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SMDigital Partners presents a summary of 2018’s upcoming Digital Trends. This summary is a product of an in-depth investigation of different reports, as well as attending events, fairs and international digital marketing conferences.
2018 is here. Here are six digital trends to watch for and boost your digital presence:
- Back to the Roots: A rising need to return to your brand’s roots while connecting to today’s conscientious consumer and next generation.
- Content is the Answer: Responding in a concise way to the consumer’s questions while catering to voice search queries.
- Mass Adoption of Virtual Reality: Big brands increasing their use of virtual reality technology to engage their customers.
- Digital Advertising – “Catch me if you can”: A more complex online advertising landscape with a more elusive consumer.
- E-mail 3.0: Email personalization and automation will lead the communications agenda in 2018.
- The Boom in Customer Service: Using technology and artificial intelligence to enhance customer service.
1. Back to the Roots.
In 2018, we will see how brands will have an unexpected turn towards their roots. Digging deep into their history to the creation of their company. We will see how they touched their consumers in the beginning and what they originally meant to the loyal customers that helped to make them the household names they are today. Consumer tendencies are changing fast and in a radical way. The brands that embrace this will reconnect with consumers by revisiting and communicating the same message that made their product and company successful in the beginning. They will use digital platforms to get their message out there, and they will get it out there, FAST!
Today’s upcoming generations are behaving very different from the traditional ones in connection with brands. So is the consumption of their products and services in a digital world. They are less complicated consumers, but at the same time more demanding. Today’s consumers have a wealth of information at their fingertips. They are willing to pay a little more for the brands they associate with. They chose their brands not only as a trend or fashionable solution to their needs, but also to connect with the values, production methods, and causes that those brands stand for. Add those roots into your digital strategy to follow this digital trend and watch your brand grow!
2. Content is the Answer.
2018 will see a sharp rise in the demand for concise content that responds to voice searches through virtual assistants such as Alexa , Siri, Cortana or Google. This is will be one of the hottest digital trends this year as more consumers use a virtual assistant to shop, get answers or listen to music.
This year Google will increase the use of snippets to offer quick answers to users without leaving Google.com. They will even sacrifice the potential for Adwords revenue in order to provide the consumer with the results they need. This sacrifice for the “needs and experience of the consumers first” will drive changes in how Google and other search engines will index content, websites and information on the web to reward the best optimized pages for informative, factual and concise answers. Here’s a snippet: Make it short, sweet and informative.
3.Mass Adoption of Virtual Reality.
In 2018, many brands will create experiences with virtual reality. Sectors such as automotive, B2B, education, real estate, tourism among others will invest in creating brand encounters in a virtual world. The focus of these virtual reality experiences will be to enhance the digital interaction with a brand’s product or service. It will create an experience that appeals to the all of consumers’ senses. Likewise, we will see companies such as Facebook, Apple, Samsung and Google continue to bet strongly on this technology that will surely bring great surprises throughout the year. Here’s a little taste of reality, augmented for a realtor, really and digitally!
4. Digital advertising – “Catch me if you can”
In 2018 reaching the consumer will be increasingly difficult. Adding to this challenge for brands will be:
- An increase in adblockers ;
- Facebook forcing brands to pay to show their content (only 2% of organic publications reach users);
- The difficulty of the influencers to find a business model that allows coexistence with brands;
- The increase in users’ privacy policies;
- And, the creation of new payment-for-content business models that move away from traditional advertising financing.
All of these factors are sure to make 2018 one of the most interesting years; full of opportunities for digital agencies to show the brands they represent the important role digital strategies play in enhancing the connection between a brand and its consumers.
5. E-mail 3.0
E-mail will continue to be the preferred form of communication by consumers. This adds another effective but challenging facet to 2018’s complex landscape of digital advertising. Brands will be using email for growth in the creation of communities, coupled with much more intelligent messages based on the behavior of users both offline and online. To accomplish this, brands will begin taking their first steps with machine learning tools generating personalized and fully automated e-mails.
6. The Boom in Customer Service
In 2018, the brands will start to balance the customer acquisition budget much better than the retention budget. A large part of the customer service will migrate to social networks and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. Likewise, the chatbots will improve their performance by having more learning. During this year, we will hear about Social CRM and we will see the impact of automation technologies and how they will be more relevant to efficiently serve customers. These pioneering efforts and technologies will demonstrate how brands will continue to make an important effort to satisfy their customers beyond the traditional contact center.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
