According to a recent report, the number of money companies will spend on digital advertising by 2020 will hit $113.18 billion in the United States. The same is expected in other developed countries in Europe and South Asia such as Singapore.
Advancement in technology will introduce new platforms, applications, and techniques that will help Singapore digital marketers to exploit the potential of their respective markets fully.
Here are five digital marketing trends that you should look for in 2018.
Machine Learning
97% of savvy business leaders not only here in Singapore but also in other parts of the world are of the idea that machine learning will have a significant impact on future digital marketing strategies. In the new few years, you will need to accurately analyze shifts in the target customers’ behavior and respond quickly to the changes to get leads.
Machine learning will assist in those efforts by offering predictive knowledge in both unstructured and structured data that you will be able to use to come up with robust marketing strategies. Already, companies in the financial sector such as PayPal are already using this kind of data to curtail money laundering.
Dark Social
The savvy customers that you are probably targeting have changed the channels that they use to share links to videos, articles, and images. They are moving from the popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to channels that are less monitored. They include:
- Messaging apps such as WeChat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger
- Email to protect the privacy of the recipients
- Secure browsing
- Native mobile applications
Recent reports indicate that 84% of outbound sharing is because of these dark social channels and so you need to anticipate and incorporate it into your 2018 digital marketing campaigns. Note that if you use the regular web analytics to monitor social traffic, you will miss capturing crucial data that could help to elevate your business to the next level.
Video Advertising
52% of digital marketing experts from all across the globe support the idea that video content offers the best ROI. 43% of people polled said they had noticed an increase in the amount of video content they get from online marketers.
In 2018, it is anticipated that the young generation will spend more time viewing videos on a broader range of mobile devices. Social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook are already allocating more resources to video content. For instance, Facebook is set to launch new 6-second ads that will enable marketers to convey the intended message to the consumer faster.
Concisely, to succeed in building professional and meaningful consumer relationships, you will need to embrace video-based advertising.
Personalization
Providing a personalized online experience to your consumers in 2018 will help you to connect with customers better. In a recent study, two-thirds of companies polled expect their revenue to increase by 6% once they start using personalized advertising strategies. Businesses that operate in the technology, finance, and apparel niches anticipate a 10% or more increase in revenue.
In the past, companies have harnessed the power of personalization by using email-marketing strategies. Automation has helped to group customers based on demographics, interests, and behavior. Now, B2C and B2B consumers expect marketers to provide a personalized experience at every step of their journey. 66% of customers say they are highly likely to switch brands if they are made to feel like a person rather than just a number.
Micro-Moments
Because 96% of consumers in Singapore use smart mobile devices to research the spot, companies that will succeed in getting more customers through digital marketing will have to take advantage of their impulsive informational splurges. One of the guaranteed ways of achieving this goal is by providing the information a prospect is looking for at the right time.
With more consumers making on the spot purchasing decisions than before, we will see an increase in mobile-first websites as well as a sharp increase in micro-moments. BBC has already rolled out a “greedy navigation” technique on its mobile-first site in a bid to help its audience to access small segments from the colossal mounds of information that it offers.
Make sure that you are not left behind by planning to embrace these new digital marketing trends in 2018. In fact, there is no harm in starting to experiment with some today to identify one which best resonates with your business and target customers.
