The digital marketing trends for 2018

We all just entered the new year, 2018 and I think this will be a great year for the digital marketing world. And what do we all need in 2018? I think we all need to be informed about the trends that will dominate the digital marketing world in 2018. The trends below are in my eyes trends that you need to know:

1. AI & Behavioral Marketing Will Make Strides Together

What I noticed in 2017 is that more and more marketing platforms started with collecting information such as site usage, browsing patters, search history and content preferences to create specific customer profiles. These profiles were used for new marketing strategies that could help marketers create custom messages to address to their prospects.

I’ve read an interesting from Adobe about the change of digital marketing in the coming ten years. Adobe says that machines will start making strategic marketing decisions. In 2017, marketing platforms collected and stored information such as site usage, browsing patterns, search history and content preferences to create customer profiles and behaviour marketing strategies that help marketers create custom messages to address these prospects. But the next step is even more exciting. In such a situation, the software will analyse data to build segments, start and stop campaigns across various channels and create a custom copy that will target perceived personalities. Because customers are more loyal when they see marketing that specifically targeted to them based on their behaviours, these advances in AI and behavioural marketing in 2018 will allow marketers to more effectively engage with their prospects and customers.


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Due of tools like Intercom and Drift, marketers can use AI-powered live chats to communicate with prospects. And because of the fast improvement of this technology, I think that brands will embrace AI live chat and use it to improve their services on their websites!

2. Brands Will Invest Heavily in Influencer Marketing

In the last couple of years influencer marketing has been growing in popularity. But I think that in 2018 more and more brands will start using influencer marketing as a part of their marketing strategy. According to a research of Small Business Ideas and Resources for Entrepreneurs, 84% of marketers planned to do at least one influencer campaign in 2017. So I think this will rise in 2018. . Clothing and beauty brands have had great success with using micro influencers and major celebrities for a while now, but now big brands like Amazon are also getting in on the action.

Of course, consumers are a big part of influencer marketing, as well. Brands will continue to give their existing customers a chance to suggest their products. Think the Starbucks White Cup Contest and Coca- Cola’s Share a Cokecampaign. This type of user-generated content allows brands to make consumers a part of the brand story and buyer experience.

To come back on Amazon’s influencer program. Amazon recently added some kind of self-service tool where influencers can build a page on Amazon with a dedicated vanity URL to show their followers all the products they really like and recommend. This will make it a lot easier for the influencer to share product recommendations and earn money with it while doing it.

Consumers, especially younger ones, prefer content that feels less "staged"and feel natural. Subtle sponsored content, created by influencers, that feels and looks organic promoted by influencers is very effective. Almost 95% of all marketers who currently use influencer marketing in their marketing strategy believe it is effective, and I only expect this number of marketers to increase in 2018.


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3. Professional Live Video

Live video’s will continue to be a trend in 2018 but not just a simple video but a professional live video. What I noticed is that almost every social media platform is joining the live video movement and are adding new features to their platforms. Live video is a great way to connect with your audience, and the shaky, holding-a-phone-in-your-hand live video won't be acceptable anymore. So, this is going to be a real nice challenge for marketers, how can they improve their live video skills in a way that really connects with their target audience and followers.

4. New Advertising Formats Will Circumvent Ad-Blocking Technology

More and more people are discovering ad-block software and dealing with this has been a real challenge for marketers the past years. And there is more… Google is working on a Chrome-tool that mutes autoplay videos and this might sound great for consumers, but this is terrible news for advertisers.

But there is also good news. For example Facebook. Facebook have found ways to disable ad-blocking software so the created content from the brands will be seen by their targeted audience. Netflix also has a solution for the ad-blocking problem, but it comes with a downside. Although Netflix is officially ad free, they came under scrutiny in 2016 for obvious product placement in the Netflix Original series ‘’The Ranch’’. In 2017, Accenture began working on a product placement technology that it believes will be a billion-dollar revenue generator in the next few years and will address the issues advertisers are facing with ad-blocking software.

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This AI-driven solution will be used to quickly scale, place and personalize logos and products that may appear in related content. For example, if you’ve been doing research on a new MacBook online and decide to watch a Netflix Original series, that same laptop could appear as a character’s prop or on a billboard in the background of a crucial scene. This may be tailored for each user, allowing personalization and re-targeting to mix where customers are already heavily invested.