Another year has flown by so I have put together the main marketing trends I think are going to be big this year.
Marketing Trends
Content
This features year on year and is the crux to all things marketing in my opinion. Be it Blogging, Vlogging or case studies customers are hungry for content they can relate to. Everyone want to feel part of a community and making sure your content is relevant helps achieve this.
GDPR
Come May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation changes come into force. Organisations across the UK are asking themselves, what do I need to do to be compliant? From a marketing side of things companies are going to have to make sure they have the correct permissions to target their marketing databases and be able to show how and when customers ‘opted-in’.
Ideally companies should be using this time to get their existing contacts to re-opt in, making sure their website and CRM system all adhere to the new guidelines and there is a system in place to manage the collection of data for new opt-ins and of course ensuring there is an easy way for contacts to opt-out should they so wish.
Personalisation through Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is going to be big! Well bigger than it already is. Many companies are using AI to make customer journeys ever more personalised. Segmented emails will get more sophisticated as Marketers will be able to use predictive analytics. Push Notifications will become more personalised, as companies use algorithms to tailor their messages based upon a visitors previous actions. Couple this with the growth of Chatbots on hand to answer visitors’ questions and start conversations and it becomes easy to understand the growing importance of Artificial Intelligence, provided of course you make sure you still comply with GDPR regulations!
Beware the fake
As fake news increases in the media consumers are increasingly losing their faith with many of the ‘big boys’ Online News reporters such as the Times. As they lose confidence in these companies, they are also losing their confidence in the brands that advertise with these companies. For brands who’s budgets permit them to advertise with the ‘big boys’, they must make sure they are using companies who the public still trust to protect their image and of course their ROI!
Mobile Marketing
Google will move to ‘Mobile First’ in 2018 highlighting the importance of making sure your website is ‘mobile friendly’. In fact as of August 2017, Mobile users overtook desktop internet users for the first time. Mobile is now the second-largest ad medium by spend in the whole world. Marketing Intelligence firm Warc, reported mobile ad spend is expected to grow 35.2 per cent year-on-year to reach $98.3bn in 2017, representing 23 per cent of global spend. 51 per cent of total mobile expenditure is estimated to be spent on search – while display accounts for 45 per cent, and classified and other spend four per cent.
Social Media Marketing
Crossing over with content and AI, social media marketing will continue to grow. Live streaming, Augmented Reality and Influencer marketing are all tipped to be big.
So there you have it, my list of marketing trends to bear in mind when developing your 2018 strategy.