Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018

Over the past few years, the new trend in digital marketing has been about embracing digital transformation. Automation is steadily being accepted by various aspects of digital marketing that include SEO, PPC, Social Media, Emails and even Content. The growth of mobile, AI, AR & VR, has also contributed towards the integration of automation with customer life-cycle.

To increase engagement-levels with their audience most of the futuristic brands would be focusing on localization and ingenuity of their content marketing initiatives across various emerging platforms. Discussed here are some of the digital marketing trends that are going to be noticeable in 2018.

SEO

Marketers would be dealing with the ever going improvements in the search engine algorithms and updates. To ensure maximum visibility of their brand’s online presence, a resilient SEO strategy would have to be designed and implemented. It would not only have to focus on optimizing the existing efforts but also accommodate the changes in the regulations.

Also, the rise of digital assistance has added the extra paradigm of voice search optimization. The search engines have already reported a huge increase in the numbers of voice searches. Hence, the need to focus on long-tail keywords with phrases in the spoken language that resemble the conversational tones of the users could well be the way forward for SEO in 2018.

Social Media

Smartphone has become the most preferred device for social networking. Thus, it’s no surprise that mobile is being placed at the heart of almost every brand’s strategy for delivering personalized engagement through Social Media. The focus on mobile could increase in 2018, with businesses looking to engage with their audience through latest mobile apps for social networking.

Live Streaming could be one of the most popular of these options as more and more users now prefer to watch a live video on their phone instead of having to read a lengthy blog. The coming months could see companies choosing and settling for the apps through which they believe can maximize their interactions with their audience. Consequentially, Social Apps with better security features for the users could be the explicit choice.

Paid Ads

For the past couple of years, AI and Machine learning have had a subtle role in PPC. However, the advances being made by these technologies could give them a more legitimate role in the coming months. It’s a fact that bid management is a game of numbers. Advanced AI tools delivering accurate insights can help the PPC agencies in optimizing their ad creation and rotation, as well as retargeting processes, which in turn would maximize their returns.

Companies keen on improving their presence online now have a new platform for promoting their brands. Television streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and YouTube TV are posing serious competition to mainstream television. As these streaming services continue to get popular and attract more audience, savvy marketers in 2018 could create customized ads for the platform to make an impact on the audience, leading to improved ROI on their PPC initiatives.

Emails

Email campaigns in the past have relied on attractive emails to draw the reader’s interest. However, interactive emails would be more in vogue in 2018. Using interactive features such as image galleries and buttons on emails themed as quizzes or surveys, marketing experts could increase response or conversion rate, while bringing down the bounce rates of their emails and newsletters.

Also, AI-powered tools are increasingly being used in the automation of email marketing, and the trend could continue to evolve. Be it the personalization of the emails or segmentation of receivers’ list, AI & Machine Learning could be extensively used in 2018 to extract more from the email campaigns.

Also, as the users accessing the emails on their smartphones keep increasing, plain-text emails have become a new trend, and this might continue in 2018 as well. Not only are they easy to create, but can be easily optimized for all types of devices, irrespective of the type and screen size. While emails full of images and HTML may be required to open separately in browsers, the plain-text emails can be easily opened, read, and responded using any simple email app.

Be it increasing the website traffic through social networks, or using Virtual & Augmented Reality to attract the users’ on those social channels, smart digital initiatives can always help in drawing the audience’s attention. However, customers always remember the experience they had with a brand. Hence, using digital marketing to keep those experiences positive is what matters the most.

Content Marketing

Optimizing the content for voice search would become a non-negotiable necessity in the coming months. For this reason, the content would have to be much more concise and should be able to provide an accurate answer to the query. It’s because, the voice search would be performed with completed sentences, and the users would like to get the results that are practically relevant to their queries.

For instance, an individual looking to get the latest news about a famous personality at a particular event is likely to say – “News on Mr. X at the event Y”. This means, pages with non-relevant info, such as personal info about Mr. X, or basic info about the event, should not get listed in the search result, which usually happens with the text-based search.

Moreover, businesses would have to ensure their FAQ section on the website handles all the queries that begin with When, What, Why, Where, and How. In this way, they can deliver accurate information for voice searches, be it from a voice search app or a voice-based personal assistant such as Siri, Echo or Cortana.

Mobile Marketing

The mobile platform has steadily evolved over the last couple of years and has now become an integral part of the digital marketing ecosphere. As a result, 2018 could also have something special in store. However, to maximize the mobile engagement, business would have to identify new ways, not only for getting their app downloaded by the targeted users, but also to ensure they come back for more. Customized content, UI, and UX could well do the trick; moreover, connecting the app to other third-party tools can also be a smart option.

For instance, using spacial-based triggers such as active beacons would allow users to be notified by the app on reaching a specific geographic location. Local attractions such as malls, museums, or clubs could integrate beacon support into their apps, which could offer a new mobile experience to the users.

Thus, be it increasing the website traffic through social networks, or using AR & VR to attract the users’ on those social channels, smart digital initiatives can always help in drawing the audience’s attention. The marketers have learned that customers always remember the experience they had with a brand and it has huge deferred returns too. Using digital marketing and technological innovations to keep those experiences positive is something that would matter the most in 2018.

Key Takeaways

• The past trend has been about embracing steady digitalization of marketing initiatives such as Email & Content Marketing.
• The growth of various technologies such as smartphones & AI has contributed towards the integration of automation with customer lifecycle.
• Focusing on localization and ingenuity of content marketing initiatives across various emerging platforms could be the new trend in 2018.