2018 Digital Marketing Trends From 20+ Marketing Experts
Is the beginning of 2018 and every company in this world must think about their digital strategy for this year. More and more people are online and if you want to have more visitors to your website and more clients in 2018 you’ll need to have a digital marketing strategy for this year.
Because I know there are a lot of people thinking about “What are the 2018 digital marketing trends?”, I ask 20+ well-known marketing experts to tell our social media and marketing blog, what are their digital marketing predictions for 2018.
Next weeks there will be two more articles about the top 3 social media networks recommendation for 2018 and which are the most important social media tips for this year, from the experts perspective.
Big Thank You to all the experts who found a couple of minutes to send me their answers! Don’t forget to share this article if you like it because… sharing is caring!
22+ Experts Recommend The Top 3 Most Useful Social Media Networks in 2018
What are the Most Important 2018 Digital Marketing Trends?
Ted Rubin
Ted Rubin is a leading Social Marketing Strategist, Keynote Speaker, Acting CMO of Brand Innovators, and Co-Founder of Prevailing Path. Ted is the most followed CMO on Twitter according to SocialMedia Marketing Magazine; one of the most interesting CMOs on Twitter according to SayMedia, #13 on Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers, and number #2 on the Leadtail list of Top 25 People Most Mentioned by digital marketers. Return on Relationship, ROR, #RonR, is the basis of his philosophy… It’s All About Relationships! His book, Return on Relationship was released January 2013, How To Look People in the Eye Digitally was released January 2015, and The Age of Influence… Selling to the Digitally Connected Customer was just released.
Answer:
Social is moving to a prove it or lose it stage… so start thinking how Content IS the Ad. The importance of content in your SEO and middle funnel strategy will be critical.
Neal Schaffer
Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in 2018 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence, on educating the market on how any business can leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.
Answer:
Digital marketers will need to continue to take a holistic and omnichannel approach in order to best leverage the latest digital marketing trends. Some of the most exciting trends in 2018 will come from social media in the form of influencer marketing and the many digital marketing objectives it can help you reach, paid social with more advertising budget shifting to Instagram and new ad categories such as inside Instagram Stories placement, the overall use of visual (both static image and video) content, and finally the power of leveraging employee advocacy and the implications it has specifically on LinkedIn for B2B companies.
Brian Carter
Brian Carter has been a digital marketer for 18 years and a trusted influencer and ad agency owner for a decade. A bestselling author, IBM futurist and one of LinkedIn’s top 25 social media experts, he has over 250,000 online fans and students. Brian has built marketing programs and been a keynote speaker for Microsoft, NBC, Universal, Citrix, Marketo, Salesforce and more. His media appearances and interviews include Bloomberg TV, Inc, The Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur Magazine. His hands-on business experience, cutting-edge insights, and background in stand-up comedy culminate in a keynote speaker and trainer who leaves every audience not only entertained but armed with powerful strategies and tactics.
Answer:
Better data and how to use it. Data is simply how we listen to customers. The better you understand them, the happier you can make them. The happier your customers, the less vulnerable you are to disruption and bankruptcy.
Sandra Clayton
Sandra Clayton is an online marketing expert who loves teaching entrepreneurs, creatives, and bloggers how to build a profitable online business that ignites their inner genius. She’s passionate about sharing everything she knows about online marketing to help people build a life and a business that they love.
Answer:
2018 will be the year to prioritize return-on-investment over likes, shares, and comments. Social media sites are making it easier than ever to connect the dots between campaigns and direct revenue, which means that you need to attach revenue goals to every piece of content you share and track the campaigns that drive real returns.
Live and pre-recorded video will continue to be huge in 2018. Videos give prospective customers a way to know, like, and trust that goes beyond blogging. With tools like iMovie, Screenflow, and ContentSamurai, it’s easy enough to turn blog posts into videos and upload to YouTube, Facebook, and even Instagram.
Tim Hughes
Tim Hughes is universally recognized as one of the world’s leading pioneers and exponents of Social Selling and he is currently ranked Number 1 as the most influential social selling person in the world.
He was responsible for a large-scale sales transformation within Oracle the result of which delivered in excess of $100m in sales uplift and he is currently leading the sales transformation programmes at Avaya, Thomson Reuters, and Pitney Bowes and is the co-founder of Digital Leadership Associates.
Answer:
We have been talking for years that this will be the year that Digital Marketing changes. 2018 changes everything, with GDPR. If you are based in Europe or sell to Europe you now have to comply or face massive fines. Companies such leading pub group, Wetherspoons have deleted their email database and will communicate with customers through social media. Research shows that people expect 40% of companies to follow suit.
Marketers and Sellers are seeing that “broadcast” and “interruption” marketing are a thing of the past and brands and employees need to be where their clients are, on social media. Not interrupting people and annoying people with Ads, Cold Calling, and Email, but building trust and community.
This move to social is both external and internal to companies. For example,
I run the whole of my personal life on social, my 85-year-old parents the only people who used to email me, have now moved to Facebook Messenger. My business runs on social, I now get very few Business related emails. With 40% of the world’s population on social
media and 21% average year-on-year social media growth, the world has moved to social.
Pam Didner
Pam Didner is a marketing consultant, author, and speaker, whose international book, “Global Content Marketing”, is the first to offer an accessible, comprehensive process to scale content across regions. During her tenure at Intel, she led enterprise product launches and worldwide marketing campaigns as a globally integrated marketing strategist. She now leads a boutique-consulting firm that trains, coaches and provides strategic guidance on audience development, messaging architecture, editorial planning, content creation and media outreach on a global scale. She regularly shares her insights at www.pamdidner.com.
Answer:
How to leverage your digital marketing to create synergy with your sales enablement team. It’s time to proactively collaborate with sales to align sales and marketing strategies. Engage with the right prospects, at the right stages of their buying process and with the relevant value propositions and content.
Jamie Turner
Jamie Turner is an internationally recognized author, speaker and TV news contributor who has helped The Coca-Cola Company, AT&T, CNN, and other global brands solve complex business problems. He is the founder of 60SecondMarketer.com, a business blog read by hundreds of thousands of executives around the globe. And he is a regular guest on CNN and HLN where he provides insights on business, digital media, and leadership. Jamie currently runs SIXTY which is a marketing consultancy and advisory group that has worked with SAP, Holiday Inn, TransUnion, and others.
Answer:
The most important trend is the complete and unrelenting move towards honesty, authenticity, and transparency. Digital marketers who are anything other than 100% authentic and honest will be outed by the population at large.
Adel de Meyer
Adel de Meyer — Top 100 Marketing Influencer, New Media Specialist, Author, Mentor, and Speaker. Adel is a New Media specialist with focused expertise in using Twitter and Instagram for business. She has a top-listed digital marketing blog and Adel is recognized as a leading Instagram and Twitter influencer on social media and business in Australia. She regularly writes articles and speaks at local events on influencer marketing, technology, and social media solutions. Adel works with global SMB enterprises, entrepreneurs, and personal brands by using social media and technology to captivate their audiences. She loves coffee and creative minds!
Answer:
Video is projected to claim more than 80% of all web traffic by 2019 so 2018 is the perfect year to implement or increase video in your marketing strategy amongst other trends that will dominate the new year:
– Chatbots
– Storytelling
– Personalization
– Influencer Marketing
– Real-time content and shoppable media
We’re in an era where customer experience will drive more loyalty than points, discounts and reward programs.
Mike Allton
Mike is a Content Marketing Practitioner, award-winning Blogger and Author in St. Louis, and the Chief Marketing Officer at SiteSell. He has been working with websites and the Internet since the early ’90’s and is active on all of the major social networks. Mike teaches a holistic approach to content marketing that leverages blog content, social media and SEO to drive traffic, generate leads, and convert those leads into sales.
Answer:
The most important digital marketing trend right now, particularly for small businesses is Live Video. Nearly every social platform now features some form of live video, and as we all know, video consumption continues to rise.
This is an important consideration because Live Video is how many businesses & bloggers are now differentiating themselves from the competition. I know that statement is filled with marketing-speak, so let me break it down better.
As Facebook and other platforms continue to make it easier for businesses to “go live” and continue to feature live video content to users, more and more network users are going to expect video and live video from businesses. Will your business e the one that’s creating immediate connections and lasting relationships with your audience via video? Or will you wait and see how well your competition does with it before you jump in?
