We’re more than halfway through 2017 and marketers already are looking ahead to 2018 to determine next year’s direction for their digital marketing campaigns.

Many are wondering if they should stay the course they charted in 2017 or make changes.

Here are 6 developing digital marketing trends to consider, both for the rest of the year and beyond.

1 – Personalized Content: Think Unique Customer Experiences

More than half of B2B buyers rely on content to research their buying decisions. What’s more, 47 percent want to review three to five pieces of content before they engage with sales reps.

Clearly, content is the beating heart of every marketing campaign. But as digital marketing matures, so does the nature of content. One of the increasingly important factors in creating content that connects with consumers is personalization—content specifically tailored to both customers’ needs and where they are in the buying process.

Consider These Stats and Facts

• 94 percent of digital professionals believe personalization is “critical to current and future success,” according to Monetate
• Personalized content performs 42 percent better than non-personalized content, according to HubSpot
• Marketers who deliver personalized web experiences are getting double-digit returns in marketing performance and response, according to Forbes’ Publish or Perish analysis
• 94 percent of senior-level executives believe delivering personalization is critical or important for reaching customers, according to PWC’s Digital Services group

Tips to Leverage Personalized Content

1. Start by targeting the “low-hanging fruit” in your client data: names and emails—most visitors will share these with you in exchange for valuable content, such as an eBook.
2. Once you have this basic data, start lead nurturing campaigns offering prospects access to more great content in exchange for more data.
3. Add value to visitors’ personalized experiences by asking: Will this help prospects and customers solve their problems and better understand our solution?

2 – SEO and Content Conversion: Help Them Work Together

Few companies discuss marketing without including a conversation about SEO. The two go together like peanut butter and jelly. However, the two functions have reached a point of conversion, according to a study by BrightEdge. In the survey, 97 percent of digital marketers believe that SEO and content have become more integrated or are converging into a single function. The marriage of content marketing and SEO impacts marketers’ three most important content performance metrics: conversions, engagement and traffic.

Consider These Stats and Facts

• 52 percent of marketers recognize that fluency in SEO is critical to long-term content marketing success, according to BrightEdge
• Organic search drives 51 percent of content consumption

Tips to Leverage the SEO and Content Conversion

1. Use SEO data to discover how prospects consume and engage with your content. Identify what generates interest and results in prospects who take action.
2. Conduct ongoing customer analysis, because prospects’ interests can change quickly.
3. Consider how customers engage with different types of content across channels and devices and at different stages of the journey.
4. Always be measuring. Set realistic and concrete goals for your content at every stage—from awareness to conversions.

3 – Social Media Marketing: Sharpen Your Focus

In the coming years, B2B marketing leaders expect to spend most of their time on social media. As a result, social media budgets will expand, according to a TEKsystems 2017 study. Central to the success of this expansion is understanding consumers’ point-of-view: Namely, they want consistent brand messaging and intuitive interactions whenever they encounter a brand or are considering making purchases.

Consider These Stats and Facts

• Facebook continues to dominate social media use, according to Top Rank Blog
• Social marketing is shifting toward emotionally engaging content and storytelling because strong emotions increase content’s “spreadability,” according to Oregon Web Solutions
• By the end of 2017, we’ll likely see most of the major platforms enabling users to create and share video content, create and share live video content and discover news and what’s going on around them (based on location), according  to Buffer App

Tips to Leverage Social Media Marketing

1. Ask: How do current customers feel about their experience interacting with our brand on social media?
2. Determine which networks are most important for your business and spend the most time creating fully fleshed out social presences there.
3. Consider dropping or reducing your time on social platforms that aren’t delivering lead generation and brand awareness.

4 – Video Marketing: More is Better

Remember the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words? Consider the new adage about video: Digital marketing expert James McQuivey estimates that a single minute of video content is the equivalent of 1.8 million words. Clearly, video is a critical direction in the future of digital marketing. Cisco Systems’ recent Visual Networking Index report found that video will continue to deepen its dominance on internet traffic with volumes increasing fourfold between 2015 and 2020. By 2019, video will represent over 80 percent of all internet traffic. Viewed another way, the internet will support 3 trillion internet video minutes per month by 2020, which equates to 5 million years of video per month, or about 1 million video minutes every second.

Consider These Stats and Facts

• 63 percent of businesses are using videos as marketing tools, according to Wyzowl
• 65 percent of business decision-makers visit a marketer’s website after viewing a branded video, according to comScore
• The average video retains 37 percent of viewers all the way to the end, according to Vidyard
• 92 percent of people who consume mobile videos share them with other people
• Video is shared 1,200 percent more than both links and text combined, according to Simply Measured

Tips to Leverage Video Marketing

1. Assess how much video content you currently use and the ROI. If you haven’t done enough, expand production.
2. To make your videos as memorable as possible, ensure that you’re keeping them in line with your brand strategy.
3. Boost your SEO by adding video to your landing pages, website and content offers.
4. Experiment with different lengths and subject matter for your videos.

5 – Mobile Marketing: Time to Get “Mobile Friendly”

It’s full steam ahead on mobile marketing in 2017—and beyond. For one thing, Google’s announced mobile-first algorithm is expected to launch in early 2018. With this change, Google will primarily index mobile content and use it to decide how to rank its results, regardless of whether you’re on desktop or mobile. There no longer will be any type of “mobile-friendly” adjustment done just for mobile users.

Consider These Stats and Facts

• 69 percent of digital media time is spent on mobile, according to comScore’s 2017 U.S. Cross-Platform Future in Focus report
• Worldwide, $143 billion will be spent on mobile ads in 2017 (twice that of $71 billion in 2015), according to Moinstall
• Location-targeted mobile ad spend will grow from $12.4 billion in 2016 to $32.4 billion in 2021, according to BIA/Kelsey

Tips to Leverage Mobile Marketing (From Google)

1. If you have a responsive or dynamic serving site where the primary content and markup is equivalent across mobile and desktop, you should not have to change anything for Google’s upcoming mobile-first algorithm.
2. If you have a site configuration where the primary content and markup is different across mobile and desktop, you should consider making some changes to your site, including making sure to serve structured markup for both the desktop and mobile version.
3. If you’re a site owner who has only verified your desktop site in Search Console, add and verify your mobile version.

6 – Digital Advertising: Dominating the Future

If you’re not yet engaged in digital advertising, now is the time. According to a new report from Facebook and IHS Technology, by 2020, media buyers will spend $84.5 billion on mobile advertising, with mobile accounting for 75.9 percent of all digital ad spend globally.

Consider These Stats and Facts

• Facebook’s advertising revenue in Q2 2017 reached $9.16 billion, up 47 percent year-over-year
• Twitter’s ad revenue fell in early 2017 by 8 percent to $548 million as advertisers pulled back from the social media platform
• LinkedIn earned nearly $1 billion ($975 million) in sponsored ad revenue in the first quarter of 2017

Tips to Leverage Digital Marketing

1. Experiment with ads on different social media platforms to see which perform better for your brand.
2. Leverage advanced ad-targeting tools, such as location-based advertising, which put your ads in front of users at the moment they’re in your area of interest.
3. Privacy is a real concern for all customers, so be sure to enable opt-in and opt-out in your advertising.

The future developments in digital marketing are approaching at blinding speed. This is no time to rely only on what’s worked in the past. Now is the time to start planning for—and even implementing—the leading trends that will impact digital marketing success in 2018 and beyond.

Don’t delay…Call Radsick Ad Group at 727.866.9365 to get a jump start on your 2018 Marketing Plan.

Paying attention to design trends can help define your brand voice.

Applying trends to your logo creates an ‘at-a-glance’ reminder of what your company represents. A great logo conveys answers to big questions about your brand, such as: What message are you trying to convey? Who are you trying to reach? What does the design represent? A logo has to answer these questions in a split second— now, that’s a lot of pressure!

Design trends definitely ebb and flow, but the foundation of a good logo design never changes. New design approaches can elevate your brand (or sadly the opposite, trends used in the wrong context can lead to trouble for your brand image), but learning the fundamentals of what makes a good logo is key. It never hurts to get a refresh on the characteristics that make a logo great:

It’s memorable.
If consumers can’t remember what your logo looks like, they’re not going to remember your brand.

It can stand the test of time.
The world around your brand will change, but your logo shouldn’t be redesigned every year to accommodate the new world; it needs to be able to hold its own.

It’s appropriate.
Find what is most important for you AND your brand to convey. What works for another brand will most likely not work for yours. A pretty font and beautiful colors won’t mean anything to the consumer if it doesn’t relate to the brand; a logo needs to be meaningful.

It’s unique.
A brand needs to stay relevant. Don’t get lost in the shuffle of the thousands of new start-up ventures with a logo that looks just like everyone else.

Now that you know what makes a logo great, let’s take a look at recent trends in logo design:

Hand-drawn:  Sincere. Fresh+ Fun. These are just some of the emotions that this type of logo design helps exude. A lighter approach is perfect if you are trying to stray from sophistication. Set your brand apart from the rest with this style  of design.

Simplified: Lately, brands have been switching gears and are going back to basics. Minimalism is here to stay, and we should all be happy about that! What worked in the golden age of design is definitely still working now. Sometimes keeping it simple is the way to go.

Geometric: Circles, triangles, squares, lines… these are the elements that make up the classic approach to geometric logo design, making it another trend that will never die. Simple geometric shapes are universal and have a long history in the design world. Modern businesses are adapting this trend and running with it. Interesting new logo forms emerge when designers start to play with geometry.

Color Transitions: While there is something strong about a solid color logo… a nice gradient or ombré can really help set a tone for a brand. Bold colors make a statement! This trend is all over the design world in 2017 and is definitely not limited to just logos.

Vintage: Looking for a throw-back vibe? Nostalgia is always in style. Your brand personality can really shine with this trend.

Bonus: Who doesn’t love a bonus trend? Animated/dynamic logos are holding their own this year. Motion design gives your brand a little pizzazz, but don’t animate your logo just because you can. The animation needs to relate to your brand, solidifying what your brand stands for.

Remember, a logo is a shortcut a consumer will use to figure out a brand. First impressions and snap judgment of your company will most likely be based on this very design element. So while they may be small, logos are your best silent partner.

Influencer marketing is all the rage these days.

Businesses that utilize influencer marketing have a 37% better retention rate  than those that don’t rely on word of mouth. Again, a Forrester report showed that 80% of all B2C and B2B purchases involve some form of word-of-mouth recommendation during the purchase cycle.

Though there are pros and cons with social media marketing, using influencers leverages the commercial value of influence and gets quick results, usually without any cons when properly executed. Adding this to the huge decrease of the CTR for display ads, which is 0.06%, many businesses have started to add influencer marketing to their arsenal.

But how can you create an effective influencer marketing campaign?

Here are 6 tips to use.

1. Know your “who”…This is the biggest mistake people make in any form of marketing: they just jump in and try to get anyone who can pay them money.

You need to target small groups of people. You need to be the one who comes to these people’s minds when it comes to solving the problem your product solves.

So how can you do this? You need to know your target audience better than they do. That’s why you need to go target small groups of people and make your message clearer and sharper by targeting it toward that group.

How can you know your “who” demographic better than they know themselves?

Do the empathy map exercise. It’s a simple exercise where you can either bring members of your target audience into your company, or you could imagine yourself as a member of your target audience.

Then start answering these questions:

• What does your customer see in her environment?
• What does she hear from her friends and family and everyone else with whom she associates?
• What does she think and feel? What is important to her? What are her most important emotions?
• What does she say and do? What are her attitudes?
• What is her pain? What are her biggest frustrations and obstacles?
• What does she stand to gain from your product? What will she achieve with it?

2. Start with the end in mind… Before you actually start your campaign, you need to start with the end in mind.

You need to know the goals you want to achieve from that campaign and work backwards. This will help you determine the budget you need to set aside to reach your goals. Make sure to keep key performance indicators (KPIs) in mind to measure the effectiveness of your campaign from the get-go.

These indicators could be:

• Audience reach
• Views
• Engagement
• Increase in followers
• Sales

3. Make sure the influencer is a good fit…Before you hire an influencer and start thinking about your campaign, you need to make sure that he or she is the perfect fit for you and your brand. Use a platform like Promo Affiliates which connects brands with suitable social influencers.

The influencers will be representing your brand, and if he or she has values that don’t align with your social media governance program, they’ll do more damage than good in the long run.

4. Don’t make all the content yourself; have the influencer create it…The influencer has a very specific, attention-grabbing personality. That’s what attracts people to them. That’s why you don’t need to make the content yourself. Actually, you shouldn’t. Let the influencer do most of the creative work.

He or she already knows their audience and they know what’s going to resonate with them. But you can always offer to help. Give them a hand and maybe share things that are working with other influencers so they can try for themselves and see the results.

The most important part is that your influencer should be the main act when it comes to creating engaging content because he or she knows the audience better than you.

   5. Don’t always go with big names…When people start thinking about influencer marketing, they think they should go to the big people in the industry, the people who have more followers and so on.

Actually, that’s not always the best strategy, especially when you’re just starting out.

You need to go to the people who have the biggest number of people who are part of your specific “who.” Also, when you go with smaller names, they may be more engaging, which will give you higher ROI.

Plus it’s easier to go with people who haven’t done any campaigns or have only done a few. It will be less expensive, of course.

6. Track, measure and analyze…Your job isn’t done after you create the content and publish it. You need to track the results and analyze them based on the KPIs you set.

It’s not just about the likes and views your content receives. Check your traffic stats and your sales count. Did you reach your goals? If yes, then great! Keep rocking with more campaigns.

If not, then you need to find where the problem is and how can you solve it the next time. After all, influencer marketing is a long-term game.

So track the results, measure its effectiveness and analyze your metrics to make sure you get the most bang for your buck.

Call Debbie at Radsick Ad Group to help you with your next “Influencer” marketing campaign.

Reprint: Forbes 5/17