We’re headed into the fourth quarter of the year and now is a great time to reflect on your 2018 marketing strategy and start looking forward to your 2018 marketing strategy.
To help you get started, here are our top predictions about digital marketing in 2018:
1) Instagram will be huge
As it stands right now, Instagram boats an ad recall that is 2.8x higher than most other advertising platforms. This makes it a fantastic option for small business who need to get as much marketing bang for their buck as possible. Additionally, since Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012, the photo-sharing giant is set to undergo a series of small changes that will help it morph into one big platform for marketers. Tools like Signal, which combine trending Facebook and Instagram posts, offer a glimpse into the future of the platform. When it comes to advertising, many experts estimate that Instagram will have $2.8 billion in ad sales by 2019, which means that the photo-sharing service will outsell both Google and Twitter for ad space.
To make sure you’re in a good position to ride the Instagram boom, build your Instagram presence now. Mix your content up between photos of new products, sneak-peaks at coming attractions and candid shots that offer users a valuable look inside your company. This will help you position yourself to draw on your followers and take advantage of the platform’s future growth.
2) Mobile will be more important than ever
If your digital marketing strategy is going to be effective in 2018, you’re going to need to optimize all of your digital media for mobile. Right now, it’s not enough that your site works on mobile devices, it must also be easily navigable, fully optimized, and easy to read. This means things enhancing or developing things like seamless scrolling, forms, one-click buying and shopping. As more platforms beef up their mobile operations, yours will stand out like a sore thumb if it isn’t instantly easy to use. Avoid losing business by ensuring that your website is optimized and streamlined for all mobile devices in 2018.
3) Social sharing will need to be diversified
If you’ve been sharing the same three posts on the same three social media platforms, it’s likely that you aren’t driving active user engagement on any of them. In 2018, diversifying and managing your social media platforms purposely will be more important than ever. To do this, determine the goal of each of your social media platforms and then create content specifically for each distribution channel. Creating media specifically for social media outlets will help produce more engagement and drive more targeted leads to your company.
4) Invest in Facebook native ads
Facebook native ads are a great way for small businesses to take advantage of Facebook’s extensive user data to target ads specifically to key audiences within certain demographics, geographical locations or interest group. Facebook native ads allow companies to create unique messaging that has the potential to be a huge boon to companies.
5) Conversion will be more important than ever
Every single day you post content, links and visuals to your various social media and digital platforms. While that content may be interesting, it isn’t cost effective unless it’s driving people directly to your company, where they make purchases and engage with your product. To beef up your conversion rates, dedicate yourself to a 60/40 mix of original and curated content, which offers more interest for your users and puts the spotlight on your products.
6) Focus on long form
Thanks to Google’s most recent updates and changes, keywords aren’t the defining factor in ranking visibility anymore. In order to succeed in 2018, your digital marketing content will need to be long form. For best results, shoot for content between 1,000 and 2,000 words.
7) Start a blog
If you haven’t already harnessed the power of blogging, make sure you start one before 2018 rolls around. If you need help with content creation, consider hiring a copywriter or perusing Twitter hashtags and Quora for topic ideas. Otherwise, you can still reap the SEO benefits of a blog by only posting a minimum of twice each month. These posts can be anything from news updates to company press releases. The more frequent the posting, however, the more pronounced the SEO benefits.
8) Get into visual content
If you’re looking to increase your SEO game, focus on creating visual content. Thanks to Facebook’s new auto-play feature and Google’s favoring of YouTube videos, it’s unwise for marketers to go into 2018 without a heavy arsenal of visual content.
For a great 2018, companies need to start thinking about small business digital marketing strategy now. For help with all of your inbound marketing and digital media needs, contact Bigfoot Media. We are here for all of your digital marketing needs and would love to help your business create a game-winning strategy. Call us today for a FREE consultation or shoot us a quick email to learn more.
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