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- Marketing Strategy
With a new year comes new trends in the world of marketing. As time goes on we’ve seen incredible shifts in the marketing landscape that have been primarily due to technology. It’s important to stay up to date with what’s working and what’s not when it comes to marketing, which is why we’ve put together 3 marketing trends to watch in 2018:
Transparency and personalization will become even more important.
We’ve entered a space in which businesses are expected to be transparent and forthcoming about their transactions. Consumers are interested in how and where businesses spend their money as they look to make a greater impact with their wallet by purchasing from brands that spend in a way that aligns with their personal values. Let your customers know what you support, and take the feedback that comes constructively.
Also important is personalization. Understanding what your customer wants and personalizing your offerings to their needs will become a higher priority, especially as technology continues to advance. In 2018, focus on selling the solution, not the product. That’s what your customers want — a solution to their challenges, needs, and desires.
Data protection will be paramount.
After the Equifax breach of 2017, consumers are looking more carefully at their spending methods and the security on the websites they’re ordering from. Ensure that you’re protecting your customers by purchasing an SSL certificate for your website. Take other steps to prevent data breaches, and if one does occur, always let the customers know what’s happened and what you’re doing to correct the problem. Letting your customers know that they’re purchasing over a secure connection is great, too. They’ll know that their information is safe and that you care about it.
Paid reach and engagement on Facebook will become absolutely necessary for businesses.
According to Business 2 Community, the death of organic reach on Facebook “has been on the cards for some time and we can quite easily imagine 2018 to bring the final death knell for anything like organic reach on the platform. It is such a commercial platform now, and there is so much going on with Facebook that is essentially ‘paid’ that organic reach has very much come to an end.
It’s been dying out since 2014, but it is clear that in 2018 it could well be further down than the 5-10% organic reach levels that brands are seeing now. We’re not geniuses, but that sounds pretty bad.”
So what does that mean for your business? You’ll have to stop relying on organic reach to bring in customers. Include boosted posts in your 2018 budget so you can use the platform for its full capability.
Do you need help capitalizing on these marketing trends to watch in 2018? Give us a call — your first 30-minute consultation is free!