8 Marketing Trends You Should Watch Out for in 2018 | Extraordinary Business

8 Marketing Trends You Should Watch Out for in 2018 | Extraordinary Business

marketing trends
As the second quarter of 2018 starts, it’s as good a time as any to reevaluate how well you are handling your marketing. This is also a great time to review the latest marketing trends that your company should be on top of. So let’s take a closer look at 8 marketing trends you should watch out for this year.

1.    Interactive Content

There are basically two kinds of content – one that you can just see/read, and one that you can interact with. The latter is the one that tends to be more popular. A good example of this is BuzzFeed’s quiz about which city the reader should live in. Instead of letting your target audience passively consume your content, let them actively participate.
Think quizzes, surveys, contents, polls, etc. According to Jonathan Lacoste, President of media company Jebbit, interactive content also has long term benefits including personalized remarketing and increased lifetime value.

2.    Influencer Marketing

A couple of years ago, John Hall, CEO of marketing agency Influence & Co., talked about how businesses should be prepared for the influencer marketing gold rush. Today, influencer marketing continues to grow. Targeting the right influencers who establish credibility makes more sense than it ever did. These influencers only work with brands they actually believe in, and this trust is ultimately passed on to your consumers.

3.    Mobile Video

Did you notice that over 90% of your Facebook feed is actually video? This is a good example of how mobile video is dominating the marketing arena. We’ve been living in the age of mobile for some time now, and now we’re living in an age of mobile video. Embracing it makes perfect sense.

4.    Livestreaming

Livestreaming will continue to push the boundaries of marketing. Instagram recently integrated livestreaming option to its Stories feature, indicating the importance of this trend. Facebook Live is also a recent addition.  Live broadcasts are expected to grow and the best in business are expected to capitalize on this trend in 2018.

5.    Chatbots

Chatbot technology has come a long way from those annoying pop-ups we used to see on every website over a decade ago. A good example of this is Facebook which invests considerable resources into bot programs, providing users with personalized responses and news updates, among other things.

6.    Virtual and Augmented Reality

The line between the real world and the digital world is becoming fainter by the day. While virtual reality made a name for itself a little earlier, the success of Pokemon Go is a testament of the impact of augmented reality. Both VR and AR are hot marketing trends that companies and their marketing professionals have yet to take more advantage of.

7.    Mobile First Strategy

marketing trends

Successful companies, not just tech ones, saw this years ago – the future is mobile. If you’re not tailoring your marketing for the mobile world from the ground up, you’re missing out on humungous opportunities. Just “optimizing for mobile” won’t cut it anymore. You need to think with a “mobile first” mindset, touching your consumers in their highly mobile lifestyle.

8.    Personalized Content

Forbes contributor Stephen Diorio noted in a Forbes article how marketers are driving growth with personalized content. While generic content was never good, personalized content is now an even bigger necessity because we live in a world where consumers face too much content but have too little time. As a result, personalization continues to win the battle for brands and companies seeking the attention of their consumers.
So, do you feel any of these have been left out at your company? If yes, not to worry. Get your top marketing people together to discuss these trends and the best way to implement them. Also, did you notice that technology has a big role in these trends? This is an indication of the ever-present “tech trend.” Connecting with your consumers and outsmarting your competition will continue to require you to be better at marketing and capitalizing on the latest technologies.
Fatima Mansoor is a writer at Aepiphanni, a small business operations and strategy consultancy that exists to help small business owners CREATE | DESIGN | BUILD extraordinary businesses. She specializes in business & entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and health & fitness. Her focus is on creating compelling web content for small and medium businesses form diverse industries. She mostly writes for entrepreneurs and marketing agencies across the US, Australia and UK.
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