Digital marketing is a very wide and constantly changing world, which requires marketing experts to always be up-to-date and studying market trends. Today digital marketing is the way to reach customers regardless of the sector in which your company is dedicated.
Social networks are the main channel for attracting customers, and will continue to be for many years. Surely it is what you should optimize the most in your marketing campaigns.
Here are the main trends in digital marketing for 2018.
1- Instagram Live Stories
Since Instagram launched Instagram Stories, they have surpassed Snapchat by 40 million users and have had very interesting exponential growth. This platform has many positive features for companies and clients, making it the ideal social network for business and advertising.
With the Live Stories feature, companies have the opportunity to interact with their customers in real time, answer their questions and send updated messages.
A good strategy would be to be part of a relevant event in your sector and broadcast it to your followers, thus creating relevant content that will hook your users.
2- Marketing through influencers
In 2017 we were able to see how influencers have been gaining weight in the world of marketing and promotion. 2018 is going to be a year in which this trend will continue, so every marketing expert should pay close attention to this and implement it in their marketing campaigns.
Influencers help create brand image and tell the story that your brand wants to convey. These influencers are no longer simply celebrities, actors and singers, but they are also normal people who have managed to have a large number of very segmented followers. These segmentations help brands effectively reach their target audience.
3- Connect with consumers
Traditional marketing aimed to create brand image and promote a product in a massive way. Today it is much more effective to connect with customers in a direct and personalized way, through a good content campaign, conversations on social networks, surveys and by transmitting your brand image in a special way.
Success lies in building a lasting relationship with the customer. The objective of connecting with consumers and creating more personalized campaigns is to build loyalty and to have your company back in the future.
4- Good content
When capturing a user, either through the web or social networks, it is essential to have a great content strategy. This content varies depending on the sector to which your company is dedicated, but it must always be attractive and in line with the interests of your consumer.
Our goal is always to generate more sales, but instead of branding aggressively and directly, we create content so that the consumer feels identified with our brand and manages to generate a company culture.
A good way to analyze which content is ideal is to see which one has the most engagement for your consumers. Previously you have to know what the interests of your target audience are depending on the sector your company is in.
5- Artificial intelligence
In today's world we are seeing how artificial intelligence is gradually incorporating into our lives. Companies like Google or Tesla are already implementing it in their cars and in 2018 we will see how artificial intelligence will enter various sectors, including marketing.
As marketing experts we have to be on the lookout for 2018 since artificial intelligence will join sectors such as online shopping or customer care.
This is a factor that will take shape in 2018 and that in the future will be fully implemented in our lives.
6- Videos
Videos are the best way to attract customers. From promotional videos, 360 videos, time-lapse, etc; they have become essential in any content strategy.
A video is much more attractive to users than written content, so you should develop videos that are within the interests of your consumers and that manage to capture their attention, and then guide them to a sale or conversion.
In this 2018 it is essential to create great audiovisual content to attract more users and prevent your online media from becoming obsolete just with text.
7- LinkedIn for B2B
LinkedIn will be the platform for doing B2B business. As with B2C, B2B also uses social networks for customer acquisition and content creation, and LinkedIn is this social network.
LinkedIn helps companies connect in the same way that Facebook would do in B2C, so if your company is dedicated to B2B, you should create defined strategies for this social network, such as content strategies, videos and attracting new customers.
Take into account these 7 trends for 2018 and adapt them to your business model and your target customer. You should never be left behind in the world of marketing because consumer behavior evolves day by day and forces us to be in constant learning to always satisfy our consumers, retain them and attract new ones.
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Macarena Vayá, Country Manager of Spain in Sortlist and specialist in SEO positioning and digital marketing.
