The Top Content and Marketing and Copywriting Trends of 2017

During the 19th century, marketing was considered a fairly easy task. Back then, there was no need to digitalise how customers could be reached. It was all about prints and direct sales. Once you had a store, all that was needed was to wait for consumers to walk in, pick, pay and leave. Nowadays, marketing is predominantly digital and anyone not embracing this is more or less outcast. So, how should marketers think and act in the modern age? What should be done to increase traffic and conversion rate? The answer lies in understanding the customer’s standpoint and focus, as reflected in these 10 points.

Focus on Customer experience

Make it a priority to create customer-centric policies and tailor products and services to fit them. Increase the amount of promotional products made, so that your message can go far and wide. It’s useful for sharing brand details with prospective customers, because even people that don’t know your location may stumble upon your product and record your contact number and/or address for future needs. In addition, its advantageous because most promotional products are affordable compared to some other marketing materials and are kept by clients for a long time.

Mobile First

How many times have you checked your mobile device in the last 24 hours? Indeed, we live in the smartphone era, as both the younger and older generations are unable to do away with their mobile devices. Often, you find youths saving money to spend on phones and tablets rather than daily basic necessities. This means that more people are mobile savvy and your products will in turn reach lots of customers online. By now, if your site is not mobile responsive, you will likely have missed many potential clients. Accordingly, ensure that all your site details are accessible via mobile devices, as people rarely use Desktop to surf the net nowadays. Therefore, you must safeguard your site by enabling mobile responsive plugins.

Get Videoing

The type of content most customers relate to is changing over time. Take Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram as examples. Most advertising content is video based. There is something compelling about watching rather than reading all the time. People will click on videos repeatedly and watch an animation to the very end, more so than staying glued to written content. So, produce interactive content, but also make its video twin and go the extra mile by providing infographics of the same content. Some people get bored reading, though never get bored seeing animated content. Some are better listeners and vice versa, so you must take every step to reach different customers via their preferred method(s).

Livestreams

As a counterpart to video content, live-streaming is a great way to show customers that you are active day in, day out. Not only do you include them in various activities that will be beneficial, but it also shows your dedication to work. It’s a friendly way to connect with your target audience and position your brand in an interactive manner. So, think about going live on Facebook or Instagram.

Increase social media marketing

You may have many followers on your Social Media platforms, but don’t get complacent. Dedicate a lot more time to creating stories for your followers and audience. Let it be about your product, its benefit to them and how they can source it online. Get your message across within seconds. Input buttons they can click on to get your product or services or provide adequate information on how to locate your company in person if they prefer a physical purchase. Social media is a huge marketing tool and you will be shortchanging yourself if you ignore it.

Personalisation

Personalising products to suit different target markets and segments is the way to go in 2017. It ranges from ensuring touch points are more familiar, to paying appropriate attention to the way customers receive your products and services (directly or via content produced online). How would you like to see your name on a Coca-Cola can? It is the same feeling customers get when they see ‘Dear Moana’ on their e-mail newsletters. This strategy is a win-win for any brand willing to make their mark by turning customers into loyal, indirect ambassadors.

Professional Interactive Content

Interactive content enables readers to participate and be engrossed in Content Marketing. Presenting facts in a way that resonates with the reader and feels personal, is a great way to reach out to them. Marketing is becoming highly competitive, because every company strives to get the attention of the same people. Therefore, to beat the rush and stand out, you must reform traditional content production and produce content that relates with customers directly. There are some great content marketing ideas here.

Tap into their innermost feelings by carrying them along with your words, whilst conveying your marketing message. Furthermore, engaging your target audience through your content spreads your brand message like wildfire. Moreover, developing polls and surveys helps you better understand customers’ needs. It will increase your brand awareness and keep potential customers loyal, because they already relate with and trust your content.

Traditional advertising

Traditional advertising seems to have lost its hold on today’s consumers. Nevertheless, one of the best ways to keep customers focused and not bore them with traditional advertisements is to create ways to inject your products into interactive content. The use of banners and prints bring lower returns compared to incorporating the same information into content marketing, according to AJ Agrawal, contributor to Forbes magazine.

Utilising the power of Data Science

Data gives adequate insight into the driving force of your sales strategy. The amount of data available should also help to improve personalising marketing campaigns. Data establishes segments and sectors to focus different marketing strategies. For example, it can help to understand the age group or gender a certain product or service should be dedicated to. It propels the ability to add more information to newsletters and email marketing mail-outs.

The more you create tailor-made marketing strategies from data results, the more successful your marketing effort will prove to be. Therefore, to have many happy and loyal customers, you need to ensure you are taking all data indications seriously, as it remains one of the best sources of information to rely on in terms of understanding client satisfaction and areas in need of improvement. Finally on this point, it is advisable to spend some money on Google Analytics or Get Socila.io. These apps help you track your traffic so that you can personalise products and services where and when necessary.

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation sets the pace in keeping products and services available, even after trading periods. Manually repeating online marketing actions eats into time, which could be better spent on other endeavors. Therefore, to maximize time and increase productivity, marketing automation is the way forward. Examples of automation softwares are Hubspot and Marketo. Try them out.