8 Marketing Channels you need to focus on 2018 Are you looking for the best marketing channels to boost your e-commerce business in 2018? If so, then you’re in luck. Artificial intelligence and augmented reality are not just terms for science fiction buffs and gaming fans. The following marketing trends for 2018 should open the door to reaching new customers and personalising their customer journey.
1. Voice Search Usage of Siri (iOS), Ok Google (Android), Alexa (Amazon) and Cortana (Windows) have directed to the creation of a new state of search optimization – voice search. As you likely know from your usage of voice-activated technology, the terms and expressions you use when searching by voice vary from what you would use when writing into a search box in a web browser. Spoken search questions tend to be longer than typed ones, and they also tend to introduce more conversational words along with keywords. To obtain on this marketing trend for 2018, you will need to concentrate on how people speak about your business. What keywords are personages more likely to say that they are to type? What questions are they likely to ask? To optimize for voice search, you’ll need to listen to your customers talk about your products. Then, you’ll need to implement these insights into your business’s organic and paid search terms.
2. Private Messaging Another marketing trend that’s continuously evolving is marketing through private messaging. All of the first social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn – enable private messaging. They’ve added new articles to their private messaging to get more users interested in sharing content and having discussions directly. If your business has a profile at one of the above mentioned social networks, it’s essential to watch the private message inbox of all regularly. Additionally, keep an eye out for private
messages that end up in filtered folders such as spam or contact requests. As your clients continue to use private messaging to connect with brands, they’ll require a real-time answer from businesses they purchase from throughout the customer journey such as receiving better and faster client support post-purchase.
3. Messenger Bots When it comes to marketing trends, false intelligence is going to continue playing a role through messenger bots. Businesses can now create automation (bots) for platforms like Twitter Direct Messaging and Facebook Messenger that can help clients in a variety of ways. The primary goal of many messenger bots is to take clients through a process, such as subscribe for an email list, find the appropriate product, get client service for a product, or direct the client to the right page on your store. To add messenger bots to your marketing strategy, you can review developer documentation from each platform (like Twitter and Facebook Messenger). You can also hire developers who specialise in developing messenger bots on specific platforms for different types of businesses. To get inspired by the vast number of ways to use messenger bots, be sure to browse the BotList, which includes bots for Twitter Direct Messages, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Kik, Skype, and additional platforms.
4. Live Chat Combining live chat to your website is like placing your best seller on your online store’s practical floor. It lets you go live with a potential client by responding any topics they have about your products to support them making a purchasing choice. It’s just another way artificial intelligence is supporting businesses automate essential marketing and sales tasks, and it is set to grow in 2018. To get on board, Shopify users can start by browsing live chatbots in the Shopify extensions library.
5. Marketing Automation With the progress in artificial intelligence available to businesses of any size through the use of technology like automated live chat and messenger bots, enterprises are now able to create more sophisticated marketing and e-commerce automation sequences. By adding the feel of a live person helping the customer throughout their journey through your sales funnel, you’ll ensure that new customers convert at higher rates. For most businesses, marketing automation includes a series of content directed at selling the client on one or more products. An example of marketing automation would be to set up a sales funnel where:
1) Visitors are prompted to enter their email address to receive a free spring fashion lookbook. 2) Visitors land upon a particular blog post about upcoming spring fashion trends. 3) The new subscriber gets a series of welcome emails, explaining the different styles for this spring. Each email includes an item that the subscriber can purchase at your online store. 4) If the subscriber moves to your product page from the link in the description or email, attaches the item to their billing cart, but stalls, a live chat bot will ask them if they need help. 5) If the subscriber moves to your product page from the link in the email or description, adds the item to their billing cart and doesn’t make the purchase, they will receive another email to get 10% off of one thing. 6) If the subscriber moves to your product page from the link in the description or email, add the item to their billing cart and doesn’t make the purchase, they will see image ads on Google Display Network and Facebook of the product they attached to their shopping cart As you can see, the purpose of marketing automation is to take new clients from just getting to know you to warning them of the products they are most interested in via email and retargeting adverts. Based on what you sell, there are parts of various ways to use content to guide new clients to their first purchase.
6. Augmented Reality Virtual reality and augmented reality are another marketing trend for 2018 that are arising at an unsurprising rate. Thanks to updates from Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Linkedin, Snapchat, and other platforms, businesses can use augmented reality for advanced word-ofmouth marketing and branding by developing designs that people can overlay on their private video and photo stories. Right now more companies can build their marketing strategy to approach new clients and to give better shopping experiences with AR and VR.
7. Big Data Here is the next marketing trend for 2018. It’s called big data. The top names on the internet – Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and many others – have all made advances in presenting analytics data to business owners. Google, for instance, has turned Google Analytics into a suite of products to help businesses track data across various channels, including TV, instore, and online. Facebook updated their Analytics platform to add more profound insights into a business’s website traffic, Facebook fans, app users, and event attendees. LinkedIn launched website demographics so that companies could learn from overviews of the professional profiles of their website guests. This will allow businesses to see even more about the people who engage on their social media channels, visit their website, subscribe to their email lists, and make purchases.
To employ more big data in your business, start by making sure that you have installed Facebook, Google Analytics, and LinkedIn website tags to track your guests in each respective analytics platform. Also, employ conversion tracking options in each of these platform’s analytics to learn about the most relevant guests on your website – the ones that ultimately make a purchase.
8.Influencer Marketing Influencer marketing remains to grow over the years making it one of the most significant marketing trends. For 2018, businesses will want to concentrate on finding right influencers on specific marketing platforms to develop their message. The right influencer isn’t someone who has a large audience as a whole but instead has a highly-engaged audience on a unique platform. The right influencer may not have a YouTube channel, for example, but may have a significant following on Instagram, making them ideal for a viral Instagram marketing campaign. To get the right influencer for your influencer marketing campaign, you’ll need to consider three things. 1) Does the influencer sell products related to yours? If you visit the influencer’s blog or social profile, you should be able to see past promotions they have done and the answer those promotions received with their audience. 2) How do you want the influencer to improve your products? You will want to make convinced the influencer you choose can produce the right type of content (audio, text, video, image, etc.) and promote it. 3) What platform (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, blog posts, etc.) changes the most referral traffic into purchases on your website? You will want to get the influencer that has the most interested audience on that platform.