5 digital marketing trends for 2018

And so another year of blogging ends and begins! As this blog enters it's sixth year, I'll be looking at a few potential trends on which I'll be focusing on in 2018. I know there's lots of these lists kicking around this time of year so I've tried to keep mine as concise as possible:

1. Dark social

This deserves a post to itself - it's such a large subject. The difficulty of tracking shared links from messaging apps, privacy protected social networks or emails is well known. These all contain a colossal amount of information. But various privacy settings and the rights and concerns of users make them impossible to track through standard analytics platforms.

It has long been a conspiracy that social networks are listening to these conversations and selling that information to advertisers. I hope that this is not the case, but 2018 may finally be the year that they can no longer resist the temptation to delve into this data.

2. Authentic moments, not perfectly designed content

Of course, the aesthetic of a sleek, professional photo hasn't lost its appeal, but generic stock images don’t help brands showcase authenticity. As a result, consumers are seeking more authentic moments - particularly through newer untapped options like Instagram Stories.

These honest insights into how brands operate are best coming from people who have experienced the brand first hand. It means a lot more to see an authentic moment via an employee's personal account than a corporate account. Actually seeing how much people enjoy their job on a regular basis is so much more powerful.

3. Search is always evolving

Search is a very important traffic source for most websites. So, it's essential to keep an eye on how search is changing. Voice search has been around for a couple of years now, but there are two interesting recent developments. Devices such as the Google app or assistants like Amazon Echo tend to deliver longer-tail queries than text search. And there is no doubt the number of voice searches is likely to increase in 2018.

Secondly, Google recently announced Google Lens. This allows you to simply show your camera to an artwork/poster for Google to search for the text and images within it. If this gains traction it will truly be a game-changer for search.

4. Meaningful relationships with influencers matter

With consumers more focused on the reputation of the brands they use, it's more important than ever that marketers work with influencers that are appropriate for their brands (and not likely to be part of a PR disaster!)

Consumers are not interested in seeing a random celebrity promote a product; they want to see real leaders in your industry talking about your product or service to give it social value. New influencer platforms are sprouting up every day and can help take care of many of the time-consuming tasks, including finding relevant influencers and measuring success.

Maintaining close relationships with key industry influencers will be crucial for marketers to keep their followers’ attention in 2018. Spend time researching who your audience trusts and follows before reaching out to build a relationship with them.

5. Video

This might not feel like a very insightful trend to identify as video has been an important part of digital marketing for a number of years, but video will evolve in 2018. It will develop as a medium for content marketing and an advertising medium. There will also be more continued emphasis on live streaming as Facebook seems to be prioritising live video over other types of content.

In 2017, 90% of all content shared by social media users includes video. To make engaging videos that keep followers’ attention, marketers need to focus on the first three seconds, before the viewer keeps scrolling! Optimizing video content for viewing with sound on or off will also be important since most social networks/browsers automatically keep videos silent unless clicked. The experience should be good for all viewers, whether they listen or not.

In 2018, we should all be prepared to give our content a personal, authentic touch. We should also to take a more hands-off approach to social media by automating mundane tasks as much as possible.

I for one have a massive year ahead with the scale of the projects I will be tackling. I'll need all the tricks I can muster!