As your team finishes up the last couple of months of the year with a new year and an innovative marketing plan beckoning, take a moment to review what you have planned for 2018. Are you doing the same old thing or are you finding more exciting ways to increase engagement? If you’re ideas feel a little 2015, take a gander at a few marketing trends you’ll surely see next year.
Live Stream Guerilla Mobile Videos
Video streaming was responsible for a whopping 75 percent of all Internet traffic in 2017. With more and more platforms optimizing and enhancing their video platforms, think about how you can optimize on this growth in a substantial way. Your digital content needs a fresh perspective, so consider doing what revolutionaries do, employ guerilla strategy.
Have members of the company participate in guerilla live-streaming while on their phone. They can make the mundane a humorous, dramatic spectacle (“Bill, we’ve run out of paper!”) or maybe be a “fly on the wall” during a non-confidential brainstorming session. Let clients and followers in on your everyday office goings to endear them to your brand. After all, there’s a reason why The Office was so popular (but keep messages positive).
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence is changing the way we relate to clients. Using big data, fast machines, and algorithms aplenty, companies that employ AI can expect highly-customized content delivery. All the high-performance marketing teams are already using AI, and it’s leaving competitors in the dust. The technology has the ability to create meaningful touch points with prospects and clients because it knows what content to show, the best time to do it, and who to show it to. While pricey and Big Brotheresque, Salesforce predicts it will grow by 53 percent over the next two years alone.
Micro-Influencers
It’s like the boutique answer to product and service promotion. Rather than having a celebrity endorse a product, search out the wily micro-influencers in your niche. Micro-influencers will have anywhere between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. While they may have fewer followers than the latest quasi-celebrity, they are trusted advisors for those that follow them, thus higher click conversion rates for the products and services they recommend. Instead of blasting a premade message into to the blogosphere or Instagram, these specialists know how and when to reach the right people. They are four times more likely to get a comment on a post than influencers with larger audiences.
Look for micro-influencers who have found a unique way to amplify their message in a way that resonates with your brand.
Brand Blogs
Brand blogs are the next step in the evolution of the blog. Rather than using blogs for company updates (“Happy Birthday, Dave!”), look to seeing a slicker and more brand-centric focus. Brand blogs offer companies a workable strategy for having their own publication. By posting information on their industry, trends, and other high-quality content, brand blogs are positioning companies as experts in their industry.
It’s also a unique way to forge partnerships with brands you trust and recommend. Have them do a guest blog on your site and blast it out to their users, and you will undoubtedly pick up additional readers. Be sure to include engaging written and video content to keep you in their mind long after they’ve logged out.
Before you finalize your marketing strategy and budget, throw one or more of these strategies into the mix to maximize your results in 2018.
