Digital Marketing Trends for 2017
Contebt Marketing, Mobile Websites, Video Marketing
Top Digital Marketing Trends
A digital marketing strategy is an essential part of a successful business today. In order to succeed a business must attract customers, to attract customers in today’s climate a website is a must and in order to have your website be found by potential customers a digital marketing strategy is key. Few sectors of today’s advertising world are growing more quickly than digital marketing. With the meteoric rise in the past decade and a half of handheld devices, no other type of marketing makes more sense for your business, no matter its size. Whether yours is a small, independently run mom-and-pop-style shop around the corner; a mid-sized company employing a couple hundred or so staff members; or a large corporation that leads its industry, if you are not utilizing such digital marketing tactics as content marketing and social media marketing in order to get the word out about your products and services, your business is, quite simply, losing business. And because SEO (search engine optimization) now depends largely upon algorithms used by Google and others, your digital marketing plan must include these vital strategies in order to be successful. However, simply employing digital marketing strategies is not enough. You must employ the latest trends within this ever-growing and diverse yet specialized field. Following are some of the trends to look for in 2017 and beyond.
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Content Is King
Content has been king since algorithms were first put into use. Companies like Google want their customers to experience the best the Internet has to offer, and so the algorithm was born. SEO is dependent on those algorithms, and that means content marketing tops the list for continuing trends in 2017. So it should not surprise anyone in the know that content being king will not change in 2017. What’s new about this old concept is that because it remains king, its influence over the algorithms grows exponentially. Also, because content reigns, so does originality. If you thought the competition to remain original, and therefore relevant, was stiff in the past, you ‘aint seen nothin’ yet.’ The algorithms will continue to change by leaps and bounds, and that means your content must be ever-creative in order to stand out. In order to make its greatest impact, utilize visuals alongside the descriptive. In 2017, live video streaming will dominate as long as it has a strong narrative to accompany all those visuals. To find what they need, your customers, both existing and potential, are ready, willing, and able to employ as many senses as possible. It will be your job to ensure they can and will find what they need by applying interactive means to that end.
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A Mobile Friendly Website
If you are surprised that mobile devices will be one of the stars of the 2017 digital marketing trends, then you undoubtedly have not been paying attention to these trends at all. Today, people are ever on the go. They are ever pushing to their limits the boundaries of technology, constantly searching for ... and expecting ... the tech industry to answer their call for constant sources of transportability. Naturally, that is where their mobile devices come in, as your customers look to their fingertips for the answers to all their needs. And, where content is king over websites, you might say mobility is king over content, particularly if you are talking about social media marketing. In order to rise to the top and stay there throughout 2017 and beyond, including a mobile website in your digital marketing plan is not just important; it’s vital. Additionally, one of the most significant keys to properly utilizing mobile devices for your digital marketing strategies will be personalization to the Nth degree. Today’s consumer’s savvy is more acute than ever. Your business must not only match that keen awareness but raise the bar above their expectations. In every area of your business’s marketing plan, personality and engagement will be key. Because Google has all but weeded out sites that have not upgraded for mobile devices, your digital marketing strategy for 2017 must be like a shark ... sink or swim. Simply put, without mobility, your business drowns.
Mobile Apps
Yes, it is true... the digital marketing industry has been predicting the death of mobile apps for years, and it still has not happened, right? Wrong. The fact is that mobile apps are dying, however slow that death may be occurring. But that death likely is not as slow as you may think. In fact, statistics show that downloading of the 15 major mobile apps actually decreased by nearly 20% in 2016. The reasons are quite understandable. First, mechanism by which we download apps is much slower than most consumers would prefer. People are on the go these days, meaning they use their mobile devices more than ever. So why, then, would you take the time to download a mobile app? Consumers are trending toward seeing this process as far too time consuming, opting for other means of digital marketing such as chatbots that will quickly find answers for their questions. And, since chatbots are interactive, they can find those answers while they performing other activities. Another statistic that points to the slowing down of downloading mobile apps is simply the decrease in the number of their downloads. Another reason for the trend toward less downloads of mobile apps, and eventually their much-predicted demise, is that many people believe most apps will soon be web-hosted, meaning they can be accessed through browsers. This means that web apps for digital marketing will make much more sense than mobile apps that cause users to have to download them. Yet another reason for the prediction of the death of mobile apps is the fact that top developers such as Google are trending a move away from apps providing much-needed functions and toward these functions being performed on main screens of phones. Additionally, the mobile app market has been, that’s right, saturated. With literally millions of mobile apps on the market, and more being developed all the time, consumers have become apped-out, many reporting that their app loyalty is small and specialized. Cloud technology, as well as the cost of maintaining all those apps, round out the list of reasons apps are on their way out. Finally, phones are moving toward technology that enables them to do what apps do.
The horizon shows that most people have the apps they need, often uninstalling many of those they currently have. Perhaps 2017 will not be the year mobile apps die, but their slow-but-steady death will come, and that means you perhaps should look elsewhere to fill your digital marketing plan.
Video Ads
When it comes to SEO, video advertisements will be at the forefront of usage in 2017. If you think this is not a likely scenario, think again. Yes, video ads have been utilized by the social media marketing leaders such as Facebook for quite some time now. But with giants such as Google and Bing using more video ads in searches, consumers are at the cusp of getting used to their presence, and this means they are more readily accepting their usage. The simple fact is that consumers are more likely to check out something that gives them a visual than just words. And, put a narrative with that visual, and you have got a potentially winning combination that places your ad at the fore. Think about the ancient practice of advertising in the Yellow Pages. If you are among the population that cut their teeth on this form of advertising, you likely will remember how more apt you were to contact a business whose ad jumped out at you. That is only one reason video ads are trending in the new digital marketing age. Another reason for the rise of the video ad in 2017 is its ability to, as they say; put a face to a name in the advertising game. Familiarity breeds trust, and trust is what your business needs. But how do you get your foot in the door before you have been able to build trust? You do it with familiarity.
Chatbots and Marketing
After discussing every other digital marketing trend there is for 2017, the discussion must always come back to chatbots. In fact, these interactive sci-fi-looking devices likely will pepper just about every area of every marketing landscape for years to come. So what are chatbots? Chatbots are interactive intelligence systems that you interact with. Simply put, talking robots. If you are a fan of science fiction, you probably have been watching their virtual ancestors in films as far back as the 1970s, 1960s, and even 1950s. Talking robots have been interacting with humans on television and the big screen for decades, and now they are coming to your home. With examples like Google Home and Amazon Echo topping the list, chatbots can be used to hail a taxi, search out a flutist for your wedding, or just to order a pizza. In the analysis of marketing trends for 2017, as the discussion turns against the app, so it turns toward the birth and rise of chatbots. As mentioned above, consumers want their lives to be simplified. That always was supposed to be the purpose of technology. Sadly, as most people will admit, in some ways technology’s purpose of simplicity has gotten lost in its competitiveness. Much of this will change as chatbots grow more plentiful. Interaction will be key to both content marketing and social media marketing, and that means chatbots will dominate. And, as their capabilities expand, so too will their usage. Because chatbots allow consumers to perform more than one function at a time, there is simply no stopping the utilization, as well as the influence on culture and consumerism, of the chatbot in 2017 and beyond.
A Digital Marketing Plan
We are all hopeful for a ‘Happy New Year,’ and if you are a business owner, that happiness depends largely upon your company’s success in 2017 and beyond. For success not only next year, but year after year, keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends is critical. If you are not optimizing your digital marketing strategy, you will not be maximizing sales. But how do you maximize sales in today’s fiercely competitive business horizon? You do it with digital marketing. Digital marketing is not only the wave of the present, but the wave of the near future and likely the not-so-near future. For 2017, aligning your marketing strategy with the latest trends in digital marketing will give you that much-needed leg up on the competition. And your digital marketing plan must include 2017’s biggest trends in order to just remain in the game, let alone be a contender. First, because content is king, content marketing is a must for your digital marketing plan. But yesterday’s content may not be good enough to work in tomorrow’s world. Heightened personalization as well as hyper engagement will help your content get to the top of the search engines. Where content was king yesterday, tomorrow it will be the entire Royal Family. Next, because mobile-device usage is not going away anytime soon, your digital marketing plan needs to include mobile-focused marketing that moves away from desktop and toward handheld devices. But if the term ‘mobile device’ makes you think ‘app,’ think again. Apps are on their way out, ushering in a new age of usability, functionality, and convenience. As consumers demand more and more convenience and flexibility, tech giants are moving toward more and more portability and maneuverability. And what could be more convenient than doing two ... or three or four ... things at once? With chatbots, that is precisely the idea. The ever-increasing functionality of the interactive talking robot has brought the once only imagined future into the present. And that means your content marketing plan needs to include ads that utilize these new technologies. Finally, 2017’s digital marketing trends will include a more specialized yet wider array of video ads that will not only prove that consumers are more accepting of them, but will prove to be key for any digital marketing plan.