A Round-Up of 2017 Marketing Trends: Part 1

Now that we’ve reached November – and it’s almost acceptable to start playing Christmas songs – we have decided to take a step back from the day-to-day and reflect on the biggest marketing and consumer trends that we have experienced in 2017. We can see what has worked, what hasn’t, and what we could add to our marketing toolbox for 2018.

Content Marketing

Content marketing has been King for the past few years, and that does not seem set to change in 2018. Content marketing can be defined as a marketing style that is focused on creating and distributing valuable and consistent content (e.g. videos, blogs, and social media posts) to attract and retain a specific audience and generate leads. We believe that come 2018, there will be an even stronger focus on businesses starting to measure their content marketing ROI (return on investment) as the costs and competition within content marketing continue to surge.

Influencer Marketing

Influencers are fast becoming one of the most effective ways to reach customers and clients, particularly on social media. By combining already-loved personalities with brands and products, influencers are able to generate a buzz that is incomparable to a lot of standard advertisements. Influencer marketing has taken off so much that businesses, such as ‘Influencer (Word of Mouth Redefined)’, are being created with the sole purpose of connecting brands with influential social media creators on social platforms. This is one trend that is predicted to grow exponentially into 2018. For more discussion on influencer marketing, see some of our previous articles:

How to Create Incredible Influencer Marketing Campaigns: Part 1

How to Create Incredible Influencer Marketing Campaigns: Part 2

Livestreaming

Although not huge yet, live streaming has been getting bigger and bigger as the year draws to an end. Instagram and Facebook Live are just two examples of how consumers and brands can push boundaries and share their lives in real time. Videos are often able to convey emotion and messages far better than copy, and almost always in a more memorable way. When you consider the popularity of videos (more than 1 billion people regularly use YouTube), it is easy to see why social media platforms are giving users the opportunity to create and broadcast their own content, virtually anywhere, right from their fingertips.

Next week we will be continuing this article series to discuss further the biggest trends we’ve been seeing in the marketing world, and we’ll aim to predict what will continue to grow and what may flop in 2018.