Digital Marketing Trends Of 2017 You Shouldn’t Be Ignoring

Known to have grabbed a massive count of eyeballs in 2016, Digital Marketing is an eruptive, impulsive, and erratic industry. With businesses shifting towards creating an online presence, heavily, and promoting their products and services via social media sites and channels, keeping up with this changeable industry might look similar to a nincompoop’s errand!

The moment you’re done with catching the tiger by his tail, you’ll witness a new one with a fugacious tail that’ll require your attention. So where does the balance lie between ossifying into a Luddite, on one side, and chasing vacillating trends on the other? Fortunately, there’s this term – balance. That is if you’re able to

FIGURE OUT THE HOT TRENDS
MOVE ON WITH AN ACTIONABLE PLAN
TAKE FORWARD A MEASURABLE APPROACH

You’re certainly bound to succeed!

After spending two months trying to outsource the ideas from my blog readers, friends & colleagues from the same field, I’ve identified top strategies which you must keep in mind over the span of next few months, or let’s say, years for the purpose of Digital Marketing.

Before I proceed any further, here’s a quick synopsis of the strategies I’ve identified which would certainly offer you an insight on what I’ve covered in this article. Take a look.

- Content Will Remain the King
- CRO for A Higher ROI
- The Maximized Influence of Big Data
- A.I. Solutions Will Navigate Consumers
- Mobile Use Will Surpass Desktop Reliability
- Maximized Approach towards Search Marketing
- Brands Shaping Product Offerings as Per Consumers’ Latest Lifestyle Trends
- The Rising Stardom of Internet of Things
- Boost in Instant Communication
- Social Media Marketing to Touch New Heights of Marketing
- Seeking the Multiplatform Approach
- Mobile Use Will Surpass Desktop Reliability
- Location Based Marketing Technology
- The Hike in Domination of Video Ads
- Behavioral Email Marketing & Personalization
- Increase in the Consumption of Smart Devices and Wearable Technology
- Boost in Popularity and Strategic Brand Advertisement

CONTENT WILL REMAIN “THE KING”

Content is no longer limited to just strengthening SERs! While certainly, it’s one of the obvious reasons why you should be offering regular, engaging, enhancing, original, relevant, and quality content, here are the statistics that showcase why a compelling content will play an important role in Digital Marketing in 2017, too!

1. 90 percent of customers feel custom content is extremely needed while 78 percent of customers believe that firms with custom content always develop positive relationships.
2. The cost of content marketing is less compared to traditional marketing, i.e. 62 percent less/lead.

Content Syndication Strategy Used By Famous Blogger James Clear

Content establishes brand loyalty and trust meanwhile defining your company as an expert in its field. There are so many ways how one can utilize content to achieve a strong brand promotion and even stronger results. I’ve listed a few point how one could possibly navigate through a content marketing maze.

1. Utilize the first person during CALL TO ACTION to seek almost 90% hike in click through rate.
2. Maximize the use of EDITORIAL CALENDERS to increase the traffic by approx. 300%
3. Get hold of CONTENT SYNDICATION to seek a constant traffic of unique visitors up to 250,000
4. Use SLIDESHARE for business promotion to drive 20% additional organic traffic
5. Offer high-quality CASE STUDIES to boost sales growth by 185%

CRO FOR A HIGHER ROI

Conversion Rate Optimization might not sound something of a new terminology to a majority of digital marketers, however, it’s certainly a high time to debut it on business’s landing pages and websites.

It efficiently assists in tracking user behavior on the website and configures elements which are offering the maximum number of conversions. Rather than allocating a massive chunk of the budget for ad campaigns, marketers can use conversion rate optimization to funnel maximum of their existing traffic into higher sales.

THE MAXIMIZED INFLUENCE OF BIG DATA

Big Data has been the premium source of information or data collection for the businesses for many years from now. Those who want to utilize the real-time statistics and data for the betterment of their businesses can rely on this technology. Big Data applications are capable of providing in-depth market and customer insights to the users. Predictive analytics is the strength of this technology and this is how it helps businesses to create personalized experiences for their consumers through websites or apps.

Top players like Walmart, Rolls-Royce, Apixio, Amazon and others are already using the Big Data for a variety of business management and improvisation methods. They are utilizing Big Data for improving customer experiences through personalized marketing tactics. Enterprises like Netflix and Spotify have utilized one-to-one marketing methods and show how data can be used to create unparallel experiences for consumers.One of the recent examples is of US elections where Big Data played a critical role.

Cambridge Analytica utilized this critical data technology to help Trump team for where to focus on their fundraising efforts, increase spend etc. Nearly four thousand digital ads were delivered based on the data. "New findings released by leading global data, market research, and advisory firm Ovum estimated that the big data market will grow from $1.7bn in 2016 to $9.4bn by 2020, comprising 10% of the overall market for information management tooling."

Big Data can be mined to identify customer characteristics and behavior and hence is closely tied to machine learning and artificial intelligence, the two major future technologies that are to take up a vital role in the society in upcoming years.

A.I. SOLUTIONS WILL NAVIGATE CONSUMERS

As we anticipate the future of Artificial Intelligence that can identify a true potential of consumer navigation, the year 2017 will be the year more of data analytics and A.I. solutions. To predict the real-time consumer needs and prompt consumer services, apt and comprehensive analysis using advanced tools will identify consumer behavior. The Artificial Intelligence can be a driving force for tomorrow’s world.

MAXIMIZED APPROACH TOWARDS SEARCH MARKETING

Like most digital marketers are already aware, PPC is a practice used to gain maximum visibility and traffic through paid form of advertising efforts. While there was a time when this form of marketing was mostly utilized in the form of an umbrella terminology to encompass both paid search and SEO activities, things have changed over the time. The industry has now adopted Search Engine Marketing as a solely paid channel. Some of the activities include:

- PAID SEARCH ADVERTISING
- PAY PER CLICK
- PAY PER CALL
- COST PER CLICK
- COST PER THOUSAND IMPRESSIONS
Here are a few interesting statistics on Search Engine Marketing I’ve outsourced which I feel should interest you.

1. 85% of retailers claim search marketing to be the most effective tactic for customer acquisition.
2. Overall resources spend on search marketing in the United States has grown by 9% year-over-over. Most of the hike is a result from click growth.
3. Facebook accounts for holding over 1 billion search queries.

IMAGE: Percentage Results On Paid VS Organic Search

I’ve listed a few point how one could possibly navigate through a content marketing maze.

Below mentioned are a few key points I believe should be considered to seek maximum from search engine marketing strategy.

- Jump up to more than 30 positions by creating a network of similar partner websites in order to influence SERP.
- Get higher ranks on REVIEW WEBSITES to seek an average 18 percent boost in sales.
- Take advantage of TRAFFIC GENERATION TRENDS and notice a significant boost in ROI as experienced by 90 percent of marketers.
- Use AMP to seek 40 percent organic traffic from the overall website traffic.
- MEDIUM holds 6.2 Million Page views which mean writing on it can give you a greater boost.

BRANDS SHAPING PRODUCT OFFERINGS AS PER CONSUMERS’ LATEST LIFESTYLE TRENDS

Consumers have a special seat reserved at the marketing table. Thanks to social media! By sharing priorities and needs on the platform via direct feedback, consumers can inform brands of their preferences, likes, and dislikes. The impact of the ultimate brand revolution on the consumer-facing sectors has been huge, and we’ve already witnessed that. Burger King’s Coca-Cola vending machine, Nike’s hijab (headgear for Muslim athletes), McDonalds’ online poll for the choice of burger, etc., are some well-known examples of brands adopting customized product trends. We will witness brands becoming more attuned towards the priorities and requirements of consumers this year.

THE RISING STARDOM OF INTERNET OF THINGS

Internet of Things connects several devices and makes lives better and easier. It is expected that there would be nearly 50 billion connected devices by 2020 and with more and more people getting easily connected with one another and able to share data across various media. However, the biggest news about IoT last year was out in October 2016. It was the news of the massive DDoS attack performed through a large number of low security connected devices, which shocked everyone as of how IoT can even disrupt things when taken in a wrong way.

There is no doubt a lot of value from IoT to the industry sectors, but still, most of them consider it as a slow development which shall take many more years to flourish at a larger scale. Developments in IoT are however expected to continue in upcoming times to make the best possible use out of it for the betterment of people as well as the businesses.

IMAGE: Size of global market of IOT in US billion dollars

Internet of Things brings better opportunities for businesses as it makes products much smarter and more responsive with much smarter features which once seemed just impossible. With IoT, products can be implemented with special features which can prove to be highly attractive selling points for businesses thereby giving them a unique identity in the growing competition. Hence, IoT can be seen as a major digital marketing trend in the upcoming time that enterprises should look out for better market recognition and sales.

BOOST IN INSTANT COMMUNICATION

We have covered our surrounding with social media usage and technology consumption. Don’t we? The next generation would not set apart from instant communication and entertainment through the app usage. To stay connected using optimum use of social channels such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter signals the satisfaction of expectation via the instant response. Leveraging the social media dominance that is faster, pictorial, and more of connected ways, that can drive the customer base to the center in the upcoming period of time.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TO TOUCH NEW HEIGHTS OF MARKETING

I’ll be quite quick here. You’re already aware of the power of social media so I won’t go any deeper to explain the context. Instead, I’ve gathered a few highlights, which I believe you must go through.

- Building a Customized Page Tab on Facebook engages 40 percent of fans.
- You could bag almost 1,900 Social Shares in the mere span of 30 days by writing content on LinkedIn Pulse.
- Reddit can offer a great hike to your business.
- You can get as much as 10,000 Unique Visitors per month by targeting the online communities.

SEEKING THE MULTIPLATFORM APPROACH

Ever since smartphones with internet capabilities have emerged, they have been a part of business sometimes as a commerce medium or as marketing tools. Mobile marketing has been one of the important digital marketing trends for quite a few years from now and still continues to be. But now mobile marketing is getting a bit more focus on the enterprises as Google announces a mobile-first web index. Moreover, as the mobile web traffic takes to the all-time high, entrepreneurs are going crazy designing best mobile experiences for the consumers.

Many of them are shifting their marketing paradigms towards mobile, but according to us, this is not at all a happening strategy because even today there are many online users using their desktops and laptops for searching and buying purposes. Nearly 72% of consumers say they would rather connect with brands and businesses through multi-channel. Hence, what we think as a better marketing strategy is to target on various devices through a multichannel strategy rather than going for the mobiles only approach.

MOBILE USE WILL SURPASS DESKTOP RELIABILITY  

We’re living in mobile era!

Apparently, 2016 was a year of the mobile phone. The mobile optimized website is not a feature, it is a necessity. Google have considered mobile optimization on a serious note and the investments are considerably made in mobile over the desktop to achieve mobile-focused internet marketing.

IMAGE: Local Mobile Search VS. Desktop Search

In 2017, mobile search and optimization be a top priority for digital marketers.

LOCATION BASED MARKETING TECHNOLOGY

Location based marketing is very useful if your organization hosts various events in order to promote the brand and particular services. To increase the social sharing and promote your core idea, marketers can use the advanced tech such as Radio Frequency Identification – RFID through the use of Wearables and applications that can seamlessly create sharing experience among the users.

It is not only limited to the marketers, there are many location-based services that are being used to locate nearby devices and accomplish different perspectives through it.

THE HIKE IN DOMINATION OF VIDEO ADS

To share and gather information, Millennials and next generation embraced the power of videos and pictures that go big through the live streaming and visual storytelling. The on-going demand for live streaming in the majority of the application platform can gather a huge number of viewers together that serves as authentic and real-time informative source.

Social media users are getting their hands on live video trend and this live streaming functionality used widely across the mobile devices. Even, this year’s first presidential debate was streamed live and acquired millions of viewers into it. In the year 2017, it will be taking center stage in advertising including start-up brands, individuals, and giant media organizations.

In-SERP video advertising will change the whole phase of online advertisement as Facebook and YouTube are taking off the biggest and interactive pop-ups and short videos. We can predict the number of different types of videos will introduce on our screen, with this trend continues.

BEHAVIORAL EMAIL MARKETING & PERSONALIZATION

Behavior-based email marketing is slowly becoming the digital marketing norm. With large volumes of promotional emails hitting up the mailboxes of the consumers, the unsubscribe rates are hitting high and mail open rates are falling down. Hence, what businesses need today is to give the consumers what they are interested in. The blind bulk mail marketing concepts are already dying but what is needed is to target customers based on their browsing or purchasing behavior. Study the behavior of customers and sending them customized emails is the trending concept which is expected to be adapted better with the time.

"After years of the mainstream media declaring my favorite medium ‘dead,’ more and more marketers are realizing (or remembering) that email is the best way to get the right message with the right data to the right person at the right time. Innovative email marketing and marketing automation platforms now integrate with most other marketing platforms, giving marketers even more social, content, and behavioral insights that can be used to create customer-centric messages.” - Justine Jordan, Vice President of Marketing, Litmus."

Studying customer behavior also helps businesses to create personalized web experiences for individualistic needs. One of the best examples of web personalization that can be seen on websites these days is features like “related to products you have viewed” or “recommended for you” which guide customers to their e-commerce purchases efficiently.

INCREASE IN THE CONSUMPTION OF SMART DEVICES AND WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY

As the technology inventions are increasing, the more smart devices are introduced over the time such as Apple iWatch, Google Glass, Moto 360 that can attract the customers by its advanced technology and connected environment.

The 2017 year will take the smartphone and wearable device innovations to the next level and that will change the whole spectrum of applications and devices. With the online and real marketing strategies, digital marketers can focus on the potential of wearable technologies.

BOOST IN POPULARITY AND STRATEGIC BRAND ADVERTISEMENT

To get visibility and reachability, native advertising is still in the list to obtain natural-look visibility. Giving less attention to the more conventional form of advertising, native advertising is used to capture theattention of users, effectively.

Many brands have adopted Influencer Marketing as the powerful marketing strategy that focuses on business result via attribution modeling and prospects of brand reputation among users. This will continue to influence the digital marketing world in 2017.

As a wrap – My Final Words Of Wisdom

So, these were some basic strategies which I believe are going to dominate 2017 and the years after. While there are marketers who believe the giant “internet boom” will be expanding further with more firms penetrating the space of digital marketing, there are others who believe there’ll be an absolute makeover of how consumers of internet and search engine behemoths offer preference to keep the trends in synchronization.

As the final words of wisdom, I’d only like to say that the Digital Marketing sector is volatile and huge! The sooner your business hits the right goal of users, the more your business can appeal and stay right ahead of competitors. I am not saying go with my words, you should go ahead and browse other strategies as well, but in case, you don’t, NO ISSUE! You’re in the right hands!

Share your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d be delighted to hear from you.