As another year draws to a close, businesses are reflecting on their marketing performance through the year and considering what strategies worked — and just as importantly, which didn’t. While Snapchat may not have exploded in quite the way advertisers anticipated, 2017 predictions did anticipate marketers who would strive to create new and improved ways to build an “experience” for customers and establish relationships with consumers. Big data had a big impact on the landscape, with the data revolution taking a stronghold in the marketing industry. While the data revolution has made it possible for marketers to more accurately target consumers and measure the value of advertising strategies, it has also resulted in an even higher demand for effective use of analytics tools and high ROI.
1. Establishing A Conversation
A SmartInsights survey reports that marketers around the world continue to anticipate content marketing to be the single most important commercial marketing trend in 2018, and it’s not without good reason. After all, content marketing is one of the most effective ways to establish a conversation and engage potential customers in relationships with your brand across time. In 2018, look for marketers who are doing more than ever before to generate high-quality, relevant content and optimize their sites to encourage users to participate in the content they share. Marketers will need to find ways to connect more authentically and leverage social listening to strategize successfully in the new year.
2. Short Planning Cycles
When it comes to marketing strategy, it’s important not to get too far ahead of yourself. Consumer tastes change frequently, so businesses can’t put all their advertising eggs in one basket. Kate Sayre, global head of consumer goods strategy at Facebook, explains that when it comes to marketing, the only real constant is change: “We do six-month planning cycles at Facebook because we don’t know the future. A lot of it is driven by the consumer. This is new consumer behavior in a lot of these environments and we can pretend we may know what the consumer is going to do, or we can actually do small-scale testing, figure out what they’re going to do, and expand and go from there.” Marketers will need to focus on adaptability as new technologies continue to advance and improve.
3. Contextual Marketing
Traditional interruption advertising is designed to distract from the consumer’s task at hand, but contextual marketing seeks to match it. Consider the way Facebook’s algorithms track users’ behaviors in order to prioritize showing them content they will find relevant; this keeps users engaged and coming back for more. Contextual marketing is driven by the insights afforded by big data, including market and customer analysis and predictive analytics; understanding the context in which consumers seek to engage with your brand can help you determine customer intent and drive conversions. Contextual marketing is the future of marketing, as consumers continue to demand greater personalization online.
4. Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning
2018 may bring about an automated customer service revolution as more businesses turn to chatbots to facilitate customer interaction. “In 2018, chatbots will become a far more common solution for brands wishing to serve their customers in a smarter and more cost-effective way,” explains Matt Navarra, director of social media at TheNextWeb. “With AI now being easier to integrate into various tools and services, chatbots will become far more useful and personalized with each interaction it has with users.” Artificial intelligence will also help to power big data interpretation and analysis, making it possible for startups to glean greater insight from the information collected.
Based on current trends, marketing is likely to become more analytical in 2018, with big data driving insights across the board. If you haven’t already started considering these trends as you plan for the new year, now is the time to begin strategizing and focusing so you can be the first to reap the benefits.
What marketing trends are you watching as we move toward the new year? Tell us what you think the 2018 landscape will look like in the comments.
