The New Year is approaching quickly and it’s a good time to look ahead to 2017 and consider what your marketing strategy will be. Digital marketing is running neck and neck with traditional advertising in terms of spending, and for a multitude of small business owners, it makes sense to allocate the lion’s share of their marketing budget to online strategies.
With that in mind, here are 8 awesome marketing trends to embrace in 2017.
Live video had a substantial year in 2016, and that trend is anticipated to see continued growth in 2017. Facebook Live attracted celebrities, advertisers, and even individuals with its immediacy.
The trick to using live video effectively is to schedule ahead and have a strategy for using it. Not every topic or situation lends itself to live video, but some that do include:
- Live Q & A sessions where you answer questions from the comment section
- Demonstrations of new products (or unboxing new products)
- Behind-the-scenes tours of your business or production facility
- Coverage of live events
If you want to utilize live video, come up with a schedule and budget (it doesn’t have to be costly) and then ensure your followers know when to expect you.
2015 was the first year ever that mobile searches outranked desktop searches, and research shows that 65% of all online user engagement in 2016 was on mobile devices.
What does that mean in terms of marketing? It means that your website and all of the content on it should be optimized for mobile users. You should also consider implementing mobile buying buttons, mobile payments, and creating a mobile app to engage your customers. Even little things, such as using Facebook’s “Call Now” button for your mobile ads, can make a worthwhile difference when it pertains to the ROI on your mobile ads.
One of the most annoying things for content marketers who utilize social media is the increasingly-sophisticated algorithms that deter many of their followers from seeing their content – unless they pay to boost it.
If you’re looking for a solution to bypass that issue without paying Facebook or Twitter – the people who are, after all, causing the problem in the first place – you might want to consider influencer marketing. Regardless of what niche you’re in, you can contract with authorities, celebrities, and people with large social followings that overlap your target audience. Get them to talk about your company or products to their followers, and reach hundreds or even thousands of new users for (potentially) only a fraction of the cost you might pay to run an ad or boost a post.
As marketing grows progressively sophisticated, it’s not surprising that marketers at every level are excavating deep into customer research to acquire information to help them tweak their marketing campaigns.
A few of the things you can do to mine data include evaluating traditional analytics and conducting customer surveys. The information you collect can help you to personalize your marketing and boost your engagement.
Local marketing has always been essential, but mobile technology makes it easier than ever to reach your customers where they are – and when they are most likely to need your products or services.
If you want to engage in hyper-local marketing, you should:
- Validate your NAP listings
- Make yourself known by appearing at local events
- Use social media targeting to reach people in your immediate area
- Consider utilizing geofencing to reach mobile customers when they’re close to your store
These strategies can help you increase foot traffic and construct a dedicated following.
It might shock you to see email marketing on this list considering that this type of marketing is hardly new. Nonetheless, it is still one of the best and most dependable ways to reach out to your target audience and engage them.
The secret to utilizing email marketing effectively is not to send a series of sales pitches. Nobody who subscribes to your list will stay subscribed for long if all you do is try to sell them something. Instead, concentrate on delivering interesting, relevant, and actionable content. If you do that, people will eagerly anticipate receiving your emails – and they’ll be receptive when you do make a sales pitch.
Studies show that millions of internet users – perhaps as many as 26% — use ad blocking software when they browse the web. That indicates that marketers have a potential issue unless they can discover a way to engage with those people.
Content marketing is a huge component of the solution since it’s not likely to be blocked. However, organic reach is down too. One remedy may be to target consumers with advertising that they have agreed ahead of time to receive. For example, podcasts, webcasts, live video, and newsletters are all ways that you can connect to customers who are willing to check out ads in return for valuable and relevant content.
This last trend relates to mobile users and local marketing, but it deserves its own place on this list because it has the power to revolutionize marketing going forward.
Beacon technology is software that uses Bluetooth technology to pinpoint mobile devices in stores and then make use of that connection to assess shopper behavior. Eventually, proponents of the technology envision that it can be used to send hyper-personalized content to mobile users while they are shopping. It may additionally be able to help business owners optimize the layout of their stores and the customer experience to boost sales and build loyalty.
Certainly, you can also expect that social media marketing will continue to be important in 2017. The trick to maximizing the ROI on your marketing campaigns is to analyze the performance of your current marketing, continue with what works, and integrate new trends as they make sense for your business. If you do that, 2017 can be your best year yet.
