The marketing landscape is shifting every day. These days, millennials are tuning out of traditional ads, making them an extremely difficult group to hit. As this younger demographic suddenly becomes the most coveted audience on the market, new tactics emerge to reach and engage with them.
The rise of ad block, growth of smartphones, and the decline of traditional medium have made 2017 an extremely unique year for marketers. Couple these trends with the introduction of new marketing mediums like Snapchat, influencers, deep links and you have a tricky landscape.
In this post, we demisty the marketing landscape by sharing some of the little known digital marketing trends of 2017.
Trend 1: Increased importance on seamless mobile experience
Overview: Mobile is everything. More than half on web visits are mobile, that doesn’t even count the many hours per day users spend on mobile apps. Even so, many large companies still have not put a focus on their mobile experience. The time for this to change is now.
Why is this important: Mobile is the future. Many mobile websites direct a user to install their app, but the experience is broken. Often time a user cannot even find the content they were looking for after installing the app. What’s worse? Many mobile experiences themselves are completely broken but marketers fail to realize it. Focusing on mobile conversion, retention, and engagement through the use of deep linking and improved user routing is the way of the future.
Best tool you can use:Â Branch
Branch.io is a well funded startup that solves this problem completely. By integrating deep links into IOS app and your mobile website, you can significantly drive up your mobile conversion. Check out their guide on IOS deep linking if you’re looking to get started with this tactic. Deep linking can be an extensive topic but it’s critical that IOS and Android marketers become very familiar with deep linking 2017.
Trend 2: The rise and rise of Snapchat Filters
Overview: Snapchat filters are taking over. The younger demographic uses snapchat for hours each day. At the current pace, Snapchat will surpass 18 billion daily video views by May 2017. In fact, Snapchat ads are already viewed more than 10 million times per day, making it a substantial marketing medium to reach a coveted audience.
Why is this important: Snapchat filters don’t work like normal ads. They appear over a user’s image so that it can be shared with a friend. Unlike normal outbound advertising, snapchat filters actually engage the user to interact with the brand and share it with a friend. Each engagement with a filter is more than just one brand impression, it’s actually multiple since users share their images with their friends.
Best tool you can use:Â Snapchat
You can login to Snapchat’s online web interface to purchase premium sponsored filters.
Trend 3: Focus on word of mouth marketing and influencers
Overview: Nielsen says that 92% of marketers trust the referral from a friend over any other type of digital marketing. Millennials distrust ads. Referrals and word of mouth marketing is the future. Leveraging the power of your top brand advocates can help this.
Why is this important: A good experience involves a carefully crafted product influencer program. As consumers tune out ads, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to buy your way into users hands. Therefore, the sooner you focus on this tactic, the better. Teams are putting renewed focus on marketing through celebrities and social media influencers to help spread their message.
Best tool you can use: NeoReach
NeoReach’s product allows you search through over 3 million online influencers. You can filter by audience demographics, brand affinity, and much more. In terms of influencer marketing platforms, their platform is up to date with the latest trends and movement in the space.
Trend 4: Messaging Matters More Today Than Ever
Overview: People are becoming keenly aware of brand messaging. Ensuring that products are sustainably sourced, healthy, and free of negative impact on society are now critical driving factors in purchasing decision, especially to millennials. Unlike before where share of voice and mass appeal mattered, the story behind the brand carries outsized weight.
Why is this important: While often overlooked as a soft marketing tactic, messaging couldn’t matter more today. With the increased competition over ad space, companies with a focus on messaging have better conversion rates, higher lifetimes values, and an easier time getting their product to own the market.
A focus on good content and outbound storytelling makes a brand’s entire marketing strategy easier and drives up overall results and ROI.
Best tool you can use:Â SpyFu
Competitor research tools like SpyFu, social listening tools like Mention, and tracking tools like Google Alerts can help you keep tabs on the messaging and content that is getting crafted by competitors.