Digital Marketing Trends You Need to Know

In marketing, there’s one thing you can always count on.  Like the weather in Georgia, it’s bound to change quickly.

In the past, you had three choices for marketing your business: TV ads, radio ads and newspaper.  If you had extra dollars to spend, you might do a billboard or three.

In the 21^st century, what worked last year, may not be at all relevant this year, so you have to stay on top of trends or risk getting left in the dust.

For 2017, some top digital marketing experts are predicting these trends:

1. Video is King
Daniel Newman, Principal analyst of Futurum Research and CEO of Broadsuite Media Group, says that social content, reviews, blogs, papers and eBooks are all still crucial aspects of marketing, but video will be the rage moving forward.  He predicts that virtual and augmented reality will take us into the future and brands that don’t use visuals and videos will be left at the starting gate.

There has been a 360% increase in video views since 2013 and with the widespread adoption of smartphones and access to live streaming sites like Facebook, companies can use live video to further entice customers. Surveys reveal online video accounts for more than 50% of all mobile traffic and YouTube now has over one billion users.

2. Marketing Across Multiple Devices
Not only is it important for businesses to take their digital marketing strategies mobile, they need to optimize a consistent strategy that works across multiple devices, according to Katherine Kim, a digital marketing writer for Mabbly. Kim recommends that website be properly scaled for mobile devices, desktop computers and tablets because you never know what device your customer might be using.  But as a strategy, mobile ads come first. By implementing a cross-device strategy, you can reach the same customer on different devices and also reach a larger audience.

3. Marketing with a Purpose
Simon Sinek talks of the importance of finding the “why” of your company, your purpose for existing.  He says the companies that succeed are the ones that can explain their purpose in their digital marketing campaigns. This helps create a compelling narrative that consumers will want to identify with and helps brands differentiate themselves from their competitors.

4. Targeted Social Media Marketing
Your social media marketing should market less and sell more.  Too often, companies use social media to send out generic content, which often gets ignored.  Instead social media should be more personalized, which is easy to do.  Use social media to engage with your customers, not blast messages.

As marketers, we’re always pushing the boundaries of “what’s next” in the field of digital marketing. Some strategies may even be obsolete in just a few months.  That’s why it’s important to keep up with trends and be willing to try new things.