210-582-5842
This year, marketing strategies are only getting BIGGER and BETTER. Uh, of course — Digital marketing is on the rise, but here are five of the best marketing trends that are taking over 2017. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, we’ll show you how!
1. Real-Time Video is Growing
The consumer market, namely the younger demographic, is primarily online now. This is perfect for your business if you know how to use it to your advantage! Incorporating real-time video into your regular posting routine is critical! Live video functionality is available in popular social media and apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube. Customers want to see what you’re doing NOW! This is an organic way to show customers just what’s going on inside your business, public events, showcases and more. It is an excellent way to increase engagement, and many businesses are picking up on its benefits. You can even use real-time video for pure engagement such as giving a poll or surveying customers on a fun topic!
This is also where short-lived content is valuable. Apps like SnapChat are perfect for the digital age because they provide short and current videos for the young demographic with a short attention span. SnapChat’s content disappears after 24 hours, which prompts users to view your videos in a timely manner.
Use SnapChat in your content marketing strategy to show short videos of your restaurant’s food options, your gym’s yoga class, or a customer’s first use of a new product arrival. It’s fun, it’s quick and easy, and it’s highly effective.
2. Influencer Marketing is on The Move
Influencer marketing has become a vital part of marketing campaigns, but what exactly is influencer marketing?
It is using a key leader or figure to get your brand’s message out to your target audience. This is different from advocate marketing because advocate marketing enlists the help of loyal customers to talk about their experience–whether it’s through reviews, customer referrals, etc. However, influencer marketing relies on a public figure to influence their large following to try your product or service. People tend to trust other’s opinions over advertisements.
Influencers are almost always paid through cash payments or free products. Influencers can be celebrities, socialites, or even YouTube personalities — which seems to be an increasing trend in marketing.
For example, have you ever seen YouTube videos that feature an incredibly popular figure sharing how much they loved a particular make-up brand, detox-tea, online book, fitness supplement or more? They didn’t just decide to video blog about this particular product to engage their viewers (well… possibly). They were sponsored. With that being said, the influencer should genuinely believe in the product or service that they are marketing. This is similar to word of mouth marketing because the influencers are marketing by sharing their experiences.
It’s important to use an influencer that already has leverage in that market. For example, you would use a fitness blogger or fitness model for your fitness supplement. You wouldn’t use a makeup blogger for your detox tea product. You want to utilize an influencer that somewhat mirrors your target market.
3. Virtual or Augmented Reality is a new…reality
Remember Pokemon Go? C’mon, it’s not that outdated. This was 2016’s biggest virtual-reality game! This seemingly carefree game was able to make a real impact on the business. According to Market Researcher’s App Annie, the Pokemon Go app made an estimated 600 million dollars in its first three months on the market. Consumers were actively involved with this app and connected with other users.
360 video and virtual reality capabilities are on the rise. These are fun and unique ways for consumers to interact with your business. Most phones today have the 360 video capability. Now, it is up to your company to provide content that will complement these capabilities!
4. Experiential Marketing Gets Creative
Once again, people trust other people’s experiences. People will always share their first-hand experience if you give them an experience to share–an experience that made them feel something.
What is experiential marketing? Experiential marketing is creating a bond between the consumer and the business or brand by giving them a fun and interactive experience that will prompt them to share this experience.
For example, soft drink company, Mountain Dew, launched a new energy drink product and used an experiential marketing campaign to encourage consumers to try it out. They embarked on a 43-day tour of competitions and giveaways that included festivals and popular city centers to drive awareness to the product. By giving consumers that experience, they now have a memorable experience that connects them to that the product.
5. It’s Getting Personal
There is no shortage of content out there, however, a large percentage of it is generic. This information overload has made consumers more likely to skip or close advertisements. For that reason, personalized content has become a popular way to reach a target audience.
Of course, a directly addressing an email to a customer by using their name in the headline is a popular strategy. However, personalizing content involves much more than just their name. It involves studying their interests, spending habits, browsing habits and more. Personalization can come down to even the headlines a consumer sees on your website. The more data you can collect about the consumer’s habits, the better you can personalize the content and the message. Remarketing to people who have already visited your website increases your odds of making a sale, since you are working with an engaged audience. Setting up remarketing is a key part of mobile website design.
It is important to note that the increasing landscape of digital media has also increased the landscape of social media use. This means that users are more inclined to post about their great customer experiences, but even more likely to post about their negative experiences. It’s easier to write a review on your own time than to report it to the business directly. In 2017, it’s is very important to give your customers a great experience or others will most certainly hear about! By others, we mean online users and the entirety of their social media following!
