Marketing Trends for 2018
2017 was the year of streaming video, artificial intelligence and the 280 character count on Twitter. What will 2018 bring for marketers? Read on for our Marketing Trends 2018.
Website Design Trends
We know that Google is going to continue to emphasize the importance of mobile in 2018 so expect to see function taking precedence over form with a focus on usability and minimalist site navigation and content proliferating. It’s going to be interesting to see how marketers balance with minimalism and mobile.
In 2018, expect to see more valuable content related to buyer intent rather than simply content for the sake of putting something out there.
Watch out for more animation (logos in particular) and websites that incorporate GIFs in 2018 too – hopefully, they’re less cheesy than their Flash predecessors. Artificial Intelligence is going to be everywhere in 2018 too as enhancements make Chatbots get better and better at answering questions and simulating conversations with website visitors.
Search Engine Optimisation in 2018
Voice search will be used more and more which means you need to hone your long tail keywords, i.e. keyword phrases that are hyper-specific to what you are selling. Keyword research will continue to evolve and there will be a shift in the coming year to focus more on semantic search, buyer intent and topics, rather than specific keywords. SEOs will spend more time on getting their site show up at the right time when people are actually considering a purchase, rather than having the site show up to attract particular personas.
Email Campaigns
Get ready to watch videos embedded directly in email campaigns as more and more email apps support embedded video.
Watch for more sophistication in list segmentation too. Segmenting campaigns so that specific audiences receive emails that contain content tailored to their unique perspective will drive engagement and ROI on your campaigns.
Social Media Forecast
2017 was the year of streaming video on social media; LinkedIn and Twitter followed Facebook Live’s lead and began supporting live streaming video content. In 2018 watch out for growing adoption of these technologies and more creative live streams.
We will also see the increased adoption of short-lived content, content that’s only available for a short period of time before it disappears, – like Instagram stories and Snapchat. Marketers must start developing strategies to maximize the reach and impact of ephemeral content as well as considering tactics to get this content noticed.
On platforms like Instagram and Facebook, only a tiny percentage of followers actually see the content you share on your page. To get noticed in 2018, you will need to invest in ads on these platforms. Consider video ads to spice things up a little.
How Marketing Strategies will Evolve in 2018
This is going to be the year we’re going to start calling our discipline marketing again (rather than digital). Marketing in 2018 will encompass all aspects of the marketing mix, both online and off and marketers will use the means most likely to help them attract their target audience.
Consider this, there are 65 million business pages on Facebook, 90% of businesses use social media. These are substantial numbers, but for marketers this means that it is becoming increasingly difficult, not to mention more expensive, to get noticed. If you want to attract your target audience’s attention in 2018, then widen your horizons and consider sending them a direct mail piece (depending on the audience) in a nice coloured envelope with handwritten wording. It will likely be the only physical mail the recipient gets that day (or maybe that week or month!), they’re going to open it, and if your copy is effective they will act on it!
Looking Forward – Marketing Trends for 2018
2018 is going to be an interesting year; technological advancements will continue to speed up. To be effective as marketers, it’s going to be important not simply to jump on the bandwagon of the next big thing but to consider options strategically and with your target audience in mind (rather than from a product or service-centric perspective). Video popularity has been growing year over year and won’t stop. Cisco predicted that video would account for 80% of internet traffic by 2020. So if you do nothing else, consider how you might incorporate video into your marketing approach in 2018.
