As in any industry, buzzwords come and go in the world of marketing. Here’s a round-up of six trends to keep an eye on over the next 12 months.
1. Influencer marketing grows up
Using an “influencer” to access potential customers has been all the rage for the past two years – until a number of high-profile campaigns overseas and locally failed dismally. “Once-off campaigns no longer work,” is Tech Girl content producer and technology blogger Samantha Wright’s take on the topic.
Writing on Bizcommunity.com, she predicts that 2018 will see “a maturity to South African influencer marketing”. This will mean “less of a throw-away spend and more of a focused strategy”.
Wright says “good influencers are going to want to sit in the room with brands to discuss key messaging and long-term campaigns” and believes that the trend in 2018 will be more focused on long-term partnerships, with a decline in the “pay-per-post model many influencer marketing agencies promote”.
2. It’s all about data – and safety
Data will not just be a trend for 2018, but “the core of all things digital and online”. This is according to Pilira Mwambala, ad operations director at digital marketing agency Mark1, writing in Media Update.
The rise in mobile devices has led to key developments giving consumers faster access to convenient services – and online advertisers “are willing to pay top dollar for audience data that yields an optimal return on investment for their brand”, he says. Media owners are also investing in technology and people who can mine massive amounts of data.
One of Mwambala’s predictions for 2018 is that, in the fight against ad fraud, the implementation of ads.txt – technology that allows publishers and content owners to authorise and publicly declare who is allowed to sell their inventory – will gain huge momentum, highlighting transparency and brand safety.
3. Staying ahead of the game in PR
In spite of economic challenges, public relations teams can be successful in 2018 – provided they review their business strategies with more focus than ever before, says PR Expert CEO Janine Lloyd, writing on her top trends for the year in Bizcommunity’s BizTrends 2018.
Since companies will continue to demand that PR efforts contribute to the bottom line, “a closer alignment between PR, marketing and sales will be especially critical”, she says, adding that the ability to analyse data will be key.
Lloyd advises companies to send their PR teams on training courses if they don’t have the following skills: social media; written communications; multimedia; analytics and an understanding of behavioural science; media relations; SEO; and business literacy. Other important skills are: digital marketing; website development; data analytics; product marketing; project management; content management; and market research.
4. LinkedIn makes waves
Now 14 years old, LinkedIn is “the next big opportunity for marketers and brands”, believes Buffer’s Brian Peters. While marketers have in the past focused more on their Facebook and Instagram marketing strategies, LinkedIn has been “silently growing its user base to more than 500-million users”, he explains in an article posted on Buffer Social.
LinkedIn is no longer known only for job searching, but is growing into a thriving network of content and networking opportunities “unmatched by other social media platforms”, he says.
“We predict that 2018 will be an amazing year for LinkedIn – both as a social media platform and a marketing channel for brands and businesses,” adds Peters, nothing that LinkedIn regularly releases exciting features that will open up “great opportunities for marketers to connect with highly targeted audiences”.
5. Video all the way
In the era of fake news, people crave authenticity in their online interactions, and marketers are shifting to video to make real connections with their audience, says digital agency WiderFunnel’s Lindsay Kwan.
Quoting statistics including that viewers are 64% to 85% more likely to buy after watching a product video, and nearly 50% of people search for videos related to products or services before visiting a store, Kwan predicts that that brands will go big on “ephemeral” videos (that disappear within 24 hours).
Since the Facebook algorithm has made it challenging for content to be seen organically, live broadcasting (or streaming) is also becoming an increasingly important tactic for organisations’ social media strategies.
6. Designed for success
Along with the growing, important trend of mobile-friendly web design, accelerated mobile pages (AMP) is “a must” to grow companies’ online presence in 2018, says digital marketing certification body the Digital Design Institute.
Listing its web design trends to watch this year, the institute cautions that “no potential customer likes a page that loads slowly”. AMP is an open-source coding standard that allows publishers to load their sites quickly on mobile by stripping down code, using external resources for media files and running scripts in parallel to allow pages to load instantly.
The institute also lists bold fonts and bright colours, more advanced scrolled animation, and artificial intelligence among its trends for 2018.
