your customer base, building a smart content promotes the perception of different buyer personas, which in turn creates a communication that fits each customer’s needs and requirements individually.
Why should you create personalized messages? Because it drives a better performance!
HubSpot recently ran a survey that inspected the data of 93,000+ calls-to-action acquired from their platform over a 12-month duration. The result concluded that direct call-to-action to users improved 42% with generic call-to-action.
Such results are enough to motivate brands into creating and sending personalized and customer-oriented messages. The move brings along a plethora of benefits for both the business and customers: providing customers precisely what they need, the brand is retained in the memory for significant information, and also importantly, enhancing lead conversions. The eventual reward is a long-lasting and healthy relationship with your customer. The numbers for personalized messaging speak for themselves.
- 61% of customers are more dependent on a company who is willing to create custom and personal content. Therefore, the possibility of choosing a single company for future purchases is more.
- 88% of content marketing professionals are considering to add personalization elements in their plans.
The idea is self-explanatory: when brands tend to associate with people, it’s personal, so the personalization of your content makes sense too. It’s the most powerful way to reach your customers as intended and propel the desired conversions.
5. Raise a Team of Influencers
If you receive a customer from loving your brand, then it can become the basis through which a positive word-mouth and brand awareness can spread.
But how do we transform a customer into a strong influencer?
Although there are various ways to achieve this, the basic roadmap remains the same—acknowledging and providing the needs your customers are literally looking for. If you offer solutions that truly understand and solve their problem, then it becomes easy to make them more brand loyal. In order to truly acquire the impressive teams that become an additional weapon in your arsenal of brand promotion and recognition, marketers should first understand the benefits that a group of influencers provides.
The function like a Snowball Effect! As mentioned above, if a customer is pleased with the performance of your brand, then it is almost possible to propagate it in its circle and environment, whether at work, a social gathering, an old friend, social media platform At, or even a casino at night. The point is to express your positive opinion and experiences regarding a brand to others you care about. Imagine a customer commenting something like,
“This app has made me fall in love with music all over again”, or “hey, did you see the launch of that new beautiful-looking Bleu de Chauffe bag?”
The message triggers a chain reaction, the satisfied customer will tell his/her friends, family and other people in the circle, the group will be impressed to try the brand themselves and spread the word further, and so the cycle continues and thrives. This indicates a snowball effect – which started with a small significance, gradually rolling down to become a powerful influence in the form of happy customers who acted as a dedicated promoter of your brand.
Acquire maximum impact from your defined budget! Changing customers to powerful influence is one of the lowest budgets, but is an indispensable way to encourage your brand identity. But what if you want to gain more control over the whole process? You can take control to the next level by hiring some elite brand ambassadors or popular profiles such as celebrities, artists, or a much modern and hot trend nowadays—well-known bloggers or YouTube sensations.
Such elitist industry is undoubtedly positive for the return on investment in the hands of influencers and spreading brand awareness. But we do not forget that every company in the industry is not financially adequate to spend such efforts.
You can have a product equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and can get many benefits in your target market, but when a well-known person publicizes the product for its audience / itself, it is a public contact and additional in response Boost The best thing about the influencers is that they can be rented on the basis of their budget, even on its scale. It all works on person-to-person interaction. When a high-profile celebrity is out there interacting with the audience to promote your brand, there is an extremely high probability for spreading of brand awareness, without stopping anytime soon.
6. Investment in Content Developers
It’s all about creating a content that is easily memorable, unique and personalized in nature. So how do we do it? Hire an experienced writer who is not only able to write unique and creative content, but his knowledge base should be potent enough to fluently write on a variety of topics in order to attract a large audience from different industries.
The game plan is to develop and promote a content that retains existing customers who will keep coming back for more as well as attract others through an encouraging word-of-mouth. An acquainted writer knows best how to play with words perfectly and creatively. The professional will create a story/case study relating to your brand well that allows customers to feel an attachment with the brand on much deeper and personal level.
The practice of building editorial groups consisting of journalists, production leads, etc. is on the rise to position them as thought-leaders. The objective of the editorial and content development team is to produce attractive content that facilitates a healthy conversation. They urge the audience to rely on providing them updated and authentic information on various industry topics.
The impact of in-house content development!
A potential way to work with a team of content creators is by partnering with a video channel giant—such as YouTube. As per Think with Google, Toyota is working on a multitude of campaigns with YouTube content developers with the goal of sending personalized content to their customers. The leading automobile company has asked content experts to produce content this is customer-oriented while incorporating their brand intelligently. The move earned the firm a brand engagement of 180 million and above impressions, a YouTube content series, along with increased revenues.
7. Convert with the Right Data
If you have the right data, then a professional digital marketer can understand the exact customer behavior and what it takes to deliver the best efforts. Especially this year when the trend of providing real-time responses to consumers in growing increasingly crucial, associating the data with the right tools will be very vital.
Why is there a need for Big Data?
Big data is one of the most commonly heard terms in data management that comes with a number of questions. Due to the massive amount of data involved and its heavy emphasis on different digital marketing cultures like segment marketing, personalized marketing, native marketing, etc., its implementation into marketing strategies is quite complex and impossible to cover in brief.
Equipped with the right marketing arsenal, any digital marketing agency can utilize big data. Take the case of EGC Group, for example, a top digital marketing agency has excelled in large data science and management. EGC’s statistics show that even though many companies are using Google Analytics, they are not including data with marketing automation and CRM equipment (market, hub spots, salesforce, etc.). Here are some figures that help us understand the impact and increasing importance of big data trend that is likely to go strong in the coming years.
- Highly data-oriented enterprises are 3 times more likely to improve their decision-making processes.
- Every 9 out of 10 owners feel their businesses have missed opportunities because sales agents were not able to make the most out of the information available in front of them.
- IDC forecasts for big data industry to reach around a worth of $102 billion by 2019
Final Words
With digital technology on the rise to sophistication and global acceptance, the scope for different businesses and brands to engage and interact with their target market is boundless now — 2017 being the most active year up till now. Therefore, it is ‘now’ when companies should start incorporating these trends into their strategic planning process for 2018. You may be a nice 6 months ahead of the actual execution phase, but getting well-prepared beforehand will give you a competitive edge.
Credit- smart insights
