Toward the end of one calendar year, many online gurus start making predictions about what's going to happen in the coming year. In terms of digital marketing, there are a multitude of possibilities.
At the moment, inbound marketing is considered the “in” thing but social media marketing still continues to be highly effective. Email marketing may not seem cutting edge anymore but there's still something to be said for enticing a customer by sending them an email to their inbox which they check everyday, often several times a day.
Will all these marketing trends survive 2018? Are some of them likely to grow exponentially? Will any of them tank? Here are a few things we can keep in mind when entering the new year:
Social Media Keeps Growing
The world is becoming a funny place. People are actually becoming less social in their everyday lives and more social on social media. You'll often see several people sitting together at a café, all looking at their phones. What is this fascination that people have with being in touch with someone who is far away while they ignore people who are close to them?
Fortunately, the upside of this for your business is that people who are nowhere in your immediate vicinity will still become interested in your product and buy it, especially if you have an ecommerce-enabled website. (And ecommerce is yet another digital phenomenon to invest in, if you haven't done so already.)
As far as social media goes, it's in your best interest to at least have a couple of accounts which you keep updating regularly. And if you write a post that generates a lot of buzz, keep following it up with more posts that are related to it.
Inbound Marketing Dominates
Inbound marketing came in as a dark horse but has slowly become the new “in” thing. Remember what Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book, The Tipping Point? His idea was there's a tipping point for every product. Something might seem to be falling off the map but suddenly revives. The point is that the process might seem sudden but there are actually behind-the-scenes factors which lead into it.
This is the case with inbound marketing. As time goes on, there are many digital scams and people are looking for greater authenticity. Inbound marketing gives them what they're looking for. With inbound, people follow the directives of their online friends and people they trust. They buy products based on recommendations from these people. They also buy these products after educating themselves on your value-add content.
This need for authenticity and reliability will continue to grow. And, inbound is likely to grow exponentially, as compared to outbound which may have already peaked.
Email Marketing Becomes More Targeted
Everyone checks email everyday. And yes, there are still a number of people receiving promotional emails in their inbox. However, many of them are not. With Gmail, the inbox is itself divided into “primary,” “social” and “promotional.” Most of us might just glance at these cursorily and move on, unless we are really interested in that product or service.
This is what makes it more necessary for email marketing to become more targeted. In order to do this, you need to keep lists of past customers and grow your list (with inbound marketing?) to obtain lists of potential customers who are actually interested in what you're selling. It doesn't make much sense to send out thousands of emails only to get a handful more customers. So targeting your audience is the way to go.
Overall, you'll find that in 2018, digital marketing itself will continue to grow. However, there will be a greater need for transparency as customers become more wary of companies approaching them with what appear to be scams. Maintaining the integrity of your company as well as showing people you're doing so will help you with all forms of digital marketing and establish your brand as one people can trust. Contact us for more information.
