Are you aware of the biggest digital marketing trends in 2018?
With the increase in the capacity and need of brands to explore the latest internet marketing techniques and trends, which are the ones you should pay attention to, while forming your yearly marketing strategy?
Here’s a look at the hottest digital marketing trends you should keep in mind as you strategise for the year ahead:
User-generated Content
Word-of-mouth is the most fool-proof and cost-effective way of advertising. More than ads or celebrity endorsements, customers go by one another’s opinions. Out of the total online consumers, 66 percent trust other consumer opinions. This is why various brands are banking on User-generated Content (UGC) to create impressions and increase sales. If you haven’t explored this approach yet, posting reviews and testimonials on your website would be a good way to start.
Video Marketing
Video marketing became extremely popular during the previous year but 2018 is expected to be much bigger, as brands gear-up to include video marketing in maximum aspects of their brand communication. According to predictions, 80 percent of the total internet traffic in 2020 will be covered by video marketing. If visual content is not yet a part of your marketing strategy, wake up!
Storytelling
This trend has become popular because it’s in human nature to love good stories. Brands have started understanding this and are incorporating specifically crafted stories into their digital marketing. Social media has evolved into a customer engagement platform, from a traffic generation channel. Thus, brands are looking to impress customers through creative storytelling and being transparent about their brand purpose.
Chatbots
Nobody likes waiting for customer service. With chatbots, there’s no need! Chatbots are AI-powered conversational agents which respond to basic recurring questions. With the technology becoming more advanced and Artificial Intelligence (AI) getting popular, we will see more companies turning to chatbots for improving their online customer service.
Interactive Content
Uploading plain text blog posts for receiving maximum traffic is a thing of the past for brands. They are focusing on engaging the users of 2018 through more interactive content such as; think quizzes, polls, and videos as a part of their content marketing strategy.
Growth Hacking
For entrepreneurs who are looking to grow and scale their business quickly, growth hacking is right at the top of their minds. It involves rapid experimentation with different approaches of digital marketing to find out the most efficient ways of expanding sales.
Rise In Social Media Advertising Cost
The concept of organic reach being sufficient for brand communication is not a reality anymore. These days, advertising agencies target paid traffic on social media for brands to gain the desired traction. With an increase in the number of advertisers across social media platforms, the cost of advertising has also increased, leaving brands to choose between allocating more funds towards social media marketing or exploring alternate channels to create brand awareness.