Digital Marketing Trends - 2018

The rate of change in digital marketing in 2018 will increase yet again, so to help get you ahead of the curve, here are digital marketing trends to start thinking about. People's exposure to advertising has been massive and this has had two impacts: people will only engage with different/sophisticated advertising and people are sick of advertising! Personalisation could be a simple customized landing page or it could be a fully personalized website experience, but if this is all new to you, 2018 should be the year you start to investigate. This might not feel like a very insightful trend to identify as a video has been an important part of digital marketing for a number of years, but a video will evolve in 2018. There will also be more emphasis on live streaming as Facebook seems to be prioritizing live video content over video content, and video content over other types of content. Search is a very important traffic source for most websites. Keeping an eye on how search is changing is probably in your interests. Voice search has been around for a couple of years now, but there are two interesting developments. Voice search through devices such as the Google app or assistants like Amazon Echo is tending to deliver longer-tail queries than text search and the number of voice searches is likely to increase in 2018. Secondly, Google revealed Google Lens in October where you can show your camera a, say, poster and Google will search for the text and images within that poster.

What is digital marketing? Digital marketing refers to marketing techniques that make use of digital media channels. Nowadays, much of marketing is tending towards becoming “essentially digital”. When we consider digital marketing the first idea that comes to mind is the conventional form, through the internet. But it would be a mistake to forget mobile phones, tablets, GPS and other connected devices. It’s unnecessary to start by explaining the importance of digital marketing, because if you have found this article that means you’re already aware of its importance and you are trying to find out about the latest trends in 2018. Let’s try to satisfy your curiosity! - What are these digital marketing trends? The main digital marketing trends in 2018 are not totally new. Some of them have already existed for a few months or even years.Let’s take a look at these trends:

1.Immersive Marketing (Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR)):

Just one example is enough to illustrate this, Pokémon GO. The game was launched last year and was a huge success from the start. Many brands are using AR for advertising, such as the PepsiCo bus shelter ad in London.

2.Video Live Streaming:

This is being used more and more by the users of social media. Additionally, millions viewed the first live-streamed Presidential debate.

3.Big Data and Data Visualization Tools:

Nowadays we have access to so much data, but our brain cannot keep up and understand everything, so we will increasingly rely on tools to help comprehend the data.

4.Native Advertising:

Native Advertising also a common trend this year, and maybe, even more, sneakier than before (or should we just say “more effective” in attracting attention?!) - Dense Content: by providing useful content for customers, trying to share information in a way that offers a unique experience. After analyzing these different trends, one question comes to mind: Do these trends also arise in the market? Let’s check if the trends in the market are the same as those in the general market:

Content Marketing: Such as strong and personalized customer focus, quality content, word-of-mouth and influencer marketing - Video Live Streaming - As always WeChat is becoming stronger than ever.

User experience: responsive designs for mobile, iPad, and desktop screens.

Focus on the local market: the international companies will have to adapt their offer, services, and products to the Chinese local market.

 

Let’s see study cases - A successful case study:

Virtual reality case study: “New York Times takes the news to a new generation.” In a world that is constantly evolving, particularly in the digital arena, it is not unusual to see a decline in print sales. The challenge - How is it possible for a 165-year-old newspaper, such as the New York Times, to reach the next generation of readers? Nowadays the New York Times faces huge competition to try to keep the newspaper’s market share. They must contend with Facebook Instant Articles, Snapchat Stories and even Twitter. They needed to find an idea to attract new readers, the Millennials. The plan - The New York Times used virtual reality (VR) to meet the challenge.