3 Things All Growing Businesses Are Doing With Digital Marketing This Year

The digital marketing industry is moving so fast. With social media giants like Facebook and Twitter continually tinkering with their platforms, it’s important to stay on top of the trends to make sure you’re making the most of opportunities.
For growing businesses, digital marketing offers a cost-effective way to test the water and see what works for you. The biggest benefit to businesses is the ability to scale your efforts. You can start slow and dip your toe in the water before committing huge budgets towards something that could turn out to be a fad.
We’re now over half way into 2018 and we’ve already seen sentiment towards Facebook sour in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Snapchat has been haemorrhaging users as a result of Instagram Stories and IGTV. And let’s not even talk about the time a Kylie Jenner tweet saw Snapchat’s value fall by $1.3 billion. What this tells us is that digital marketing efforts need to remain agile. It’s important not to jump on every trend that crops up, but know when to take advantage of a good thing.

Video, Video, Video

Video engagement is off the charts when compared to media like photo and text. In an age when social media users want transparency from the brands and companies they follow, video offers the ideal opportunity to invite them in and offer them a cuppa. It’s the warm hug of social media engagement and when done correctly, it can help propel your reach and put your brand in front of a fresh new audience.

Video – the consumption of video content on mobile users is increasing massively.

When you consider that Facebook users consume 8 billion videos every day and 82% of Twitter users view video content, this is clearly a ripe opportunity. Video can be pre-recorded and edited or shot live and on the fly. Just make sure it’s shot with a mobile audience in mind as 90% of all Twitter video views are from a mobile device.

Chatbots

This could be the year the robots finally come for our jobs. Customer service roles are slowly being optimised by the introduction of chatbots. Using chatbots as part of your customer service isn’t as costly as you might think, and since the bots are continually learning and adapting to your customer’s needs, it can actually save a lot of money in the long run.

Smooch - Chat bot

Smooch – a good option if you are looking to integrate automated chat into your website

Chatbots aren’t only for big companies or those with loads of technical knowledge. There are plenty of options available for small companies with little to no coding experience. If you’re interested in seeing if a Chatbot could help your business, you could try Smooch.
Imagine you spend four years training your customer experience manager and then they decide to move on, taking all that company-specific knowledge with them. It’s a reality that chatbots could help us to overcome. Chatbots are efficient and it is estimated that they will handle 85% of all customer interactions by 2020.
The good news for customer service superstars is that they’ll get to spend a lot less time on repetitive tasks and spend more time helping the customers with more complex problems.

Micro Influencer Marketing

We all know about influencer marketing – the art of getting the hyper-famous to flaunt your wares in their social media posts in exchange for five to six-figure rewards. It isn’t only celebrities who are commanding these sums. There’s a new brand of self-made, Instagram-famous influencer who can generate buzz around your brand with just a post. But it isn’t only those with hundreds of thousands of followers who are enjoying their moment.

Reach your target market by using micro influencers on Instagram

There’s a new breed of influencer that can offer a more authentic and seamless brand collaboration. Micro influences might have fewer followers, but they are typically highly engaged and absorbed in a specific niche. The level of engagement an account receives peaks at 1,000 followers, so why bother paying for an account with 50,000 followers to promote your business when 5,000 will provide the same level of interaction?
These are just some of the trends we’re already seeing take shape in 2018, but this list is in no way exhaustive. For businesses looking to reach new audiences, digital marketing is full of opportunities for growth. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you grow in 2018, get in touch with our friendly team.