Digital and Content Marketing trends to keep your eye on in 2018

28 December, 2017  |  Imola Tuzson

We know that digital and content marketing is the number one way to attract and keep loyal customers. So, when we learned about some of the new digital marketing trends predicted to take over 2018, we got so excited, that we wanted to share them with our followers too.

We found lots of new trends to consider but the following particularly piqued our interest:

The Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT), especially virtual assistants and off-screen devices like Siri, Google Text-to-speech and Amazon’s Alexa are giving consumers content on the fly, at their fingertips. Technology companies will adopt these strategies to improve user experience and journey in their services

Video Content Marketing

Video will be bigger than ever. Hubspot has reported that video is growing, with 48% of marketers planning to add YouTube to their marketing plan and 46% planning to add Facebook video. The guys at Search Engine Journal found that their average Facebook Live engagement was 178% higher than their average post engagement. Not only that but the average reach of posts more than doubled for live videos.

Vlog Content

Naturally, vlogging is expected to grow in 2018. B2C brands are looking more and more to YouTubers and social media influencers in order to reach their audiences. Vlogging can make your brand seem more personal and trustable.

Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

ML & AI will play a major role in personalising content. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will create what is known as ‘smart content’. AI will identify what consumers are organically searching for and where they are searching. Once the consumer has been profiled, marketers can create targeted content for their customers revolving around these keywords and phrases. This in turn leads their customer-centric content to be more discoverable within search engine ranking pages. This strategy helps with educating the consumer and building trust, before onboarding them to a paying customer. It is vital to know their behavior and creating content around this.

Bot Marketing

Another new marketing trend with Facebook is, bot automation and marketing through Facebook Messenger using ManyChat, Chatfuel and Botsify bots. Some brands and companies are offering to send their subscribers content via Facebook messenger instead of to their already crowded inbox. From research, we have gathered that bot marketing has increased open rates to 78%, whereas with email you will get about 2-3% open rates. Another great feature of bot automation or marketing is, engaging with customers through a clever AI strategy, where it could do lead capture and immediate engagement.

Facebook Lead Ads

When someone is scrolling through Facebook and views an ad for something they like, chances are that when they click the ad, they’ll be redirected to a website where they have to fill in their info in order to subscribe. Now, with Facebook lead ads, the ad will appear like normal, but will already have some potential consumer information pre-filled, that the person has shared with Facebook, such as name, email address and mobile number. It is literally one-click sign up for lead generation. Note: do check your privacy policy or terms of use, so it is inline with GDPR.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

With VR and AR taking off, it’s no surprise that companies will start to advertise through these futuristic funnels. Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore allows users to create augmented reality experiences for mobile devices. The automotive industry is implementing some great augmented reality tools that enable prospective customers to test drive their dream car without actually physically being there.

Final Thoughts...

We think that these methods of digital and content marketing will be huge in 2018. We’re excited to try some of these ourselves and are looking forward to seeing what other brands and companies will try. What content or digital marketing trend are you most excited about for 2018 and what will you be adopting? It would great to hear from you.