Things change fast in the world of online marketing.
One day it was all about anchor text. The next it’s all about content.
One day it was about getting “likes”. The next it’s all about engagement on your post.
With swift change in marketing trends, the following are some observations given by Neil Patel of Quick Sprout and Eric Siu of Single Grain.
1. Video
YouTube is now the 2nd most popular search engine after Google.
What does it all mean? That there is a need for answers in video format.
Video is not as difficult as it may seem to produce.
Ever since the introduction of the Canon EOS 550D, the quality of video has gone up with the price of equipment going down.
If you can’t afford a dedicated video camera, just buy a Rode SmartLav microphone for your smartphone for cleaner audio and start recording there.
2. Live streaming
Facebook has been pushing hard for this feature and you should take advantage of this opportunity as well.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Q&A sessions tend to work best since users have an incentive to be part of the conversation.
Promote the session at least 24 hours prior to maximize attendance.
3. Growth hacker marketing
Andrew Chen stirred some controversy when he started on saying that CMO’s are a thing of the past and that VP’s of Growth is the way of the future.
Case studies of AirBnB and Dropbox are often cited when the realm of growth hacking is brought up.
In short, growth hacking is a process of rapid experimentation across marketing channels and product development to identify the most effective, efficient ways to grow a business.
You have to consider what distribution channels should you be focusing on to grow your company and what content or assets you should build into your business in order for it to grow fast.
4. Community building
Building a community gives a strong selling point to the user.
Social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have become a household name because of the community factor.
Nir Eyal, author of Hooked, described the 4 steps that made social networks so addicting and they were:
1) Trigger – notification (or the red circle on upper right corner)
2) Action – you tap on the app
3) Variable reward – you anticipate the outcome of the notification and getting the reward
4) Investment – you leave a comment or write a post and exit with a purpose to come back and view the response.
Building an online community for your business will play a huge role in its marketing efforts for the same exact reasons.
5. Marketing automation
A prime example of marketing automation is in e-mail marketing.
Affiliate marketers such as Andre Chaperon and online education companies such as IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com rely on e-mails for the majority of their business and automation adds a huge advantage when it comes to managing your time.
6. Personal branding
One of the personalities at the forefront of personal branding is Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia.
His efforts for growing his personal brand include daily Instagram stories and photos, daily vlogs, daily Snapchat stories.
Neil Patel, founder of CrazyEgg, has found through his experience that selling through his personal brand performed better compare selling through his companies.
In conclusion, the 6 main things that are influencing marketing in 2017 are:
1) Video
2) Live streaming
3) Growth hacker marketing
4) Building a strong community
5) Marketing automation
6) Personal branding.
