Key advice for your digital marketing strategy during 2017
The world of digital marketing is moving fast. Those strategies and tips that at one point were the added value of those who were well-informed, then become a necessity. For this reason, to effectively sell products and services on the internet, it is necessary to stay updated on the latest trends. It is the only way to develop new marketing strategies that produce good results.
Let’s get into three important trends and advice that will help you to develop your marketing strategy for this year. The first thing to keep in mind is the use of smartphones. Today, virtually all Internet users use their mobile phones to interact, search for information, buy or sell. In fact, more than 50% of Internet searches are made through mobile phones, and this is a growing trend. 90% of the use of social networks like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, in a few years will be done through cell phones. Even an average of 80% of all the purchases derived from advertising on Facebook, through the suggested ads to users, will be possible thanks to smartphones. This means that both the generation and consumption of content, as well as the purchase of products and services through advertising located in the social media, and even the design of websites, should be thought for mobile devices.
Keep in mind that people are increasingly dependent on their smartphones to buy or sell anything. People typically access Google within stores and supermarkets in order to find information about prices and about the products they want to buy there. Not only that: people also often seek out information about the people with whom they are going to do a business online (on online marketplaces, such as eBay) with the aim of saving themselves unnecessary surprises.
Therefore, if it was important or simply advisable to optimize your websites and your apps to the interfaces of smartphones, now it’s a necessity, indeed. Not only Google will give you a lower ranking in the search results of your brand, but you will actually lose many customers if you skip this advice. Both advertising campaigns and how to bring consumers to your products or services should be viable via smartphones.
Read also: 5 reasons why you need to take digital marketing seriously, by ReputationDefender
The second point that you should take into account for developing your marketing strategies in 2017 is audiovisual content. People each day prefer to look for video information than reading long texts about what they need. The numbers on this trend are striking. 50% of internet traffic today is audiovisual. That is: half of the information produced and consumed today is video. Consequently, consider creating a YouTube channel, as well as locating the advertising of your brand in this type of websites. Just like the previous point, it is a marketing need. It is no longer optional. In the coming years, the amount of video traffic will increase by 70%, and everything points that these percentages will keep growing exponentially. Even the use of YouTube on users’ mobile phones increase by 100% every year. The amount of information available on YouTube right now is far superior to that of the entire Internet a decade ago.
Many content generators know this: the number of clicks on a link that takes users to a video (to YouTube or any other broadcasting website) increase each time compared to the number of clicks made on banners or on links that lead users to static content (texts and images.) Of course, it does not mean that static ads will disappear tomorrow and are not recommended, but it is important to produce more and more audiovisual content to sell products or services online.
The third and last relevant point to develop your next marketing strategies are collaborations, especially with other brands (obviously, those that do not sell the same products than you, but complementary products or services.) For example, if your company sells cars, you can ally with a company that sells the best refrigerant or the best oil that works with the engine of your vehicles. You both can share traffic, databases, big data or links so that both recommend the products of the other in exchange for commissions. These collaborations can also be achieved through influencers: you can pay them to promote your products or services in the niches that they know better than you do. This generates more traffic (in fact, it produces traffic over the one you already helped to generate,) since an authoritative person or brand is recommending your products or services.
Collaborations can also be established between your brand and your own customers. One thing you can do is to create loyalty programs so that your customers have benefits when shopping in your store if they promote your products to their social network contacts or in the physical world, or even if they refer a friend and that friend buys your products or services. These kinds of incentives are an excellent form of marketing, which you should not miss.
Good look in your campaigns!
Recommended: Refreshing competitive search strategies in 2017
