January 9, 2018 •tanmay
2018 has only just begun, but already there are some predictions about where the digital marketing industry is going to go. Here, we give you our top five predictions for digital marketing this year so you can keep yourself and your business ahead of the game. Some of these trends are new and unexpected, whereas others are continuations of things that may already be familiar to you. Either way, we recommend you read all about them and take advantage of them as early on as you can. Time is money after all!
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is far from being a new concept, but most businesses haven’t yet taken full advantage of it. This type of digital marketing is expected to increase in popularity drastically over the next year as many companies start to see the vast benefits that can come from it.
For those who don’t already know, influencer marketing is a type of marketing which focuses on individual influential people within a market, rather than the market as a whole. This involves identifying people who influence potential buyers such as people with a significant presence on social media or celebrities. Social media is a particularly easy way to disseminate this type of marketing.
Once you’ve identified your influencers, you can either market to influencers, through influencers, or with influencers. Each method works, but their effectiveness will depend on the type of market and the strategy used. Strategy is everything when it comes to successful influencer marketing!
The fall of Twitter and the rise of LinkedIn
The struggles of Twitter to expand its user base has been reported in a whole host of new stories across 2017, and it’s predicted that this will continue through 2018 as well. Recent efforts to expand the site include increasing the character limit of Tweets from 140 to 280, but it’s unclear whether or not this will have an effect on the number of users coming to Twitter.
In fact, some argue that this increased character limit may compound Twitter’s demise as it erodes its unique selling point. The 140 character limit was what differentiated Twitter, and many believe that the increased limit has made the site more like Facebook.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, has seen an increase in its popularity, and it has also invested in improvements to its advertising platform as well as refreshing its UI. All of this seems to point towards a further increase in the sites popularity as it manages to adapt to changing demands from both users and advertisers.
Better Audience Targeting
Audience targeting, like influencer marketing, has been around for a while now, but 2018 will be the year when the alternative (broad and non-precise marketing) finally becomes a thing of the past. With websites like Facebook and Google able to profile their users with such accuracy, ads are now explicitly tailored for different audiences for maximum impact.
More emphasis is going to be placed on seeking out and targeting these specific audiences. Clients are expecting digital marketers to become better and better and discovering these audiences and getting serious results.
Getting around ad-blockers
Ad-blockers are great for users but terrible for marketers. Many users like to hide adverts that flash up on their favourite sites, and it’s predicted that 100 million consumers in the US will be using an ad-blocker by 2020. If marketers are to get an adequate return on their advertising, then they’re going to have to find a way around these ad-blockers, and this will be one of the most significant trends of 2018.
Some sites, such as Facebook, have already found a way to get around and efficiently block ad-blockers, so their advertisements are still visible to users. This means Facebook can expect brands to continue to invest in adverts for their site. Other brands are jumping ship and moving to different platforms such as YouTube and Amazon Video which have a long history of in-built ads.
A craftier way of getting around ad-blockers is to put you advert inside content that we don’t usually consider an ad. One critical way of doing this is product placement, and it’s predicted that, as a form of advertising, this will increase drastically in 2018. Companies such as Netflix, although technically ad-free, do partake in product placement in their various original TV shows and films.
Storytelling
As previously mentioned, it’s becoming easier and easier to target specific audiences and individuals with ads. As adverts become more accurate, their ability to tell a story becomes more important. Creating a compelling story is part of inviting the consumer to buy into a particular lifestyle, so it needs to be believable and appealing.
Luckily, the ability to create a compelling story for your brand has never been more effortless. With video becoming ever more popular on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, this has opened up a new medium for providing consumers with short and snappy clips and ads which appear on their newsfeeds. It’s also possible to do live videos through platforms like Facebook and YouTube which increases the intimacy and spontaneity of the content.
Creating a type of lifestyle or particular story behind a brand has become ever more important now that consumers often take into account the ethics of a company. It’s important not only to tell a story that’s relatable but also one that presents the brand as one that is ethical both environmentally and regarding worker’s rights.
These are just five of the many predictions for digital marketing in 2018, and there are bound to be some big surprises too! Taking these projections into account will mean you’ll be ahead of the curve and able to reap the rewards that come with being an early bird.
If you would like any more information or help on your digital marketing strategy for 2018 then please het in touch with us here at The Bright Click on: 020 8614 3296.