Neither you can run nor you can hide!
Since Inception of Markup Programs like word editor, presentation makers or Image Editors, Marketing got new dimension to explore. I still remember when agencies used to digitalise their marketing material in the form of formatted text, presentations or graphic arts and send it to potential customers in the form of floppy discs. But now technology has evolved so does the use of digital marketing trends in 2017, many of you might have known it as Online Marketing, some might have heard it as Web Marketing, some might call it Internet Marketing but the essence is still the same i.e. to promote or market a product/brand (or anything) online.
Digital Marketing professionals are exploring every possible way to promote products and services by incorporating top digital marketing trends in 2017 like Search Engine Optimisation, Content Marketing, Native Ads, Display Advertisements, Email Marketing, etc. But one thing has taken place so fast that no one could have ever imagined, Yes! You are right – it is ‘Social Media Marketing’ with almost 2 billion active users, Facebook has become marketers first choice after Google who claims 90% of Internet audience which is truly huge.
To write a successful Digital Marketing Campaign one should always stay updated with latest digital marketing trends, be it converting your website to mobile responsive design to meet Google’s standard, to writing rich content for your business as a long-term investment for the future. Here are Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends in 2017 which I think can change the marketing course in 2017, but Hey! As I said the trends are changing so you never know while you are reading this blog something new comes in the market to talk about.
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1. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Accelerated Mobile Pages commonly called AMP is a framework developed by Google for platform independent and fast website browsing. Unlike Mobile Responsive website development, AMP Script doesn’t have to be coded in existing website so that it adapts the size of the mobile devices or tablets. Instead in AMP Framework, you have to build a separate website for your mobile devices from scratch for a faster browsing experience. It means you will have a separate website for your Desktop and Laptop at the same time. Thanks you are not restricted to view AMP version only, you will have the option for an AMP version for your mobile devices so you can choose what you want to see.
Since it’s not something we have to do overnight or Google has not forced anyone to build an AMP based website for mobile devices overnight just like it did in 2014 for Mobile Responsiveness, but we are still expecting that Google might add the need of AMP-based websites in coming updates. I personally think that it’s not only for cross-device compatibility or speed of the website, it’s because Google wants to expand its ad network to devices which are not capable of running a desktop or mobile responsive website’s versions where Google Ad network already had penetration. So it means that Google is already developing strategies to promote Ads on AMP sites, not all kinds of display ads can be shown but 2017 will have lots of surprises for us.
You might have already started seeing AMP carousels in your search results and you will see a list of AMP sites growing in it. Even AMP ALP (AMP Ad Landing Pages) is catching fire in the Digital Marketing world to bring search results faster to a mobile user.
I will be posting a separate article on AMP, ALP, and RNA (Responsive Native Ads) for my readers.
2. Content is still a King
Nowadays, people need more detailed, more informative, more interesting, more compelling pieces of content than ever before and that’s the reason for Twitter’s decline – the once major source of online information, with its small, textual updates is no longer considered to be relevant as it used to be.
A unique, high-quality content will always be an important part of any digital marketing campaign in the years to come. The Content Marketing will become more competitive with the arousal of professional writers and video producers.
With the coming of augmented and virtual reality users in 2017, we’re going to see a drastic change in content marketing techniques. As the users will search more immersive experience, more visually appealing and story-based content will be in great demand.
The key will be to offer users a content created with valuable and real brand stories to drive engagement much more than just regular. Remember always – Content Rules!
3. One-to-One Communication
When you’ve someone right in the front of you, it becomes easy for use to gauge their responses immediately and you can react accordingly, so we call this as one-to-one communication. When it comes to Digital Marketing, the rules are quite same. If you’re not giving the personal feel to your customers and not leveraging the latest tools, you won’t be able to know about how to be as human as possible on the web.
However, Digital Marketing is a vast landscape, but it’s not only meant to reach out to social groups but to build a healthy relationship with the end user. On the contrary, some companies just piss off their valuable audience by sending bulk emails, irrelevant content, irritating ads, pop-ups which in turn affects rich user experience. So the need of the hour is to understand the true needs of your audience and adopt new digital marketing trends such as one-to-one communication to help customers place their trust in your brand.
Digital marketers are working hard to build strong connections which can be reached individually through marketing campaigns on messengers or email marketing. Some instant messaging apps like Snap, fb messenger, Whatsapp has completely redefined the user expectations and key trends in the marketing industry.
These messaging apps play a prominent role in creating the much-desired opportunity for one-to-one communication and will also witness a flattering rise in the coming year. As users need digital marketers to deliver an unprecedented level of personalisation and accessibility, digital marketers must cope up to develop innovative ways to communicate via customised or specially addressed messages and offer them a real picture of happenings in the world.
4. Rise of Chatbots
Chatbots is an example of a one-to-one communication which is again happening thing in 2017 where companies will provide interactive user experience with virtual assistants in chat programs, e.g. in banks virtual chat assistant will help you to perform a transaction whereas, in an IT company, chatbots will help to troubleshoot a problem.
YES BANK is a first of its kind in the retail lending industry that has launched a banking Chatbot – YES mPower for its transactions and loan products. Currently, it is active on Facebook Messenger where it can perform all tasks of loan origination across multiple products without any need to download any financial app. Many brands like Taco Bell and Dominos have also integrated Chatbots into their customer experiences which make easy for customers to order food via chatbot functionality.
5. Augmented Reality
Virtual reality was a buzzing word in 2015-2016. With many smartphone companies offering VR devices to view 360 videos and dynamic videos. Although they are new kids on the block but they are now becoming important technological breakthroughs.
Due to such advancements, we’re seeing a remarkable turnaround in the way audiences interact with. PokemonGo game is one of the best real life examples set by augmented reality. At present, there are 65 million monthly active users of PokemonGo and its estimated no of downloads till date is 650 million times. These interesting stats also left brands – be it small or big scrambling to figure out how to fix their offers inside the popular AR game. Companies such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PSVR are coming out with AR related products and applications on their AR devices and at the same time marketers are finding out on how to use this to create their own branded experience through ads in proprietary games and prompting customers towards making a purchase.
6. Collaboration Portals for Organisations
Collaboration is still an untapped key to competitive advantage, buried deep inside an organisational backyard. Sharing information and collaborating on people driven business processes are considered to be significant challenges faced by companies today.
Collaboration portals for organisations is a powerful tool for people to collaborate and communicate with each other. Hence organisations can accelerate their performance by investing in such portals, as collaboration portals reduce operational costs, improve collaboration and increase ROI.
However, from the past several years, many internal communications have been introduced in organisations like WSS 3.0, Yammer, Slack, etc. Working on these collaborative platforms was a very tedious task for web teams as these platforms need various customisations and skills to do it right. I also tried my hands on WSS 3.0 in 2013 and I better know that you need to invest your time and skills to make sure everything works.
But in October 2016 Facebook has completely changed the way you work with the release of a new collaboration platform – Workplace by Facebook.
You may be wondering what sets it apart from the rest? Facebook has taken the jack at slab by allowing the companies to customize their social experience. It’s feature dubbed Custom Integrations facilitate the organisations to integrate the workplace into their existing workflows. Facebook is giving a tough competition to Slack through its full-fledged collaboration platform. That’s why all kinds of companies such as Airtel, Campbells, Renault Retail Group, Starbucks, etc. are making their presence felt through the workplace.
Collaboration can really change the way you work by cultivating a culture of sharing by involving wirearchies, empowering key stakeholders and leveraging evolving technologies so that you build competitive advantages to outpace your competition.
7. Rise of Internet of Things
IoT aka Internet of Things is a term used to represent the interconnection of a vast number of devices including smartphones, tablets, cars, machines, etc. and the data these devices collect and exchange through the help of internet. In simpler terms, the increased machine to machine communication is termed as IoT.
If we are to analyse the raw data, by 2020 more than 75 billion devices will be interconnected and sharing data with each other at regular intervals. All this data sharing when done in a good way can transform the way we are our living our lives and the implications be it good or bad will be huge and far ranging.
One such example is creating smart roads by using sensors placed alongside the road to have effective communication between the road and the cars. In the case of extreme weather when there is ice on the road, smart roads can communicate with the car through a wireless network and effectively warn the driver about the hazard ahead. This is one way how machine to machine interaction will take place for the betterment of the humankind.
for more information on IoT click here
8. Native Marketing
Native marketing, also referred as native advertising has been used for years by brands finding an easy way to get natural looking visibility. Some of you might have seen “advertorial” or “online publications” in your local newspapers. Well, that’s called native marketing! It is similar to editorial content, but is paid for by an advertiser and is meant to promote the advertiser’s products or services. The basic concept of native advertising revolves around making ads appear less like ads.
In short, native marketing is any paid media placement that is created to look like the main content in which advertisement is placed. A live alternative to conventional advertising, native advertising is on an upward swing, as users continue to ignore or criticize traditional forms of advertising. Thus, native adverting becomes a sneakier way to catch those users’ attention. This kind of advertising is mostly shaped around provoking images, headlines, and current scenarios.
For example, Taboola, Outbrain, AdNow are three of the biggest ad networks that help supplement your display ad revenue and drive more engagement on your website.
9. Live Video Streaming
Video rules the online world! Yes, you heard it right and there are predictions too, that this digital marketing trend will continue to dominate in 2017. With the rising popularity of messaging apps, social networks are embracing the feature too. You can also call this as the need of the hour which only lies in-the-moment content and that’s why real-time social aka live video streaming is gaining unmatched popularity. From a typical day in the life of a celebrity to an interesting event at an enterprise, people like to witness it all in real time.
If you’re a Facebook user, you’re likely familiar with the concept of Facebook Live introduced back in 2016 and since then it has been constantly exploited to the fullest. Businesses and users alike have also played off with this idea to use for distribution of news, personal use, important government announcements, media, tutorials, rallies, products briefing, tours, etc. Except Facebook Live; Periscope, YouTube Live, and SnapChat are also betting strongly towards helping brands leveraging video and streaming tools in order to reach, engage and connect with potential customers throughout the year ahead.
10. Influential Marketing
Influential marketing was one of the major marketing trends in 2016. According to eMarketer, 2017 is predicted to mark a major milestone for digital marketing. It is becoming one of the hottest strategies for brands to explore. Many marketers face challenges like ad blocking, bot fraud, social algorithms and general skepticism, this is where Influential marketing plays a central role in the marketing mix this year.
In a broader sense, Influential marketing is a practice of finding people who are already influencing your market. They will appreciate your help to serve their targeted audience better and honor you with reputation and trusted leads. Nikon, Birchbox, Boxed Water are few of the shining stars that have already improved their bottom line by incorporating Influential marketing in a right way.
We’re also seeing some brands partnering and co-creating unique content (that cannot be found elsewhere) with Snapchatters and YouTubers.
As of 2017, it’s going to be another big year for more sophisticated content channels, so why not experiment with at least some of the above digital marketing trends?
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