Latest Internet trends. Trends in social media

All tips

Konstantin Rudov

What trends await us in online marketing in 2018? We asked our leaders to comment on this matter.

Internet Marketing Trends

Yulia Blynskaya, account director

Can I shout “hurray” first? :) Now I see the embodiment of what we envisioned five years ago. And we were really looking forward to it.

Clients are becoming more and more knowledgeable about content marketing and online marketing in general. Business owners come to the realization that this is no longer a whim, but a necessity, and, more joyfully, they begin to understand how it works themselves. The question “why are you doing this?” sounds less and less often. My clients and I began to jointly analyze analytics, plan activities on new platforms, and discuss content formats.

Medium-sized businesses began to rebuild their financial plan, investing more in marketing, mainly outsourcing. Large businesses are already assembling in-house teams, applying only for consulting. Businesses began to think strategically about how they should promote themselves on the Internet! And this is a completely new level of competence!

Indicative statistics. We began offering the “Creating a Content Marketing Strategy” service at the end of 2015. In 2016, we received 66 applications for it. In 2017 – twice as much!

This trend will continue to develop. At the same time, business priorities, whether it wants it or not, will continue to shift towards not just attracting leads and generating sales, but forming a loyal community around its brand, gaining the trust of the audience, and maintaining its activity. We will have to invest in the development of this community. And this, as we understand, is also an investment.

Content Marketing Trends

Elena Zakharova, head of content department

1. More personal content will appear that reflects the position of the author and is valuable for this very position. Naturally, reasoned. This is especially true for blog articles. After all, in theory, a blog should be on behalf of an employee (or several employees with a wide range of topics) of the company who knows the product, services offered, and customer problems well. Articles with the author's signature inspire more confidence in the text than untitled epics. Human needs human. And the company’s employees cannot be entirely editors who have read “Write, Cut.” You can feel the licked text, and that notorious “I don’t believe it” appears in your head.

Let's take a real example - the website of our client, an oncologist who removes moles. He writes humanly, as if he spoke orally. And you read these articles, occasionally correcting commas and some phrases, and admire them - because you are sincere and honest. Simple, clear, recognizable. You immediately get the feeling that the person understands what he is talking about. And this is key for content marketing, given the general dominance of content. I think that this approach is relevant almost everywhere - Appliances, software, building mixtures, design, cosmetology, tourism, etc. Everything is involved in naturalness and real expertise.

3. The texts will be “more fun.” Giving the reader a clear answer to a question in a consistent and logical manner is the bare minimum. The next task is to make sure that the person enjoys reading. This is achieved, as a rule, through humor, bright images, such, in general, sparkle and life. It is clear that not the entire article is full of sparkling jokes, depending on the topic. But in general, there is more humor and informal presentation even in serious or “boring” topics such as USB cables. An alternative is soulful, lyrical texts, captivating with the author’s tact and openness.

4. “Young and dynamically developing companies” will stop multiplying. There will be companies with their own history, even if it is only a couple of months old. Owners of many sites will abandon one template in terms of content and simply switch to another. Is multi-content trending? “Let's quickly draw infographics, shoot videos, mix them with text, create white papers. And it’s okay that all this is mostly empty in content - but we have multi-content, and this, they say, is cool!”

5. Infostyle will penetrate the video (or has it already penetrated?). And this is good. Because it’s boring to watch a video about how to attach a car box to the roof of a car, where the “announcer” speaks slowly, for a long time, lovingly going through the details, not forgetting to turn the company emblem on these parts to the camera and never getting to the point. Well, in general there will be more videos on websites.

Lead Generation Trends

Evgenia Kryukova, head of marketing department

1. Omnichannel. Despite the fact that we have been promoting an integrated approach and multi-channel for quite a long time and confirming their effectiveness with cases, in 2017 there is still a misunderstanding of why all this is needed. I think the situation will change in 2018. Omnichannel (in other words, using all possible channels for communication with clients) is the main trend of next year. The more channels a business uses, the more serious the results in promotion and sales will be. Of course, I’m not talking now about a small family business of three people, for whom the VKontakte online store is enough. We are talking about a business that sets serious goals for itself, that intends to grow and develop. Do you want growth next year? Then remember this word - in 2018 it will be heard often.

2. Reputation. Now the time has come when any mistake or inattention of the company is brought out into the public domain by clients. You've probably seen how dissatisfied users write angry reviews and tag a company on Facebook or VKontakte in order to get feedback, an apology or additional benefits from it. Yes, often this is a kind of manipulation, but brands have no choice but to quickly respond to such reviews. No other way. If a company remains silent and ignores dissatisfied customers, this can develop into a great tragedy - even a complete loss of reputation. To prevent this from happening, you need to quickly and competently respond to negativity, encourage positive feedback, and help users solve their problems if they ask you to do so. I think in 2018 there will be more companies that will carefully monitor what is said about it online. By at least, in 2017, this trend, in my opinion, was quite bright. So bright that even Russian Post began to do this! And this, in my opinion, is very significant.

3. Web analytics. I don’t think that in 2018 everyone will suddenly start studying web analytics, but I want to believe in it :) Now without basic knowledge"Yandex.Metrics" and Google Analytics nowhere. At the same time, I believe that this applies to any person associated with Internet marketing: copywriter, SMM manager, editor, marketer, etc. You need to be able to build simple reports and draw conclusions about your work based on them. If you don’t have this skill, then most likely you will work in vain, having no idea what brought results and what did not.

4. New services. I am sure that new lead generation tools will appear in 2018. Services call back, online chats, dynamic VK covers, mailers mass messages– all this quickly loses its effectiveness. Users need to be constantly surprised, attracted their attention, and drawn into interaction with the brand. This requires imagination and new tools. I think we'll get them next year.

SEO Trends

Konstantin Anufriev, project manager

1. Total mobilization. Google is introducing a mobile-first index as the main one for evaluating sites in terms of mobile users, as the main consumers of content.

AMP and PWA technologies are being developed to improve the user experience on smartphones and with slow mobile Internet. This year, Yandex introduced a similar technology “Turbo pages”. The essence of these technologies is that content is shown to users of mobile devices instantly, since it is stored on the servers of search giants and allows them to access it as quickly and conveniently as possible.

2. Robots and neural networks are improving. Users will be able to receive more often necessary information in regular and extended snippets, which means there will be fewer clicks on them.

3. Development of tools for website owners or webmasters. Yandex continues to gradually improve its Webmaster tool so that site owners have better understanding how their resource was presented in Yandex search and it was easier for them to solve problems related to this. Totally agree Lately functionality appeared: trends, turbo, recommended queries, and they promised not to stop there. Google is also not lagging behind and is already actively testing and showing the updated Search Console, they promised to present it to the general public in 2018.

4. Sites for people. This trend is not new, but it seems to me that it will not lose its relevance either in 2018 or in 2019. High-quality, user-friendly websites with useful, engaging content are the main component of successful online promotion. Yes, this may sound trivial, and you have heard about it many, many times, but I will not get tired of repeating it until it becomes a common truth for the majority of webmasters and website owners. Make your website user-friendly and useful, and in 2018 you will see positive changes not only in traffic, but also in sales.

Web Design Trends

Svyatoslav Groshev, head of design department

1. The increasing role of typography. Some might say that typography is a small part of web design, but in my opinion, it is the most important element. Especially now – when websites have become more minimalistic. I think in 2018, beautiful typography will take over from heavy photography and illustrations. Mobile device users will find it easier to consume content, and the design will become cleaner and neater.

2. Further development of mobile layout. Already, most users visit websites from mobile devices. The number has increased mobile applications. Technologies such as voice search, voice bots, sign language and much more continue to develop. Developers are trying to take these trends into account when creating websites, and this will undoubtedly continue in 2018.

3. Use bright photos and illustrations. More contrast, bright colors, colorful and soul-touching photographs: all this “catches” the eye and evokes more emotions. I think this trend will only intensify.

4. Unique images. This has been discussed before, but now this problem is becoming more acute. Stock photos, which are used on many websites, are becoming increasingly mistrustful. I think that in 2018 there will be more companies that will opt for original photo and video content.

5. 3D visualization. The combination of flat design and 3D graphics looks very impressive. We will expect more such products in 2018.

6. Color gradients. This trend gained momentum in 2017 and, I think, will remain relevant in the next year. Gradients are used in illustrations, design of blocks on websites, individual elements designs, such as buttons or logos. There is a trend of transition from dark, gray shades to more colorful colors.

Finally. The development of mobile devices, the emergence of new functions and capabilities, increased productivity - all this forms new trends in web design. It is logical that what will happen next will be even more interesting. It is quite possible that something revolutionary will appear in 2018, related, for example, to progress in the creation of smartphones. So we’ll wait to see what surprises gadget manufacturers have in store for us.

Trends in UX/UI

Artem Aleynik, head of interface development department

You can go into detail and evaluate how it was customary to build a user interface in 2017, which of these became fashionable, and which users liked best.

We see that many people are making large menus that are shown and hidden using the “hamburger” button, similar to mobile ones, and introducing animation of elements. People are increasingly talking about VR and AR, although they are specifically relevant for the web similar technologies in the near future is doubtful for technical reasons.

I encourage you to keep these trends in mind, but first consider the goals you plan to achieve when designing a site or application. Consider everything you know about the business, target audience, promotion channels, and content delivery.

By thinking about this, you will create a better website or application because it suits your purpose, no matter whether it follows any trends or not.

Page using 3D, made using the three.js library. Convenient and impressive, it requires good internet and a strong device. Are such solutions suitable for everyone?

The only big trend for 2018 and subsequent years that I would like to mention is: blurring the line between user and interface. Try to create templates, controls, content, not focusing on search robot, and for a person: natural formulations, familiar forms. Because the Internet is no longer just pages in specially designed digital boxes, but the environment in which we exist.

Trends in backend development

Valery Filonov, head of backend development department

Increasing development of JavaScript technologies and writing websites on them. Frameworks are also developing (Yii2 and Symfony Framework have risen very well) and CMS, which is why pure PHP is used less often.

Development of technologies and emergence of new services for fast loading mobile web pages, which in turn increase the speed of page display on mobile devices without going to the site.

In web development, MySQL is still the most common database management system. PostgreSQL can also be noted as a very powerful, free and developing DBMS.

In the future, in my opinion, there will be an increasing bias towards the development of web applications specifically for mobile platforms.

Dmitry Dementiy

The investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) specializes in venture investments in Internet projects, green technologies and medical enterprises in the early stages of development. This Silicon Valley native is known for his involvement in hundreds of startups, many of which have grown into successful, world-famous enterprises. KPCB's investment portfolio at various times included Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, Google, Zynga and other projects.

Even many children can easily name today's Internet industry leaders who deserve the attention of investors. But to spot the future giant of the online industry at the seed stage, a venture capitalist must literally be able to predict the future. Looks like KPCB and its expert Mary Meeker have the real magic ball in their hands. KPCB not only finds promising investment targets, but also accurately predicts the direction of development of the Internet industry for several years in a row.

In particular, in 2010, Mary Meeker and KPCB saw the prospects for the development of Internet markets in developing countries, and also predicted a change in the sales and advertising industry under the influence of the mobile Internet. In 2011, the investment company turned its attention to content and content marketing.

Mary Meeker noted two years ago that undifferentiated content (created without taking into account the needs of specific target groups) costs exactly 0 rubles and 0 kopecks. The KPCB expert also predicted that Google's revenues in the coming years will exceed the total revenues of all American newspapers. Ms. Meeker compared content to a commodity asset. As you know, enterprises that process and redistribute raw materials earn more than the companies that extract them. Therefore, Internet projects that aggregate and curate content (for example, Google) have greater income compared to those who create it (the media).

In 2012, KPCB talked about the expansion of tablet PCs and mobile traffic. Mary Meeker noted that the advertising industry is adapting to new conditions, creating new products for owners mobile gadgets.

This year, KPCB once again used the magic ball to look into the future of the Internet industry in general and Internet marketing in particular. Below you will find a description of the most important trends, knowledge of which will help you successfully develop your online and offline business.

1. Mobile advertising market growth potential is $20 billion

KPCB specialists compared the time consumers devote to one or another information dissemination channel with the brands’ advertising expenses through these channels. The illustration shows that advertising budgets in print media have a high potential for decline, and advertising costs through mobile channel have huge growth potential. KPCB has estimated this potential at US$20 billion.

Food for thought: Are you using the same channel your audience prefers to publish your marketing content?

2. iOS and Android took several years to revolutionize the market

In 2012, iOS and Android had on the market operating systems for smartphones the share is 88%. And in 2005 their share was only 5%. It took Apple and Google just 7 years to turn the mobile industry upside down.

Food for thought: Is your business ready for the next revolution in the mobile gadget market and the Internet industry as a whole?

3. Leaders change with technology.

Many leading desktop PC manufacturers have maintained their leadership in the laptop era. However, with the advent of the era of tablets and smartphones, completely new leaders came to the market.

Food for thought: leading manufacturers of desktop PCs and laptops were unable to compete with manufacturers of tablets and smartphones. Is your business ready to lead the way with technology?

4. The content explosion continues

The amount of information created and published has increased 9 times over the past 5 years. It currently exceeds 2 zettabytes or 2 trillion gigabytes. All this data is stored in 500 quadrillion files. There are currently more bits of information stored in digital space than there are stars in the universe.

Food for thought: Have you conducted a content audit lately? What is the ratio of effective content to useless content in your organization? Many companies spend huge amounts of money on content that is never used.

5. Mobile Internet has huge growth potential

More than 5 billion people on our planet use cell phones. Of these, only 1.5 billion use smartphones. Thus, the number of mobile Internet users should grow 3-4 times when all owners cell phones will exchange them for smartphones.

Food for thought: you used adaptive layout when creating your website?

6. The share of mobile traffic in developing countries is growing

In 2012, Chinese residents began to access the Internet more often using smartphones rather than PCs. This confirms the high potential for the development of mobile technologies in developing countries.

Food for thought: mobile technologies became available to residents of developing countries.

7. Technological revolution

Technologies change completely every ten years. This process is gradually accelerating. We are currently at the beginning of an explosive growth in the popularity of mobile gadgets (smartphones and tablets). At the same time, a revolution of wearable gadgets begins (smart watches, glasses, etc.). Who knows when the era of implantable gadgets will begin?

The marketing trends of 2017 smoothly transitioned into next year. Video continues to become the most popular and influential digital content format. If done correctly, it can have a positive impact on sales growth. So don't be surprised when your marketer comes to you and asks you to budget for video content to improve your rankings. search engines, increase engagement and traffic speed on the site.

Today there is great amount formats that video content can accept: from panoramic videos to live broadcasts. This helps marketers to be creative when planning video campaigns.

The majority of video views are made through mobile devices: 90% of video views on Twitter and 60% YouTube views belong to mobile device users. In this regard, it is worth increasing budgets for advertisements on smartphones and tablets and focus on video for the next few months.

If you're on the fence about spending money on video, these statistics should convince you:

Opinion leaders

Internet marketing trends of 2017 showed benefits social marketing. That's why marketers in 2018 need to be prepared for intense competition for the attention of popular influencers.

To avoid pressure from competing brands, marketers will seek to develop longer-term relationships with key opinion leaders. However, the stars themselves are not very interested in long-term cooperation.

Louis Vuitton's 2016 partnership with Selena Gomez ended abruptly after rival fashion brand Coach managed to poach the celebrity.

Chatbots

2018 will be the year that brands need to think seriously about social media chatbots. Chatbots have been around for years, but they have gotten smarter recently thanks to the advancement of artificial intelligence. More and more brands are using chatbots for customer support and are improving their chatbot marketing strategy.

Voice assistants such as Alexa from Amazon, Assistant from Google, Siri from Apple, Alice from Yandex, Cortana from Microsoft will increasingly penetrate the life of the average smartphone user. Conversation is an original user interface with great potential. This trend will allow brands to naturally engage with consumers who want to easily find the information they need, shop, and simply be entertained.

Nowadays, chatbots are mainly used for customer service. 61% of consumer-chatbot interactions are centered around customer service issues. The future of bots looks brighter. By 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be performed by chatbots.

Here are some more interesting statistics. According to Google, 20% search queries from smartphones these are voice requests. This number is predicted to only increase as users get used to asking Alexa, Siri and Alice what to buy, what event to attend and how to choose required product. Therefore, marketers need to take this into account when preparing content.

Stories

The popularity of stories is growing at such a pace that they can no longer be ignored. The "stories" format pioneered by Snapchat has now become one of the main formats in the world social networks.

Instagram first created Instagram Stories YouTube has now released its own story format called Reels. Each of them offers unique features, but they all follow the same concept.

Stories capture the best moments of the day and most disappear after a certain period of time. Their limited time creates a feeling of FOMO (lost profit syndrome) for users.

2018 will undoubtedly be a big year for stories. Even WhatsApp and Facebook will join the fray. So it's time to think about stories as a key part of your social marketing strategy.

Conclusion

All of these trends (social media videos, influencers, chatbots and stories) will shape the social and digital marketing landscape in 2018. To keep your brand ahead of the competition, create unique content and stay on top of trends. But don't forget that no matter how brilliant the marketing strategy is, the core of the business is the product and service.

Absolunet - one of the leading e-commerce analytics agencies in North America, working with clients such as Fujifilm, Structube, Grimco, Stokes, Garneau, La Vie en Rose, Birks and SAIL - offers its version of the top 10 e-commerce trends, of which should start in 2018; translates the site

Trend 1. Online retailers are reviving offline showrooms

In the coming years, online retailers will have to master the art of presenting their products offline as cheaply as possible - through showrooms, exhibitions, fairs, other events, product demonstrations, and temporary stalls.

Huge online trading companies (“purely” online) will one after another increase their physical presence in different locations.

Trend 2. B2B trade is finally moving to online stores

The changing habits of B2B shoppers are that they are now ready to take advantage of the features found in B2C online stores.

Remember: the turnover of B2B purchases is such that online stores selling to companies can, in a matter of months, leave those competitors that cannot provide B2B supplies far behind, or even out of survival.

Trend 3. Augmented reality interfaces for goods are developing

Augmented Reality (AR) will rapidly develop among online stores in 2018. Brands are increasingly loving features that allow consumers to use their mobile devices to visualize products in volume and full size in their home or office.

Trend 4. A new coefficient is being measured - ROPO

The ROPO coefficient (Research Online, Purchase Offline - “research online, purchase offline”) shows how many visitors to an online store’s website did not make a purchase there for the following reason: the visitor used the shopping website only as a place to study and select products, read reviews them. And then made the purchase offline.

The simplest example: if geolocation sees that a person is standing in an offline lingerie store or next to it and at the same time is looking at lingerie underwear from a smartphone in online stores, it is logical to assume that he (s) reads reviews about this product and finds out its hidden nuances or simply find out the price options for a given product.

And if in the next few minutes, using the same smartphone, a contactless purchase is made in the same offline lingerie store, most likely, the online stores visited before were used precisely as information preparation for making a purchase in real life.

We predict that ROPO ratio measurement tools will become available to retailers in 2018 – and will become increasingly more advanced in the future.

Combining mobile devices and payment systems, social networks, personalization, geolocation / mobile tracking in real time using advanced analytics tools, ERP, CRM and POS systems - online and offline retailers will in the near future be able to find out which visit to which online store led to a purchase from which offline store.

And this will allow the first and second sellers to cooperate mutually - for example, to pay a commission in favor of an online store for the successful information preparation of a purchase from an offline retailer

Trend 5. Verification of mobile transactions is becoming easier – their number is growing sharply

In 2018, the promotion of simplified payment technologies with mobile devices - fingerprint checks and facial recognition - will begin to rapidly increase the percentage of transactions made from mobile devices.

Mobile checkout will actually become the preferred payment method for online retail purchases.

Artificial intelligence computer programs is already successfully creating an individual, customizable client experience - and this opens the era of auto-configuring sites and advertising for each client, based on the information about him collected by the program.

It's just like shopkeepers and bartenders once knew the preferences and even the family and business details of the lives of each of their regular customers.

And this means that millennials are... last generation, which will be considered in marketing as a generation, audience .

In general, the phrase “target audience” will lose significance - only certain qualities of the client will be targeted. The programs themselves will search for and find people with this quality.

So, we are signaling the beginning of the end for demographics-based marketing tactics with all our might. From 2018, everything in online commerce will begin to be customized not for groups of people, but directly for the qualities of individuals.

Trend 7. Former free online sellers will also enter marketplaces

Since 2018, no matter how many independent websites an online seller has, every seller who respects their customer will also open a website on the marketplace. This is the mainstream of world development.

If the online store is very large, it will try to create a marketplace out of itself. And 2018 is the last year for most trading niches (except for very highly specialized goods) in which there is still a chance to create a successful online marketplace. Further, it is unlikely that anyone will jump into this rapidly rushing locomotive without seven-figure dollar sums.

Trend 8. The practice of voice messages on websites and voice SEO will develop

In 2018, visitors and websites will use voice to interact like never before (websites will "talk" artificial intelligence, voice chatbot).

New settings will appear in SEO of online stores - for the nuances of spoken, rather than printed, keywords. After all, machine voice decoding often does not give exactly the question that was intended.

Trend 9. The practice of searching for “approximately similar images” of products is developing

Instead of typing words, many consumers will use image-based searches starting in 2018. We predict that image and voice searches could account for 50% of all searches by 2020.

As automated image analysis becomes standard in mobile devices, consumers will be able to take a photo of an item and then find the same or a similar product on sale in an instant.

Online merchants who are the first to integrate ability to respond to image retrieval into their content strategy, they will reap rich rewards.

They will be able to instantly enter new markets, since there will initially be few competitors with such sharpened content. And also because the language and place where you enter the query will no longer be an obstacle to finding your site.

In addition, the picture often eliminates problems with errors when entering a request and, most importantly, with the buyer not knowing the exact name of the product. As you know, buyers know many necessary things only as “a thing to mash mashed potatoes” or “something to remove pellets”, without knowing about the official store article number for this thing - which is why some of the goods were not purchased online for a long time. With photo search this problem is solved forever.

Trend 10. The role of browsers will begin to decline

Finally, in the world of the Internet of Things, the dependence of online stores on browsers will begin to weaken. Since 2018, against the background of mobile applications of stores, augmented reality interfaces from stores, voice interactions of visitors with stores and various devices devices that have non-browser access to the network (devices of the " smart House", "smart car" and the like) - the browser will become just another one of these channels.

Hello. From this article, you will not only learn all the Internet marketing trends of 2019 that will be relevant for our market, but also receive several specific recommendations that will help you “catch the wave” and quickly rebuild your business to meet new demands.

We will also tell you two trending secrets. So, read carefully and look for them in the text of the article. ☺ Shall we start?

So, let's start in order.

Trend #1: Mobile will dominate

Smart devices - smartphones, tablets, watches, wearables, glasses, microchips, HoloLens and others - will change the world of marketing. We are now entering the era of smart devices, where marketing will depend on more personalized relationships with customers. Those who can move faster than their competitors will take the lead in this fast-growing category.

Reception is no longer limited to the TV screen or desktop PC. Recently, content is all around us, it is woven into our daily life. A further development technologies will allow a person to receive information in such a way that his hands and eyes will be free.

Think about how we now interact with devices and new technologies, such as Siri or Alexa.

You speak and immediately receive a response from Siri. Alexa (Amazon's voice service) gives you access to content that will guide you through any process step by step. Literally anyone. From choosing the right dog breed for you (Purina's Ask Service) to providing first aid for a stroke or heart attack.

We are at a point where everything is becoming digital.

As mobile technology advances and voice-activated features become more intelligent, the relevance of results and targeted messages should improve markedly.

Your goal is to offer content that is clearly targeted and accessible to you in more formats, right time, in the right place when they need it most. Look at how rapidly the gadget market is developing, think about which of the new developments could be useful in your case.

However, this process requires serious preparation. Therefore, pay attention to the following items on our list.

Trend #2: Personalized Marketing as the Norm

Personalized marketing focuses primarily on the relationship between brand and consumer, whereby content acts as a currency to build trust.

Most users now resort to various blocking programs to reduce the amount of advertising when browsing websites. They place high demands on brands and branded content. And this bar will continue to rise. Such people will not be satisfied with simply telling stories. The already familiar “storytelling” is beginning to lose ground. Instead, “storymaking” comes to the fore, in which the clients themselves become part of the “story.”

You ask “how is this”?

Let's take a closer look.In its Priceless Reasons campaign, Mastercard invited customers to share their own stories of making sacrifices to make a purchase. People pay much more attention to their losses than to their gains. It is on this, on shared experience, on human connections, that this campaign was based.

It's a good reminder that none of us like to be talked about or sold on, but we all crave connection with each other and with the brands we're loyal to. To keep your audience interested, you must involve them in your story, and not just talk about your experience and product.

Those of you who focus on building trust relationships with the customer based on quality products will be rewarded.

The ability to turn social data into actionable business insights will be more important than ever in 2019. Tracking factors such as brand mentions and social media sales are only useful if you use this information to grow your company. You must double down on analyzing social data and applying it to growth strategies if you hope to truly win with social and personal integration.

Now let's get specific.

With the increasing development of technology, the processes for tracking customer interests will become more accurate. Today we are still developing complex programs to get the correct data. But in the future, there will be simpler, more powerful analytics tools that will help marketers measure success in terms of both cultural relevance and ROI.

In 2019, agencies and brands will need to transform themselves to leverage Customer Experience (CX) strategy and technology (a separate article on this) as new programs become available to track customer preferences.

GoogleGlass and HoloLens make it possible to use data, for example, about customer journeys. Development of virtual reality and interactive video provides endless possibilities in terms of tracking the impressions of each client and personalizing your offers. These changes will lead to personalized content development in incredible ways, as well as a significant increase in the amount of new content needed to capture the hearts and minds of consumers.

Great, but how do you create this personalized content? Let's look further.

Trend No. 3: Less is more

This is one of the main marketing trends of 2018-2019. As it grows, online publications adjust their models to account for these changes. Even in the last year or so, everything more publications is shifting from covering many broad topics to publishing in highly focused niches and highly concentrated content.

Yes, it is a challenge and it will take a lot of work, but it is also a mind-blowing opportunity. Targeted, niche publications tend to attract precisely those readers (aka buyers) who are REALLY interested in buying, so if you target niche publications, you are more likely to find success with a more qualified audience who are REALLY interested in , What are you offering.

Marketing is no longer about gender, caste, demographics or race. Buyers expect to be offered something relevant first, a message that is meaningful and sent to them through a channel that works for them. For example, pay attention to the Chinese development of Viscovery. This launch allows brands to promote their advertising based on the content consumers view.

“Brands must double down on analyzing social data and applying it to growth strategies if they hope to truly benefit from their ongoing social commitments.”

Yourselfbranding

Unfortunately, the audience reach on social networks is not high and continues to decline. You will have to develop new consumer engagement strategies and formats. Trying to be everything to everyone won't work. It's better to develop a community with a very specific and engaged audience than to opt for broad appeal with mediocre adoption.

We'll talk about content distribution and strategy development next. And now, for those who courageously read to this point, the discovery of the first secret.

What we didn't take into account, or generation Z.

The oldest Gen Zers are now 22 years old and have entered the workforce. This is a generation of people who were, at most, nine years old when Facebook came out. They also use Snapchat more than Facebook. But their real value lies in the fact that this is a generation of teenagers and young adults who use up to five different social networks a day and are not “married” to any particular platform. They are interested in videos, especially day-by-day, behind-the-scenes and how-to videos.

Brands targeting Gen Z will have an incredible advantage. The post-millennial generation will be even more demanding than their predecessors, and brands will need to recognize this.

Businesses will increasingly need to embrace “conversational commerce” through the right mix of automated messaging and human interaction. You need to integrate Messenger and Telegram more closely with your website to allow your younger customers to optimize and personalize their experience with your brand.

Expect messaging apps to compete with addresses Email as important contact information. Messenger for business will continue to iterate, adding new capabilities that enable businesses of all sizes to create more close relations with your clients.

“Generation Z” requires companies to work not only, and not so much for profit. Capitalism is about to change, and those who think solely about income as a sign of success are making a big mistake.

Trend #4: Content distribution is king. Yes, but...

And exclusive content has always been rated based on content alone. You have heard many times that “content is the king of marketing.” However, in our world there is no black and white. You need to learn to maintain balance.

The average company uses at least 8 content distribution channels.

This graph shows that content distribution on social networks and blogs takes the leading positions. This segment will become an Internet marketing trend in 2018-2019.

We have already examined the position of “Generation Z” and drew attention to the fact that young people use more sources of information simultaneously. But this does not mean that for a brand to be successful you need to “spread out in all possible directions.” This means that in the world of content the distribution is the same. We are all tied to personal interests and the interests of people. This is a kind of “mutual responsibility”. If you want likes, retweets and global shares, then it makes sense for you to turn to , which will help you understand at the earliest stages where your content works best and how you can use the right distribution of channels in the future based on testing and analysis.

There is one point here. Even if you decide to involve professionals in the creation and distribution of your content, this does not mean that you can sit back and relax. In any case, you will have to spend some time understanding this topic on your own, at least in order to adequately evaluate the results of the work. It is even more important to understand “where your legs come from” if you do everything yourself, without involving people from outside.

So let's look at the topic in a little more detail.

Our attention has become fragmented and unfocused due to the rise of social media and related information that makes us addicted. This results in 12 hours of content consumption per day, changing the way marketing is created and distributed.

Our favorite apps like Facebook and Google lock us into a bubble based on our social connections And previous history interactions with platforms. This “blocking” poses two diametrically opposed problems for marketing and content distribution.

On the one hand, a person receives only the information that he is interested in this moment. This gives brands the ability to fine-tune and personalize their content, but at the same time, new information is largely cut off. On the other hand, if a person suddenly changes or expands his area of interest, all the filters configured for him are destroyed and the seller, partially or completely, loses contact with the potential client.

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to completely avoid these moments. Therefore, it makes sense to expand the audience without losing focus and High Quality content. How to do it?

At the moment, there are a huge number of all kinds of social networks and other social platforms, similar in functionality, but differing in user audience. A so-called “overlap” occurs. For example, take Snapchat and . Both offer time-limited video posting, so using both may be overkill for your brand.

Brands must become more selective, focus on real audiences and promote on the optimal platform in terms of reaching the target audience. Instagram Stories can help you gain wider reach and tend to have a high conversion rate among users who open stories daily. But it’s also important to remember that Snapchat attracts a younger audience, which means the choice between them directly depends on the goals and focus of your brand.

Since this "overlap" trend will continue into 2018-2019, the best way to solve the problem is to use any analytics features offered different platforms and ultimately focus on those networks that provide the most measurable value.

Trend No. 5: The most important internet marketing trend of 2018-2019

The power of user-generated content will surpass that of branded content as brands begin to relinquish total control over their own marketing to customers. Brands need a strong positive impact on the minds and emotions of consumers. In this regard, bets will be placed on new models of user-centric content creation. And co-creation of content between brands and consumers will become a popular trend.

In 2015 Nielsen Global Trust advertising survey I decided to find out what type of content users trust the most. You can follow the link and get acquainted with this data in more detail. We will take just one table from this study, from which you will immediately understand which way the wind is blowing.

The largest percentage of users from all over globe would rather believe the recommendations of friends than advertising on TV, ads on social networks or videos on Youtube. Believe me, since 2015, this trend has only increased in momentum, and has become one of the main Internet marketing trends of 2018-2019.

Consumer advocates, mystery shoppers and communities of dissatisfied customers will significantly expand their influence in 2018-2019. Growing distrust of large companies, monopolistic companies and increased awareness of so-called “fake news” will cause a noticeable change in consumer confidence.

Actually, consumer marketing is a topic for a separate article (link). And here I propose to consider several basic tools that you should pay attention to.

Create a survey.

This is the easiest way not only to obtain information about potential clients, but also an excellent tool for involving the client in the creation of joint content.

There are many free or low-cost services that you can use. For example, "Survey Monkey". This is a convenient site where small surveys You can create completely free.

The questions you ask in your survey will, of course, depend on your goals. We recommend that you start with a simple introductory questionnaire that will help you assess the needs of your target audience. Such a survey should reveal three aspects:

Audience demographics. Age range, place of residence, occupation, level of education.
Greatest wishes. What problems would they like to solve? Are they willing to pay to solve a problem or achieve a goal?
What courses/products/articles would they like to see on your company’s website (blog)? Based on the answers, you will be able to understand not only what your target audience wants, but also in which direction you should move for development.

Create a FAQ.

It's very simple and free tool. It is convenient because:

You will relieve your sales department. The client will be able to find out as much information as possible before he decides to make a purchase.
You can engage your audience by inviting them to ask the most seemingly incredible questions, the best of which (with answers) you will post on your website in the “Most Frequently Asked Questions” section.
Based on the FAQ, you can create viral messages on your blog or page on social networks.

Contact an opinion leader.

Opinion leaders are those influential and famous people, whose words are listened to by most of your audience.

Believe me, it’s much easier to spend a certain amount of money on attracting an opinion leader and getting from him positive feedback than spending the same amount on advertising and hoping you get a few clicks.

Create an editorial calendar.

This is a fairly simple but labor-intensive process. You can create a separate calendar in Google, or in any other similar service and start filling it out in order to track and control the impact of publishing this or that material in different periods. What exactly to check and write down depends on your goals and objectives. We recommend that you pay attention to several points.

What day of the week is best for posting?
Which platform should each post be published on?
What topic should content be published on a particular platform?
What time should the publication go out?

If you go to, you can download our book, in which you will find these and several other tools that will help you attract clients.

Attracting a target audience that will trust you will not happen overnight magic wand. You need to understand this and be willing to continually learn how to better promote your content. The world of marketing is constantly changing, but the basic needs of the target audience always remain the same. Satisfy your customers' desires and you will win their hearts.

And now, for those who have read this far, we reveal another secret:

Back in 2016, Buffer, as part of a study« Future social media » surveyed 1,200 leading marketers. Video content came first in the ranking of the most important tools for attracting consumers. You can follow the link and watch this study for yourself. We will take only one graph from there

Here you can clearly see that the first three places are occupied by videos, blogs and live video. And this is the secret that we wanted to reveal to you - at the moment, “live” video has practically supplanted regular blogging from second place and is stubbornly breathing down the neck of regular video.

Why is that? Firstly, because on Facebook, video content provides, on average, 8.7% greater audience reach than other types of content.

And secondly, according to Facebook statistics, in 2017, users spent 3 times more time watching live videos and left 10 times more comments on such videos.

Quite convincing, isn't it?

Start using live video now. This will help you and your brand establish a better emotional connection with consumers and get maximum information return in the form of comments.

Believe me, in 2018-2019, brands must stop “broadcasting” and, finally, move on to dialogue with consumers. And this will be greatly facilitated by the combination of mobile (live) + social (personalized) + video (communication).

Read about how to start creating your own live video in our article (link)

Trend #6: Planning and Organization are Still Your Biggest Assets

At the moment, Internet platforms are already oversaturated with content. In order to promote our product, we must think creatively in order to stand out from the general chaos. This does not mean, however, that you can ignore the basics.

You must understand that one concept is not enough to promote a business. This means that you will need a solid and, very importantly, documented strategy.

Development and adjustment of strategy is one of the main trends of 2018-2019, which includes more effective creation content, more time for content and better targeting, attracting new types of content and new platforms for its distribution, etc. We already talked about this earlier.

A little higher, we already wrote about the editorial calendar, in which you could track the process of promoting the content you publish. It would be a good idea for you to create another similar calendar that will visually represent to you all the processes associated with the development and implementation of a clear strategy for the development of your business.

It should include everything related to the preliminary preparation of content for each month, all the data you will receive from content analytics, forecasting the impact of each type of content and a plan for further publications each quarter.

Prepare your team in advance and plan out the scenarios and stories you want to tell. Write down all the ideas, and do not forget to indicate which employee (if you have them) gave them to you.

Keep an eye on competitors and new products in your field of activity and do not forget to note “where the wind is blowing” at the moment.

These proactive tactics will make the job easier when it comes time to create and distribute strong content in real time.

Don't forget that the best improvisation is the one that is well and carefully prepared in advance.

To finish

Although the trends we have named should become a real force in 2018-2019, this does not mean that you can only follow them and do nothing else. Do your research, follow the leaders in your field, come up with new things, create. And remember the six most important points when communicating with consumers:

Talk to them.
Get to know them and what they want.
Make their life more convenient.
Look after them.
Treat them with respect.
Be the best.

And then everything will certainly work out for you.

Well, that's all for today. Be sure to download and read the book on traffic here. In it you will definitely find out the new places where your new clients “live”!