It’s important to prepare yourself for marketing in 2018 in three different ways. First, look back on what worked in 2017. Even though there will be trends and changes, a large percentage of what worked then will still work now. Second, look at your existing channels and see what new features and strategies you should be incorporating to stay successful. Third, look at new channels and strategies that make sense for your business, that you can commit to successfully launching. In this post, we’ll be covering three of the more recent marketing tools that would fit into the third category of new strategies to try.
Live Video
Regular video marketing is already on the rise and encouraged, but live video is the focus of video in 2018.
Why Live Stream?
Live video incorporates more of the social trends of marketing for 2018. Social media is now allowing business owners to become mini-celebrities in very specific niches (or micro-influencers). Part of what makes these micro-influencers so appealing is their approachability. Rather than superstar celebrities who feel so far away from us, micro-influencers are individuals with whom consumers can feel a more personal connection.
The Advantage of Live Video
Video is effective because it’s exciting and engaging. More importantly, live video facilitates the transparency and authenticity that consumers expect in today’s landscape. Your streams need not be long—even a five-minute announcement or check-in can do the trick.
How to Use Live Streaming
For best results, create a regular schedule for live streaming. For example, here at ThriveHive we do a 30-minute episode of Coaches Corner through Facebook Live every other week.
- The consistent schedule allows our audience to get into a rhythm with us and to remember to tune in
- The “live” aspect enables viewers to get to know our coaches and their personalities
- The sessions are versatile—you can watch them while doing other things if you’d like
- The topic of the live stream is announced a week beforehand, so viewers can know how relevant it is to them.
Helpful Posts on Video
Facebook Live vs Snapchat Stories
How to Use Instagram Live for Your Business
Online Video Growth and What it Means for Marketing
Direct Messaging
Consumers in 2018 are expecting to be able to communicate with businesses easily, effectively, and immediately. The more chat tools available to us today, the less patience we have to wait for an email response or even to be on hold for a few minutes.
Ways to Offer Direct Messaging
If you’re looking to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and get a leg up over competitors, try direct messaging in 2018. There are a number of ways you can do this, depending on your time and budget.
- Add live chat to your website.
- Use Facebook messenger. Many Facebook business pages are set for a chat window to automatically display for users.
- Use Instagram direct messaging to provide exclusive offers to loyal customers.
Why Live Chat is Best
Live chat does more than just provide an immediate communication channel for those in need of support. You can use live chat to answer questions that prospective customers have about your business, at a time when they are highly engaged (they’re on your website, after all!). You can also use it to better understand your buyers’ decision-making process, and therefore also improve your marketing content (gear it toward FAQs). Live chat gives your business the advantage in many areas of operation.
Helpful Posts on Live Chat
10 Reasons to Use Live Chat for Your Business
Customization (or Personalization)
This 2018 marketing strategy is all about personalization. When you think of personalization, however, you might just think of addressing an email by a person’s first name. We’re going with the term customization to help drive the message that it goes far beyond just names for 2018.
Why Customization?
When you cater content to specific scenarios, individuals get the sense that you have a grasp on your marketing channels and a clear understanding of your target audience. The more they realize you know about them, the more they’ll realize you can meet their needs. A personalized marketing strategy is definitely something to add to your toolbox for 2018.
Examples of Customization
- Customization is the practice of using existing data and user behavior to deliver an experience specific to users. For example,
- Create an email campaign specifically for users who downloaded a particular eBook. Focus your content around the topic of the eBook.
- Create exit popups and other email list-building tools that are unique to specific pages of your website.
- Set up a message or popup to trigger when a visitor lands on a page from a specific source.
How to Improve Your Customization
To create personalized experiences for your website visitors, email recipients, social media followers, and customers, tune in to your data and track your efforts:
- Create different landing pages for your offers, according to the different channels a user might come in from.
- Take a look at your top performing pages to understand the information your audience is primarily interested in.
- Use the analytics tools provided by social media platforms to educate yourself on the personalities, personal needs, and sharing behavior of your audience.
- Create buyer personas. Your target audience is a group of people that can all benefit from your products or services. However, there are different ways to benefit and different reasons for wanting those benefits. Buyer personas help you to break down your target audience into specific groups with whom can communicate more effectively.
Every year brings an opportunity for change and growth. In addition to optimizing your current marketing channels like website, email, and social media, try adding in one or all of the above strategies. Pace yourself and focus on simply creating the foundation. With the right foundation, you’ll then be on track with looking to optimize those channels in the following year.
