As we enter the new year, there is always a little apprehension about what the year will bring and how we can set ourselves up for success. Our Founder & CEO Rusty Shelton walked us through finding our one word for the year on the blog last week. This week, we are sharing how to set your brand up for success online in 2018. Trends in digital marketing can be hard to predict because the industry moves and grows very quickly. Below I share the top three digital marketing trends you should focus your efforts on this year.

Micromedia mindset

The micromedia mindset is more important now than ever. Channels online are now flooded with so many brands putting out quantity over quality content. With all of the noise, native content will become more important to brand awareness and loyalty. Brands must change their mindset and learn how to think like a media outlet rather than a marketer. With this mindset, you have the power to provide valuable content and build a direct connection with your audience. In 2018, focus on the long-term brand strategy rather than the short-term sale.   

Video content

One trend we’ve seen going into 2018 is the massive amount of video content consumed online. This type of content is now almost the norm we see all over our feeds on almost every channel. Many brands are now hiring full time video teams to stay in the game and beef up their native content (keeping that micromedia mindset). According to 2017 KPCB study, 51 percent of marketing professionals name video as the type of content with the best ROI. So what type of video content should your brand focus on?

There are three categories within video content your brand should produce: live, story format and advertisements. When filming live videos, I like to encourage many of our clients to use it as a relationship-building opportunity. Some channels such as Instagram now allow you to go live with another user. Live video is almost available on every major social media channel – I predict we will  even see this option on LinkedIn later this year.

Story format

One of the major themes at the Digital Summit conference our team attended last month was the importance of integrating the Stories format into your content mix. In fact, Digital Marketing Strategist Nichole Davidson wrote a blog post on how to leverage Stories for your brand.

I’ve found with Instagram and more increasingly with Facebook that Stories are almost more important when communicating with your audience than traditional posts – especially for brand profiles. The algorithm on both of these channels have made it hard for brands to be seen, forcing a pay-to-play atmosphere. With Facebook’s announcement this week, it is going to be even harder for brands to be seen on a newsfeed. The way you can still have a major presence with your followers on these channels is getting creative with your Stories content.

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