If you speak to anyone who has been in marketing for more than 20 years, they will tell you that the landscape today is completely different to what it was two decades ago. Marketing is an evolving science that changes to suit new technologies and consumer preferences. In fact, digital marketing has to be the fastest evolving form of marketing around. The tactics you use one year could be largely useless the next, so you need to stay up to date with the trends. So, to help you out, here are four digital marketing trends you need to consider focusing on in 2018.

1. Chatbots

Chatbots are one of the hottest digital marketing tools around at the moment. They are the perfect way to give your customers the rapid responses they need, whilst better automating your marketing efforts at the same time. Some reports show that the open rates from messages sent on Chatbots are as high as 80 to 90%, depending on how engaging you make the conversations. As such, they have a far higher open rate than older marketing channels, such as email.

2. Delivering brand value

It is no longer enough to simply want to tell your customers what you do and to expect them to become a loyal customer. Instead, those brands that are successful in 2018 at growing in popularity are those that deliver overall brand value and show they care. This means going above and beyond to interact with your target customers in a meaningful and helpful way. For example, giving back to your local community or holding open days and free industry-relevant seminars.

3. Reviews

Reports show that more than 50% of consumers now choose to read online reviews on a product before they make a purchase. Well, this statistic is hardly surprising as the retail environment is shifting evermore away from physical retail space to online eCommerce and service-based purchases. As such, you need to ensure your company has a solid review base, and those reviews are easy to find. This includes things like Google Reviews, Facebook reviews, Trustpilot and Yelp. Also, building up a solid Google Review base can also boost your local SEO performance.

4. Becoming a media property

With so many brands online competing with you, one of the best ways to succeed in 2018 is to focus on turning your business into a media property. What this means is taking time to create high quality, industry-relevant content that can then be shared amongst your target customer base. If you can become the go-to authority in your niche or industry for relevant news, then this can dramatically boost your sales. Make use of social media, blogging and community outreach to showcase the information you are developing. If it is good enough quality, it should become easily shareable and ideally viral.

vLinkD – Linking Business Innovations

Understandably, the information you have read here might be a lot to take in. The trends that are picking up pace this year may be far different from the tactics you currently use, and it can be hard knowing where to start. That’s where vLinkD comes in. We have our finger firmly on the pulse of evolving digital marketing trends. We have the technological knowhow and business savvy to implement new marketing tactics and actually generate results. If you’re interested in finding out more, contact our friendly team today.