It’s time to start creating a marketing strategy for this year. Should you stay on the same course like last year or make changes going into this year (2018)? We’re going to look at five winning market research tactics that will help you start 2018 with a bang!
Create Personalised Content to Create Unique Customer Experiences
Did you know that half of buyers rely on research to make their buying decisions? Furthermore, more than half of these people will want to see more than one piece of content. This clearly shows us that content has become the foundation for a successful marketing campaign. This is not going to change in 2018. In fact, I fully expect this trend to grow even further since smartphone technology puts information at buyers’ fingertips. Therefore, creating personalised content will become even more essential in 2018.
- Use free giveaways to collect information from visitors.
- Nurture those leads by offering more content in exchange for more data.
- Personalise the experience even further by asking powerful questions.
SEO and Content Conversion Working in Unison
It’s difficult to talk about marketing without including SEO. The two have become faithful companions in today’s age. Content conversion and SEO have become a single function. This relationship isn’t exactly new, but the importance of them working seamlessly together has reached the spotlight.
- Use data relating to SEO to discover how your target market interacts with content posted by you.
- Develop a system for analysing customers on a regular basis since their interests can change on a whim.
- Research how those customers interact with different forms of content on different platforms. People tend to interact differently with videos than they do written content.
- Create measurable goals for every stage – from concept to conversion.
Narrow the Focus on Social Media Marketing
Marketing leaders fully expect their time on social media to exponentially increase in the coming years to the point where they spend most of their time on popular social media platforms. Consumers expect consistent branding messages across all platforms and they want to be able to interact with their favourite brands.
- Discover how your target market interacts with your brand on social media.
- Determine which social networks are important to your brand. For example, Instagram will be more beneficial for companies relying on graphic interaction while Facebook is more geared toward content.
- Drop or reduce the time spent on platforms that are less important to your business.
Create More Videos
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how many words are videos worth? According to James McQuivey (digital marketing guru), one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. Therefore, one of your primary goals for 2018 should be to create more video content.
- Look at your current video content and set a goal for creating more quality video content.
- Create videos that are memorable and provide valuable information.
- Add videos to your website landing pages to boost SEO.
- Experiment with different video lengths and topics.
Become Mobile Friendly
Mobile marketing took its largest step ahead in 2017 when Google announced its first ever mobile algorithm, which is set to launch in 2018. That means businesses will have to put a focus on mobile marketing in order to take advantage of this huge shift.
- Make sure that your website works seamlessly on mobile devices.
- If your website does not work seamlessly on mobile devices, then you will have to make changes.
- (From Google) Site owners who have verified their website on Google’s Search Console for desktops will have to do the same for the mobile version of their website.
Digital marketing is continuing to integrate new technologies at lightning fast speeds. You must take proactive steps to plan ahead for sweeping trends in the marketplace to be successful in 2018.