Trends to Look Out for this Year
The digital marketing world is constantly evolving. New social platforms, technologies, and trends affect the way companies and brands portray themselves and drive traffic online. As a marketing and public relations firm, we always want to stay up to date with the newest digital marketing trends – check out a few of the up-and-coming trends we are most excited to see develop in 2018.n n n n n n n
Voice-Optimized Contentnn
Think about all the time you could save by just saying what you want to search online instead of typing it out! According to Entrepreneur, 20 percent of online searches in 2017 were conducted through voice search, and that number is expected to increase by 50 percent within the next two years.
Voice search will impact marketers’ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts because the words users type out on a computer are very different from how they naturally speak. Longer, conversational, and more detail-oriented keywords will be the new trend in SEO, and company and product descriptions will evolve to better fit people’s natural speech descriptions.
Artificial Intelligence Feeding Consumers’ Demands
nServices such as same-day delivery and instant customer service have conditioned consumers to expect fast and accurate service from companies. With more and more companies offering these services, consumers are in turn becoming more demanding. Companies will not only need to keep up, but keep thinking of innovative ways to best meet consumers’ needs in a faster and more efficient way.
nArtificial intelligence tools such as live chatbots will be used to more efficiently communicate with customers when they need it. Chatbots utilize natural-language processing (NLP) to mimic real-life conversations while also retrieving information instantly. The days of calling a customer service line will be no more!
Competing in Micro-Moments
nInformation can be accessed faster and faster with the use of smartphone applications, notifications, and social media. According to Huffington Post, 55 percent of the time people use their smartphones, they do so in short bursts of 30 seconds or less. These “micro-moments” are when people quickly turn to their smartphone to answer a question, acknowledge an email, or respond to a text.
nWith information being accessed in these micro-moments, content and platforms will have to develop in a way to gain consumers’ attention in 30 seconds or less. How digestible content can be and how quickly a website is to navigate can make or break whether a brand or product is noticed by consumers online.
nOur industry is an exciting one! These trends are just a few of the many changes we at Wellington Group expect to see in 2018. No matter how big or small your business is, these trends can impact how you market yourself. Interested in keeping up with the digital marketing world?
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