Just a few decades ago, one of the best ways to advertise your product was to research the Nielsen ratings, put together a commercial, and run a TV spot. Many entities saw a huge amount of success by just researching what shows were popular and producing a fresh commercial that put forth a good representation of their product’s benefits.
The way things are currently, there are so many options that it would make any sensible business owner’s head spin. You can choose to do straightforward Facebook ads, Google Ad Words, or even branch out and try your luck at the pay-per-click arena. Just a few years ago, marketers were inching their every dime into Facebook organic, but just as many trends in the past have shaped up, the platform’s paid advertising wasn’t as effective anymore.
Things now shift so rapidly that finding the next new wave to ride that is a profitable medium takes as much time as coming up with product ideas and awareness issues themselves. Many marketers today may be drawn to emerging technologies such as voice search, advertising on messaging apps, and natural language processing, but your budget may not be hefty enough to take chances on these. Here are five growing trends in the digital marketing arena that could be of great use to you immediately.
Email Marketing 2.0:
Email marketing is not the newest marketing tool out there, and in fact, was one of the very first methods that businesses incorporated to reach customers online and keep them constantly updated. What happened is that when Facebook really blew up in popularity, marketers wondered why they should waste the time to email people when you can get right in front of them via a social media platform.
Email marketing has now actually made quite a comeback, and some new players in the game such as ConvertKit are making a huge difference and providing very sensible and targeted solutions for the task. As it turns out now, people actually crave newsletters from those who create great content about marketing, fitness, and business issues, and they’re even willing to pay for it.
Influencer Marketing Niche:
Social Pubil conducted a survey recently that showed 93% of marketers are already putting to use influencers for their most important marketing tasks. Costs are rising exponentially, but the reason for that is that when you have an individual with scores of followers in their niche, it has been proven that they generate massive results.
The important thing to keep in mind regarding influencers is that their followers tend to be incredibly engaged overall, with very specific mappable demographics. When on a budget, consider using “microinfluencers” who still have a valuable reach but can come at a lower cost.
Chatbot use:
One recent study found that about half of ALL websites now use a chatbot, and the number is growing daily. Even though its evident that customers would prefer a human over a chatbot, it is still much more effective and engaging than a “contact us” form.
Since its launch 3 years ago, MobileMonkey has widely proven the sustainability and usefulness of chatbot marketing, with a predominant focus on Facebook. You can use the platform to build chatbots for your very own URL as well, and at least have some form of live interaction consistently with customers.
The Automation of PPC:
Using software to assist in running PPC campaigns is not a new prospect, and when Google Adwords was introduced many programs came about to help marketers get the most out of their campaigns. One positive here is that the last few years have shown quite an improvement in machine learning technology, helping with droning tasks like manual bid optimization.
It is now possible to manage a Google Ad Campaign with Smart Bidding, and Dynamic Creative integrated within Facebook can rapidly run many tests on thousands of different types of advertisement ideas. As we have seen over the years here at FarFetched Studios, any form of automation can save you valuable time, therefore saving you just as much in spend potential.
Video as the Default Medium:
A new report about YouTube provided the data that users now watch 1 billion hours worth of video every day. Anyone out there with a product that becomes savvy on what kind of actors to hire, shooting, editing, and graphics are going to have a huge advantage over those who are just producing text-only styled content.
Even if you don’t feel you have a huge budget for technical post-production and editing, finding a host for your videos that is enthusiastic and appealing goes quite a long way. With the attention span of people changing vastly, many want video to now be their primary means of obtaining information.
