Best 3 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch for in This Year

The digital marketing industry is intricate and capricious, still exciting for people that stay up-to-day with every emerging trend. When it comes to digital marketing business the only thing constant is change, right from technological trends, shifts in business models to evolution in customer behavior – there is lots understand what’s vital about what’s next in store. In past years we saw some key developments such as an increase in mobile internet users, the age of video marketing, big data, updates in SEO algorithms, need for responsive websites design, mobile eCommerce and more that have laid the foundations stone to look for what’s ahead. However, keeping up an ever-changing pattern of digital marketing trends might be a daunting task to align with. But that’s what this industry is all about, the most successful digital marketers understand the importance of agility when speaking about engaging today’s always-alert consumers. Companies/individual who adopts these tends earlier will become industry leaders, while those delaying will struggle to achieve results. Strategies such as search engine marketing, fake reviews, big banner ads and pop-up ads are a thing of past. To give a clear frame of mind to marketers in terms of what’s important now, here are top 3 digital marketing trends one should pay attention to in 2017.

#1. Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is relatively not a new trend for 2017, yet it has the potential for improvement. This industry is already $5.5 billion huge and more companies are likely to invest in marketing automation software/tools this year. What is Marketing Automation? Marketing automation system allows organizations to create strategies that are ongoing that can be scheduled to be triggered at particular times, for certain kind of audiences. It helps create marketing campaigns that nurture leads and help in establishing long-term relationships with customers. Marketing automation tools and software allows business to streamline their promotional campaigns in order to become more efficient – meaning no investment on talent hiring and new projects. There are many tools such as Zapier, AWeber, and HootSuite to help you establish this with ease in today’s market. However, before you select the tool that is appropriate, you must first identify your organization’s specific needs. When you identify those needs as an organization, it will be easier to make your decision in a better-informed manner. For example in healthcare industry, a drip campaigns based on age can help send reminders on health check-ups, nurture campaigns can help existing patients get tips on how to take care of them based on their demography, social awareness campaigns and free health care campaigns information can give patients a feeling that the healthcare provider actually cares. Also, a varied number of channels can be used for this purpose including emails, SMSs, social media, mobiles and so on. These different channels helps to engage audience based on their preference and usage patterns. Interesting Facts of Marketing Automation:

• According to Marketo & Ascend2 - 91% of the most successful users agree that marketing automation is “very important” to the overall success of their marketing across channels.
• According to Adestra, 74% of marketers believe the biggest benefit automation offered them is time-saving. It augmented customer engagement by 68%, communication by 58% and increased up-selling opportunity by 58%.
• A study by VB Insight found that 80% of businesses using automation have also enjoyed increased leads.
• A research from VentureBeat Insight said 75% or more companies are likely to buy marketing automation software over the next year.
• According to Nucleus Research’s study that companies that were using automation software had improved sales productivity by 14.5%.

These facts only depict that marketing automation is growing at an astonishing rate and cannot be ignored by any digital marketer. Further, one of the biggest enhancements for marketing automation will be the addition of Artificial Intelligence functionality to improve capabilities and functions.

#2. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality

2016 was an infiltrate year for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Augmented Reality began to boom with the release of Pokemon Go and thanks to the headsets coming from HTC, Oculus, and Playstation that people were transported to a different place virtually to experience something in real-time. What is Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality? Augmented Reality is the latest technology that overlay images of the real world on users to offer a composite view. While Virtual reality means simulating our imaginary worlds using a high-performance computer and sensory tools such as VR Headsets to sense objects as spatial presence. AR/VR digital marketing trends of 2017 can encourage marketers to deliver an immersive, impactful, and most powerful memorable experience to engage customers. Also, this concept allows users virtually feel the product, campaign or a place without having any direct physical effects. These two concepts have enhanced digital marketing as a whole. We will see most brands will be using AR/VR technology to market their products, services, concepts and ideas to audiences. Best Examples of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality –

• Coca Cola’s Santa’s VR Sleigh Ride – Last year during Christmas, the giant company Coca-Cola designed a virtual reality sleigh ride using Oculus Rift to offer the experience of being a Santa Clause for a day. It was a roller coaster ride for the audience as Santa Clause flew over the country and into different villages.

• Samsung Gear VR #BeFearless of Heights – Samsung had a #BeFearless project last year for helping people overcome their fear of heights gradually. 27 people participated from different countries who were scared of heights. Wearing Samsung Gear VR, participants had to go through 3 different scenarios at different levels of difficulty. The anxiety level of participants was reduced by 23.6% due to the campaign.

• Topshop Kinect AR Dressing Rooms – TopShop partnered with Kinect to create an Augmented Reality dressing room for shoppers that are in hurry. This allowed shoppers to try out their purchases virtually and quickly.

There are hosts of possibility with this latest digital marketing trend such as shopping, wireless devices, and connected apps.

#3. Content Marketing through Employee Advocates

With native advertising falling short and digital landscape expanding, the power to influences gets shifted to individuals. And marketers this year will rely more on individual employees for advocating their brand’s content. Content marketing through employee advocacy will help businesses generate brand awareness, increase social engagement and profits, all at low or no cost. What is Employee advocacy? When promotion of a brand is done by its staff members we call it employee advocacy. An employee can generate positive exposure plus raise create awareness for a brand through social media and offline sources. With 90% of customers trusting the only recommendation from people they know, content marketing through employee advocacy will surely to evolve in coming years! These are most important digital marketing trends we believe will take center spot in 2017. Let us know your thought on latest digital marketing trends! Conclusion With industries ramping up their efforts to get recognized online, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why digital marketing has evolved into one of the most important avenues that a business needs to work on extensively to make sure that they can be discovered by prospective leads and potential customers online. These latest digital marketing trends will become the norm over time, and it's highly recommended that a business starts incorporating these innovative methods in their digital marketing strategies to quickly avail these benefits.