Keeping up with the most innovative and latest digital marketing trends usually feels like a chore for many brands and marketers. It is even more stressful during the holiday season with everything else you have to do. Whether you are a small business owner or a big company, it is always good to know all the latest digital trends that will shape important marketing strategies not only this holiday season, but also in the future.
The constantly evolving search, social, and digital shopping landscape continues to offer more opportunities in connecting with customers, most advertisers often find themselves stretching final budgets across several different marketing channels. These digital media trends are defining the holiday season as business can now engage with clients on a whole different level. Here is a list of the new trends in digital marketing in order to provide you with detailed insight, to give you that much needed edge over competitors.
1.More Shoppers in 2018 will do their Holiday Shopping on Mobile compared to Desktop
Many holiday shoppers, especially luxury shoppers, are increasingly using their smartphone as the preferred shopping gateway. It is worth mentioning that when shopping online, most consumers tend to seek convenience, cost-effective delivery as well as a quick and a hassle free purchase process.
Consumers also expect a personalized, superior and frictionless Omni channel experience which will simultaneously encourage online sales and facilitate boutique visits. This is why mobile commerce is continuing to grow rapidly and for the first time in 2018 holiday season, smartphones and other mobile devices are anticipated to make up the majority of shopping traffic as well as orders. Here are 10 creative marketing ideas for the holiday season.
A recently published report by Salesforce has predicted that more orders will be placed through mobile phones than desktop (46 percent vs. 44 percent). In addition, 68% of the total traffic for the 2018 holiday season is expected to come from smartphones, up to 19% points from 2017.
2.Personalized experiences
Although most marketers do not usually agree on a lot of industry issues, there is certainly one aspect they are almost unanimous about: personalization really matters. This is why the more you can customize content offerings to every person’s specific preferences and tastes, the more likely can increase revenue and forge long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with your buyers. Hence, if you have not already done so, investigate various ways to make AI or artificial intelligence, shoulder most of the load for you in this regard.
You should try to maximize consumer enjoyment while reducing the time they require to spend looking for items. If you know your customers or customer groups well enough, you will be able to give them suitable personalized product recommendations and that will give your seasonal sales a huge boost.
3.YouTube and Instagram are the Social Channels to Watch
It is not surprising to note that most brands are raising their holiday marketing budgets in 2018, many are opting to spend more on YouTube and Instagram than in previous years. A research study indicated that 65% planned to boost Instagram expenditure. With that being said, it was YouTube, not surprisingly, that saw the greatest jump in advertiser participation, as nearly 33% of brands are planning to run adverts on the platform in 2018 compared to about 26% in 2017. As per experts, ads that concentrate on visual elements increasingly tend to have more impact and influence.
4.Facebook Offers
There is no denying that deals and discounts are a major plank of many retailers’ sales drive, especially during the holiday season, but the main challenge is to generate awareness. One great way to get noticed by buyers is by leveraging Facebook Offers.
Followers who will save your offer would receive auto reminders that they can use the deal before it expires. Also, customers could redeem their offers online, or in your physical store. You should use eye-catching and top-quality images of your featured products to help your offer stand out from various other posts. Also, remember to run the promotion long enough for buyers to notice it and react to it, which might take a couple of days or more.
5.Amazon Ads are very Important
For a brand looking to run holiday-targeted campaigns, Amazon is slowly becoming a very important player. More than 80% of brands that plan to market and advertise on Amazon in 2018 holiday season would run Christmas-specific product campaigns, compared to about 74% of overall brands. Running holiday-specific adverts on Amazon, according to experts, where customers are more likely to shop for gifts, is a great way for most advertisers to better showcase their products.
6.Putting up Reviews on your Site
Although there are many factors that are involved in ranking, note that the number of reviews that you have is often an important factor. It is worth mentioning that organic traffic from SEO is still one of the most effective sources of web traffic for a lot of businesses, as search engines like Google, will consider your Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp reviews and more. Keep in mind that your reviews are essential for better search engine rankings; also, they can make or break a sale. This is why you must create an excellent plan to get reviews for your business. However, be careful and do not try to incentivize or bribe people (since this isn’t allowed), but rather have a system to ask for reviews.
Final Thoughts
Make time in order to check out these digital media trends. These strategies will surely help your business enjoy a productive holiday season. Although digital marketing is vital year-round, focusing on marketing trends for 2018 during the holiday season is one of the surefire ways to take your revenue to the next level.
