5 Digital Marketing Trends That Are Here to Stay in 2017

2016 is coming to a close and today we're looking ahead to 2017 and telling you what digital marketing trends you should lookout for throughout the year.

From all of us at Marketing Kings Blog, I want to wish you and your family a safe and happy New Year's celebration this weekend!

We're about to ring in the new year where people across the world will set their resolutions for 2017. Along with your personal resolution, why not make a resolution to guarantee that 2017 is the best year yet when it comes to your digital marketing?

In order to do that, you need to make sure you understand where digital marketing is headed throughout the year. That's why I've put together a list of the 5 biggest trends you're likely to see this coming year. 

1. Mobile search and advertising Mobile was huge in 2016, and that's not changing anytime soon. As of November 2016, Facebook reported that they have 1.055 billion users each month that only access their site on mobile. That's why 81% of Facebook's advertising revenue comes from mobile ads. And now that mobile search has officially surpassed desktop, Google's algorithm is influenced by the mobile optimization of a site. It's no longer enough to design your site for desktops, your site needs to be user friendly and functional for smartphones and tablets. So, if your site isn't optimized for mobile, it should become a top priority for 2017. 2. High Quality Content Content marketing has been called the "king" of digital marketing. And, if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. When people go online either to search for something or to scroll through social media feeds they have one of two goals -- to get information or to be entertained. The only way for these goals to be accomplished is through users engaging with high quality content. This is very important when looking at your company's content marketing throughout 2017. With huge amounts of content available these days, there is no point in wasting time and energy putting out mass quantities of low quality content. People simply won't read it when they can click to the next site and find something better. That's why you should focus on putting out high quality content, even if it means that you produce less quantity than in years past. Make sure the blog articles, images, and social media posts you're publishing show that you're a thought leader in your industry. This will help to get more attention, and convert more prospects than putting out fluff. 3. Video Advertising With mobile being huge and content being key, video may be the ticket to a solid marketing strategy in 2017. 92% of mobile video users say that they share videos with others and 90% say that product videos are helpful in making the decision to purchase. Videos are popular for both information consumption and for entertainment. This creates an opportunity for marketers both for video display ads, such as those that come up on a YouTube video, and organic videos that you create to engage your audience. Facebook live stream and other live video opportunities also became more popular in 2016 and are likely to grow in popularity in 2017. Bottom line, keep video on your radar because it's likely to become not only important, but highly valuable. 4. More specific measurement I can't stress enough how important it is to track your digital marketing. I highly recommend making sure that your Google Analytics is set up properly. Doing this will help you to see where your traffic is coming from and determine what traffic is converting into sales. You'll want to make sure to focus your marketing budget on what's working. Our Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics article can help you get started. Along with Analytics, 2017 is likely to see an increase in the amount of measurement and tracking resources available. Facebook and Twitter have had built-in analytics for some time, and Instagram recently added an Insights option for business accounts. At this point, the data from these sources don't tell the whole story, but that is likely to change going forward. I predict that in 2017 an increased focus will be placed on more accurate data reporting so that businesses can set clear objectives for each of their marketing platforms. 5. Social Media Influencer Marketing Social media marketing has become a staple in digital marketing over the last five years. That will definitely continue. However, it is also likely to evolve and open up more opportunities for creative marketing outlets. As social media popularity increases, the opportunity for "influencer marketing" will grow as well. For example, if there's a person in your industry that has thousands of followers on social media, this could present an opportunity to have them endorse your business or product and help you to gain more followers and a wider reach. The popularity of influential YouTubers also create opportunities to leverage video advertising as a way to support your business in a more "organic" way. Connecting with YouTube influencers to create original content or have your business or product mentioned in their original content will offer a creative way to reach more potential customers. You can think of this like Michael Jordan endorsing Nike, but for social media marketing.

How Google AdWords Is Like Santa Claus

In a lot of ways Google AdWords is like Santa Claus...

 

And since today is Christmas, it's only fitting that we take a closer look at the similarities.

 

 

To children, Santa represents presents.  On Christmas he travels around the world, shimmies down chimneys, and brings gifts for all the good little boys and girls.

 

To businesses, Google AdWords can also represent presents, but not in the form of a traditional wrapped gift.  AdWords can travel the world and instead of bringing toys, it brings gifts to the "good" businesses in the form of shiny new customers.

 

If you've ever woken up after running a successful AdWords campaign and found new customers, then you know that feels just like it did as a kid waking up to find all those gifts under the Christmas tree. :)

 

But as the story goes, Santa doesn't bring presents to everyone.  For the naughty boys and girls, he just leaves a dirty lump of coal...

Does AdWords Think You're Naughty Or Nice?

From the popular holiday song, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, we know that Santa makes a list and checks it twice in order to find out "Who's naughty or nice."

 

Well, AdWords uses a similar system...

 

It's call the AdWords Quality Score.  And if your campaigns are naughty (aka have a low Quality Score), then you're more likely to find a lump of coal than new customers each morning when you check your account performance.

 

To find your Quality Scores and see if AdWords thinks your campaigns are naughty or nice, you need to click on the Keywords tab within your account. Then in the Status column click the white speech bubble icon to the right of any keyword to view the Quality Score.

 

AdWords will give you a score from 1-10 where 1-5 essentially means you're naughty and 6-10 means you're nice.  If you find some naughty keywords in your campaign, then don't worry.  There's still a chance you can turn them around...

 

How to Make a Naughty Keyword Nice

There are many factors that AdWords uses to calculate your Quality Score, but they all boil down into 3 core areas:

1. Click-Through Rate - This is by far the most important factor and it requires you to write compelling ads with strong offers.  Remember, Google only makes money when people click on the ads so it's in everyone's best interest to show the ads that get the highest click-through rate.
   
   
2. Ad Relevance - To make your ads more relevant make sure to incorporate your target keywords into the ad copy.
   
   
3. Landing Page Experience - After prospects click on your ads, then make sure they can easily find what you promised in your ad.  And with more and more people turning to tablets and mobile devices, your website needs to function properly on all devices.

When you're reviewing your Quality Scores, AdWords will highlight which of those 3 areas need the most work.  Focus on making incremental improvements to turn those pesky, naughty keywords around.

 

Marketing Lessons from the 2016 Presidential Election

The 2016 election has certainly been filled with controversy. But, one thing we can all agree on is that Trump’s marketing was extremely effective. That’s why in today’s article I’m going to tell you about the marketing lessons we can learn from this historic campaign.

 

And in today's Check This Out, register for next week’s LIVE training and discover How to Create an Effective Marketing Plan for 2017...

If you haven’t already, then now is the time to create your marketing plan for 2017.

 

This can be a daunting task, even for savvy marketers.  That’s why in this article I’m going to answer one of the most frequently asked questions about marketing plans, “What makes a great marketing plan?”

 

And to help answer that question, let’s take a closer look at the marketing plan behind arguably the most shocking underdog win of the year… Trump’s presidential race.  Whether you like it or not, there’s no denying the fact that Trump put together (and then implemented) a magnificent marketing plan to defeat Clinton.

 

So rather than bicker about the results, let’s learn from this historic event!

 

We’ll start with the most important step in the planning process…

 

Clearly Define Who Is & Who Is Not Your Audience

Trump did an amazing job laser-focusing his marketing on his ideal audience.  In fact, he took it a step further and was completely OK with alienating anyone that was not his ideal audience.

 

That’s a key takeaway that is worth writing down.

 

Some of the most successful companies in the world use this same strategy.  Look at Apple with its closed system that forces customers to only use other Apple products.  Or look at IKEA, which only sells furniture neatly packed in flat boxes that customers ultimately have to assemble (and if you’ve ever assembled an IKEA product you know it’s not easy or fast).

 

In all of these examples, Trump, Apple, and IKEA focus all of their marketing exclusively on their ideal audience and they ignore “the haters.”   They know what their customers want and they don’t try to cater to everyone.  As I’m sure you know, the kiss of death is trying to please everyone in your market because you’ll end up making no one happy.

 

So take the time to think through who is, and equally important, who is not your ideal customer.  Only after completing this step, can you truly create a great marketing plan because everything else depends on your target audience.

 

Next, it’s time to get inside the shoes of your audience…

 

 

Create a Great Offer That Solves Their Problem

Once you know who you’re targeting, then put yourself in their shoes.  What are the problems they are dealing with that your product or service solves?

 

For Trump, this was pretty straight forward…

 

Trump offered change.  Trump’s ideal audience was not happy with Obama’s 2 terms in office.  Therefore, their problems were tied to Obama’s policies.  Since Clinton’s policies were almost perfectly aligned with Obama’s policies, you can see how “change” was the perfect solution, or offer, in Trump’s campaign.

 

Now it’s your turn.  What are the problems that your ideal customers are dealing with?  Remember, we’re only talking about the audience you defined earlier.  Trump wasn’t worried about people who liked Obama’s policies because those were not his audience.

 

Once you know the problems, then it’s usually not too hard to come up with a great offer that positions your product or service as the best solution.

 

Ah, but how do your customers know it’s the “best” solution?  That brings us to the next step…

 

Differentiation

What other products or services could your customers use to solve their problem?

 

Don’t forget that there are many options outside of your industry, including the option of doing nothing.  In many businesses, the biggest hurdle is not a competitor; it’s procrastination.

 

For Trump, it wasn’t too hard to differentiate since he wasn’t a full-time politician.   And since he wasn’t a politician, then logically he couldn’t be a corrupt politician.  Regardless of your stance on Clinton, there have been so many political scandals since the founding of our country that we’ve come to accept that most politicians are susceptible to a little corruption.

 

In the business world, differentiation is synonymous with your unique selling proposition, or USP.  Why should your ideal customer choose your product or service over all the other options?

 

Once you’ve answered that question, then marketing and sales will be a heck of lot easier.

 

Finally, your marketing plan is not complete until you address what happens after the sale.  That’s right, marketing doesn’t stop when the sale is complete!

 

Fulfillment & Retention

Apple customers don’t love Apple because of their marketing.  They love Apple because of their products and their customer service.  In other words, if Apple didn’t deliver with easy-to-use and functional products, then customers would immediately have buyer’s remorse.   That would lead to refunds, negative reviews, and loss of market share to competitors.

 

At this point Trump’s fulfillment and retention plan is unclear.  It’ll take another year to see how things unfold, but if he doesn’t deliver on the promises made during the election, then we can be certain there will be buyer’s remorse across the country!

 

In business we call this the “customer experience.”  What happens immediately after a customer makes a purchase?  How could you improve the purchase experience?  How could you improve the product or service delivery experience?  What could you do to improve customer retention and referrals?

 

Those are just a few questions to get the ideas flowing.  But don’t just write down those ideas… Make sure you put them into action!