The new year is coming and this is a great time to think about your advertising strategy for the following months. I don’t want to be a holiday spoiler, but after a week or so of chilling, the new year starts and all these brave resolutions will not turn into reality without getting ready to execute. So here are my top five strategies for the following year, which can help you win in 2018:
1. Video.
Organic or paid, video content is overtaking the internet. People spend hours and hours on YouTube. Facebook is now slowly but steadily turning its newsfeed into a more social version of YouTube. LinkedIn is also favouring video content and pushing for more colourful and fun newsfeed. Livestreaming on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook is becoming a more and more adopted. In any case, if you don’t produce video material, you will be missing out on attention next year.
2. Personalised Targeting.
Consumers attention span is getting shorter and shorter. Earlier this year I shared some insights on the targeting options on Facebook and Google which are uncannily personal now. Let’s face it – they know what content we consume, how often, our demography, shopping habits and even financial situation. Marketers have access to powerful data which advertising platforms allow them to use Remarketing is now possible to web visitors, email lists, lookalike audiences and combinations. Personalized market segments, demography or affinity groups allow advertisers to be very precise when showing their content.
3. Influencer marketing.
Opinions on influencer marketing are not unified. Some marketers predict its collapse, other advocate it’s absolute victory in the following year. In my opinion influencers are still on the rise. Amazon recently created a special platform for them to create vanity urls of the products they recommend. It is still highly undervalued and you can find influencers who would recommend your product on a good value-for-money price.
4. Artificial Intelligence.
AI is triumphing across all areas of life, but in marketing it will take out a lot of manual work out of the plate. Some of the key areas would be targeting and bidding in Google AdWords particularly. Did you notice that more often than ever websites ask for your location? This is to do with displaying dynamic content relevant to your geographical location. Dynamic landing pages like the ones launched by Salesforce Marketing Cloud would adjust what they show to make it as relevant as possible to the web visitor. Chatbots are becoming also widely available for websites and Facebook company pages and will continue their astonishing development in the next year.
5. Content.
This sounds self-explanatory, but I would like to emphasise on it again. Businesses largely underestimate the amount of content they must create to burst through the noise. Documenting your process, giving a peek behind the scenes of your business, being undirected and imperfect is fine. With the quantity of content required, it is no longer necessary to make it perfect every single time. Consistent, value-bringing presence online is an absolute must to break through and stay visible.
With these words, I wish you happy holidays and well-deserved rest. There is a fantastic year coming for us, full of exceptional opportunities. Let’s make the most of it!
