12 Emerging and New Marketing Trends to Follow in 2018
Using tried and tested marketing strategies is not enough to keep your business growing. The more these techniques are used, the faster the audience gets accustomed to them. It is always important to follow new trends in marketing if you want to stay ahead of the crowd.
If you have already done your research on the top marketing trends 2018, here are a few things you may want to keep in mind, especially if you wish to promote your products and services and stand out in a crowded marketplace:
#1: Optimize for humans; not for robots
Many marketers are of the impression that today’s marketing is mainly about ranking high on Google. They are forever trying to figure out the algorithms so that they can somehow beat the system. Whether it is on Facebook or Google, the struggle is all about being seen. In the process, they tend to forget who they are marketing to — the audience.
The entire point of the algorithms is to help users find relevant content. The more you start thinking about your audience, the less you will have to worry about these algorithms.
#2: Include Generation Z
Over the past few years, marketers have been spending countless hours figuring out how to reach out to millennials. Grabbing the attention of these millennials is no doubt still important in 2018; but it is also important to think about those born in the late 90’s and the 2000’s — the Generation Z.
By the year 2020, the global population of Generation Z is expected to reach 2.56 billion.
People belonging to Generation Z have already started purchasing products and making purchase decisions.
85% of them use social media to get information about new products.
32% of them watch at least one hour of online video content every day
50% spend at least 10 hours of their day online
Whether you know it or not, you may already have started catering to the requirements of the Generation Z. Now all that you need to do is make sure you are doing it the right way.
#3: Focus on the top of the funnel
For a while pretend that you an average customer who knows nothing about Facebook remarketing, Instagram ads, or anything like that.
Let’s say you are browsing through Facebook or Instagram and see some ads.
Now how open would you be to buy the products promoted in the ad, just because they are promoted?
If you are badly in need of that product you may consider. But what if you don’t need it or rather don’t know if you need it? You may not buy it.
Now let’s get back to thinking like a brand. How exactly would you speak to your potential buyers? It depends on which stage your potential buyers are, in their process of buying: top funnel, mid-funnel or bottom funnel.
Most potential buyers are usually at the top of the funnel. Now if you advertise to them as if they are at the bottom, they are highly unlikely to buy.
The increasing popularity of content marketing is making many marketers focus on the top of the funnel. The videos, the blogs, and even the ads that they create are targeted towards the top of the funnel consumers. This is exactly what you should be doing too. Your focus has to be on educating your consumers and adding value through your content. This is the only way you can make them realize their need for your product.
#4: Target Real People rather than celebrities
63% of the population that belongs to Generation Z wishes to see real people in ads rather than celebrities. This is exactly why you may not be seeing well-known faces on internet ads and billboards. This is one of the latest marketing trends many brands are cashing on.
If you want to target real people, you have to include real people in your ads. It makes it easier for your target audience to relate to your brand.
#5: Incorporate AI in your Marketing
If you want to make it possible for your customers to enjoy personalized real-time experiences, you will have to incorporate artificial intelligence into your marketing strategies.
Brands are making it easier for their consumers to look for products on their ecommerce websites by using technologies like Elasticsearch.
Google assistant, Cortana, Alexa and Siri have made it easier for consumers of today to search on the internet without using their hands.
There are recommendation engines on sites like Amazon that recommend products based on the personal interests of the consumers.
There are AI tools that are making it possible for brands to predict the outcome of their email and marketing campaigns and improve upon their efforts.
AI can give you all the information that you would need to make your marketing decisions. Not only will this improve the performance of your campaigns, it will also enable you to offer a personalized experience to each and every customer you serve.
#6: Add value through your content
The popularity of content marketing is putting marketers under a lot of pressure to churn out stacks and stacks of content within the shortest possible time.
2 million blog posts get created and published on a daily basis…
500 hours of video gets uploaded on YouTube every single minute…
About 3.3 million posts are created on Facebook every 60 seconds…
However, not all this content adds value. In fact, most of the time, you may be seeing too much of the same content. Experts may ask you to publish certain amount of content on a weekly basis to help SEO. But more content doesn’t actually mean better content. Your focus has to be on adding value. Try answering these questions before you start uploading content:
Whom are you writing for?
Which question are you answering through your content?
Are you repurposing your content?
You will be spending 62% less on content marketing than what you would be spending on outbound marketing, while generating 3 times more leads and driving high conversion rates.
Content marketing may not be the only effective way to market your business; but it sure is one that should be at the top of your list.
#7: Use Chatbots and reduce human intervention
Chatbots are one of the major current marketing trends of 2018. They are used to chat with site visitors and customers in real-time, be it day or night.
By enabling instant and smooth communication, Chatbots help in meeting the ever-growing demands of the consumers of today’s era. Businesses, especially in the industries of banking and healthcare, can save up to $8 billion per annum by using them.
Responsive, prompt, and accurate, Chatbots never lose their patience while interacting with customers. They meet all expectations of customers and offer outstanding customer service, while automating repetitive tasks of your organization.
Apart from answering questions, they offer complete information about your products and services and collect email addresses of your prospects to send them details — all without human intervention. By retaining information they make things easier for customers so that they don’t have to start all over again.
Chatbot technology can be used through Facebook Messenger too. Uber has already started doing this. Uber Customers can now hire cars, make requests, track locations of cars, and even make payments using Facebook Messenger.
#8: Personalize for better results
Personalization is a major aspect of marketing and will be so for a long time to come. 74% marketers claim that it is possible to enhance customer engagement through targeted personalization.
You can boost your ROI by customizing your content according to consumer behavior, purchase history and the kind of links clicked.
Emails may be customized as per the consumer interests, demographics, and behavior.
Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign is one of the best examples of personalization. By printing out some of the most popular names on Coke bottles, Coca-Cola created a personalized brand experience for most of its customers, without even personalizing.
After a decade of steady decline, Coca-Cola saw a 2% increase in its soft drink sales because of this campaign.
#9: Use Videos for better engagement
By 2019, 80% of all web traffic will be claimed by videos
90% customers have reported that product videos make it easier for them to make their purchase decisions
64% online customers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it
80% customers prefer watching videos than reading long blog posts
You can boost your click-through rates by 200 to 300% by adding informative and visually-rich videos to your marketing emails.
It is not just about uploading videos on YouTube. For better engagement you can create video posts or even start live broadcasts on Facebook.
#10: Make the most out of live videos
With many businesses using live videos for their product demos, interviews, and “behind the scene” glimpses of their events, live video is gaining immense popularity across the world. Live videos can humanize your brand, instilling trust in your audience.
As one of the new marketing trends, live video took off in 2017 and will continue to grow in 2018. Through live videos you can establish a strong brand presence on Facebook and Instagram. It is not just the small businesses; large brands too have started seeing value in live videos.
YouTube and Periscope have also started coming up with live streaming. Consider giving maximum potential to your brand before live video becomes saturated.
#11: Consider Influencer Marketing for better ROI
Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to attract a large number of audiences. It is a strategy where you use an influencer or a key leader to deliver your brand message to a larger market.
An influencer could be a celebrity, a journalist, a well-known blogger, or even an Instagram or YouTube star that can spread the word about your brand or product through their social channels. So instead of marketing to your larger audience directly, you pay the influencers to get the word out for you.
Since such an influencer may already have established trust with the audience, it might be easier for him or her to talk about your brand. It can help in building a positive image of your brand in the minds of the audience much more easily, since it is not an ad that is coming from your company.
As per research Influencer marketing can deliver 11 times more ROI when compared to the other types of digital marketing.
#12: Master the Micro-Moment
It is the small moments that happen every day that make up our lives. Most of these small moments involve your smart phone. As digital marketers, you can control a lot of such micro moments through this small device.
96% people use their smartphones to solve their problems and get things done
On an average every user spends about 4 to 5 hours a day using his smartphone.
Users who are active on social media tend to check their social media accounts at least 17 times every day.
All this is changing the way brands capture the attention of their consumers.
Micro moments are small moments that deliver your marketing message to your audience in a clear yet concise and interesting way. It is about providing the right information at the right time, based on the user-generated activities.
Anticipating and addressing these micro-moments is one of the future marketing trends that businesses should focus upon. Here are a few things you can do to win over these micro-moments:
· Identify the “I-want-to-buy” moments of your customers
· Be there for your customers in the moments of their need
· Deliver content that seems relevant to their searches
· Try and make it easier for your customers to buy your products or services
· Analyze every interaction you have with your customers and see what best you can do to support them
Following the latest marketing trends is a must for all businesses that wish to take positions in this crowded marketplace. With the kind of crazy speed the internet marketing has taken on, it can be difficult for any business to keep up. Nevertheless, without a deep analysis of your business and a strong strategy it is only going to be a road to nowhere.
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