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Hold tight – everything’s about to change all over again. Here’s our pick of the top marketing trends for 2017, and how you can use them.
New Year's Eve will be here before we know it – and with a new year come new possibilities for marketing. Experts have already started their predictions about which will be the best, but regardless of how many new trends surface or how popular they are, you can bet some will succeed and some will flop. Here are a few we expect will pay off for the marketing world in 2017 and – more importantly – how your business can take advantage.
Everything with an ‘on/off’ switch will at some point be connected to the internet. This brings amazing possibilities – the internet of things (IoT) will change the face of data sharing as we know it.
If everything that can be connected is connected, many more devices have the potential to gather data on audience groups and be used for marketing. And we know that the majority of people are happy to trade their data for personalised offerings, so any privacy concerns that could hold back marketers can be overcome by the provision of tailored content and offers, and better customer experience.
The world of virtual reality (VR) is already growing, and it’s only expected to grow more in 2017. Recent Australian research indicates that more than 500,000 VR headsets will be sold each year by 2020, with demand outstripping supply in the short term.
With increasing audience sizes, VR certainly has the potential to become a lucrative industry, and one that marketers can take advantage of. Think of the possibilities for VR ads or, even if you aren’t quite ready to create them, the new platforms you can advertise on.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software already has the ability to collect such detailed personal data on users and, if you aren’t using yours to tailor your communications and marketing plan, you’ll soon be lagging behind. But this isn’t just a vanity project – sending a tailored message to the right person at the right time leads to better conversions and increases ROI.
Facebook is already letting users customise the types of advertisements they want to see, and more sites are expected to do the same. You will have to get more creative because consumers will have more of a say over what types of ads they see – you’ll want yours to make the cut.
Brands that are already responding are producing creative content and changing formats – and visual content is a large part of that. Currently, 55 per cent of shoppers research on mobile devices, where visual content helps them narrow down their product choices. Expect more photo and image advertising in a variety of formats other than copy.
In addition to becoming more creative, content marketing has the potential to become even more popular than current modes of advertising. Traditional ads have built a relationship of distrust with consumers; many users ignore ads and focus on the content they’re really interested in instead. This requires companies to pursue a different route in order to reach their target audience, namely content marketing. Companies are already spending more of their budgets on it, and this is only going to increase in 2017.
According to Syndacast, 74 per cent of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video. Currently, marketers who use video grow revenue 49 per cent faster than non-video users, and four out of five shoppers say a video showing how a product or service works is important.
With a little preparation for the coming changes, you can keep up with highly connected consumers, giving them creative, hyper-personalised marketing messages they actually want. Find out more about how you can start blazing your own trail to guide your customers to the next step of their journey with this eBook.
