With consumer habits changing and technologies evolving, keeping up with our marketing activities is a constant challenge.
Social media now exists in a smartphone-dominated world, and consumers not only shop differently but how they reach their purchasing decisions has changed.
TV commercials, radio jingles and magazine ads no longer have the biggest impact when it comes to influencing consumers to buy.
We know that digital marketing is the umbrella term for the marketing of products or services using digital technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones.
In reality, it’s been around for decades. If you can believe it, billboards were a form of digital marketing.
All that said, let’s talk about digital marketing trends in 2018, and how you can wield it to your advantage. Here are some trends in digital marketing to focus on:
Video Content
Because video content is the next best thing to having real-life engagement with your audience and fans, it has the power to improve and grow your social media presence and SEO.
Based on an online and social video marketing study, 4 times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than reading about it. In fact, 1 in 4 consumers actually lost interest in the company if it didn’t have video.
According to a Brain Rules study, when people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later.
However, when the same information was presented with a relevant image, people retained 65% of the information three days later.
2017 had an increase in video sharing. In fact, online video accounted for 50% of mobile traffic in 2015 and believed to take up 57% of consumer Internet traffic.
Video was projected to rise to 69% by 2017 and 79% by 2018. Research shows that video content will continue to be in the lead this year.
24 Hour Content
Facebook Messenger, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and WhatsApp have all released versions of content that disappears within 24 hours after posting.
Whether this trend lasts or a new more popular release arrives, right now companies need to take a holistic social media approach to attract a larger share of their target audience.
Infographics
Using infographics appears to be on the rise, more so on Twitter than on other platforms. Some are easy to read, and others contain a great amount of data.
Every style of content has an audience, and for now, users are enjoying Infographic creativity and how they are evolving. If their view changes and they become more dimensional, or voice features are integrated, they may become more popular.
Shared Content
The amount of content that influencers are producing is increasing. Although I am a firm believer in quality versus quantity, the need to share and curate other user content makes the most sense.
By sharing content, companies and users can easily drive up their social media growth. When sharing content, keep in mind that hashtag trends change frequently.
If you do not follow trending hashtags, you can easily discover your account engagement has dropped.
Social Media Marketing Overview
Social media consumption is at an all-time high. Platforms are making it nearly impossible for companies to manage social media on their own with new feature releases coming out regularly.
Competition amongst the platforms is fierce, but one thing that we do know is that Instagram is well on its way to becoming King, dragging content right along with it.
Are you or your business on Instagram? If not, you are not fully leveraging your brand.
As Instagram influencers shape and mold the platform trends, those new to the network can follow, observe and develop their own style.
Rome was not built in a day, and if you peek at top trending Instagram portfolios, you will see that the majority improve over time.
According to Business Insider, Instagram Stories has emerged as a clear favorite for marketers over Snapchat. To learn more about stories, check out Instagram’s blog.
Social Messaging
In the past, social messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat have not appeared in social media reporting and lists, but due to their rapid growth, they are now.
Apps and social platforms are regularly upping their game on the introduction of new features, and companies need to keep up.
Bots (AI)
Bots aren’t anything new, but they are on the rise. Newer bots are internet robots that perform tasks via text in place of speech. Is that really the case in 2018? What about Sire and Cortana?
Gamers know and understand bots as AI characters in video games. Businesses are now using Facebook Messenger bots to create a unique customer experience for their audience.
Each day, research proves that bots perform many tasks at a higher rate than humanly possible. Recently, Microsoft added 5 new bots to Skype named IFTTT, Skyscanner, Hipmunk, and StubHub. Have you had a bot enough?
Web Design Trends
More and more brands are adopting a “mobile-first” approach with their websites with the implementation of a responsive design that makes the user experience better.
For 2018, we’re looking at web design trends in everything from color, bespoke imagery, animation and GIFs, typography, and card UIs.
To prove the influence that social media has had on just about everything, websites are even transitioning to long-scrolling single pages.
SEO
On November 1, 2016, it was announced by StatCounter that in the first time, mobile usage had surpassed desktop with 51.3% of Internet users preferring their smartphones or tablets over their desktops when using the Internet.
What does this mean for SEO?
To begin with, Google has already been rewarding sites optimized for mobile performance with higher rankings. This has prompted the shift to accelerated mobile pages.
While AMPs aren’t exactly a search engine factor, sites that adopt AMP offer better user experiences and register more clicks and impressions. And all these do affect SEO.
5G Integration
Many of us have been anxiously awaiting for the full-blown arrival of 5G technology as it relates to video and smartphones. 5G is here, it is rolling out but not without some controversy.
5G will reshape things and take download speed to an exciting new level.
Keep up with that latest digital marketing trends and sign up for our Digital Marketing Newsletter.
By Audrey DeSisto
Updated October 6, 2018
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