Trends for Digital Marketing in 2017
by Moi Bagadiong, Senior Digital Media Associate
These days, a lot of people think that digital marketing is equivalent to social media posting, but this isn’t the case. Digital marketing is so much and the online environment is getting bigger and even more exciting.
This year’s digital trends are continuously bringing data- and objective-driven campaigns to light through amazing tracking schemes and smarter strategies, posing the need for brands to be deliberate and thoughtful when it comes to their content online. This is especially true given the fact that statistics have been used to measure marketing efficiency since the birth of digital ads.
For this reason, it is necessary for brands to be updated on trends to effectively engage their audience. Here is a rundown of those that we’ve observed for the first half of the year.
- Intense Consumption on Mobile
Since 2012, we’ve seen a huge jump in mobile consumption. Our target audiences now prefer to use their mobile phones and tablets more than their computers. Based on metrics, Indonesia consumes 91% of their day in mobile. For the US market, which is one of the biggest markets in the world, the time spent on mobile is 71% of the day. On the other hand, 38% of the Philippine market web traffic comes from mobile and it is anticipated to grow by more than 8% in the next few months. Mobile consumption has been reaching new heights and we predict a growing trend in the coming years.
What does this mean for marketers? Mobile optimization should be the top consideration when developing plans and rolling it out in various channels. This means that all ads and organic campaigns must be fit for viewing on smaller screens. Our copy materials should be shorter and our images should be compelling all while considering the ad budget.
An added bonus: Instagram Stories is killing it right now.
- Influencers Help Build the Brands
Majority of digital brand awareness campaigns revolve around one discipline—social media. A good population of influencers thrive in that space and that is why all brands, from B2B to B2C, need a relevant and proper influencer to help them build their image.
How strong is influencer marketing? According to a recent study, 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media reviews and reference. Another study says that US businesses generate $6.50 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing—now that is ROI.
In the Philippines, brands use celebrities and product endorsers as digital influencers to leverage on their following. It is undeniable that loyal followings do exist in the local celebrity scene, which is why consumer brands such as McDonald’s, Jollibee, and the like use well-known showbiz personalities. There are no documented ROI statistics from their recent campaigns, but the digital engagement they had is enough to speak volumes of success in terms of awareness.
We also recently ran an influencer campaign for one of our clients, Jollibee. In line with the Framily campaign, we chose a couple of influencers to create buzz and we had tons of engagement as seen on the materials below!
Given all these trends, metrics and dimensions are a must when implementing influencer-driven campaigns. There are ways on how to efficiently track results—everything’s better with numbers!
- Emotions Influence Engagement
If your goal is to get engagement on social media, there is no stronger tactic than to go straight to the heart. Nowadays, content go viral online because of three major ingredients that help them be as heartfelt as possible: the perfect blend of messaging, delivery, and wit. We’ve seen tons of brands do it and the strength of their online engagement is indisputable.
Why does this method work? It is because a huge chunk of the market are millennials and they are extremely open, opinionated, authentic and emphatic. The market enjoys consuming content that they can relate to. In fact a recent study shows that the market loses trust in brands when their content appears “fake”—as verified by 71% of 11-17 year olds and 74% of 18-34 year olds. These age groups hold a big chunk of the market population who are active on social media.
- Big Data keeps on getting Bigger!
How big? Digital advertisers now take advantage of different targeting parameters that allow ads to be served to markets that weren’t as specific as today. In the current landscape, advertisers can target you if you’ve visited a certain channel and more. In general, both B2B and B2C brands use big data to gain more coverage. Also, a huge trend nowadays is using both public and paid information to create compelling and personalized ads that hit the campaign objectives right on the button.
Big data refers to huge data sets that can be analysed and programmed to reveal trends to create human behavior patterns. For digital marketers, these data could be device used, geo-analysis, time of consumption, most used language, consumer interests, and other behavioral metrics.
But in a nutshell, why do marketers use and exhaust big data? Not for engagement, but for customer retention and overall conversion.
A lot can change in the coming months with pay-per-click tools becoming more advanced. It’s only half of the year, and we’re super excited to see more. Metrics will always be there to support and supplement these new trends and strategies which makes analytics top priority before anything else. It would be best for all digital marketers to keep up in order to create effective and relatable campaigns.
References:
https://www.bluleadz.com/blog/the-impact-of-influencer-marketing-in-2017
