Let’s face it: there’s no exact science to marketing.  If there was, marketers would see impressive ROI with every campaign launched.

Unfortunately, that’s not reality, as there are far too many variables that come into playthat can affect the outcome.  From geographic area and value propositions to target audience and strategies utilized, what works well for one company may fail miserably for another.

The good news is that it’s not all doom and gloom, and success isn’t as impossible as it may seem at times.

While we don’t have a crystal ball that can predict what the future holds in store, we DO pride ourselves in keeping our thumb on the pulse of what’s happening in the industry, and have put together a short list of digital marketing trends you will not want to ignore in the coming weeks and months.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

TREND 1:Interactive Content

Don’t get us wrong, static content – like blog articles, videos, and podcasts – isn’t going anywhere any time soon.  But both B2B and B2C buyers are looking for more, and engagement is the name of the game.

Interactive content provides a way to engage customers, while simultaneously offering value.

Some of the most popular types of interactive content include:

• Calculators
• Games
• Interactive Videos
• Polls
• Questionnaires
• Quizzes

So, why will interactive content continue to grow in popularity?

For starters,it’s fun. Interactive content makes people feel more engaged with your brand, as well as your products and services. Second, the data you collect – whether it’s in the form of quiz responses or information entered in a calculator – will help you learn about your audience. This information can then be used to fine-tune your marketing.

TREND 2: Optimizing for Voice Search

If you still haven’t optimized for voice search, you’re doing yourself and your company a HUGE disservice.

Why?

Because 40% of all Internet users in the United States have used voice search at some point or another, and those numbers are only going to continue to increase. (link to source article: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/voice-search-statistics). Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google’s Assistant are fueling an impressive uptick in the popularity of voice search,and if you don’t hop on this train soon, you run the risk of rendering yourself obsolete.

The most straightforward way to optimize for voice search to ensure that the content on your website is both conversational and accessible, regardless of whether your target audience consists of consumers or businesses.

So, with that being said, trywriting your content around common questions and responses. By using questions in your blog headings, as well as having a robust FAQ on your website, it will be easier for people to find you using voice search.

TREND 3: Repurposing Old Content

Your business has a whole back catalog of old content. Be it on your socials or on your website’s blog, if your business has been around for a while, then it’s highly likely that you’re going to have older pieces of content.

Rather than letting that potentially useful content waste away, a growing trend in digital marketing is to recycle that content and repurpose it into something that can be used to attract users.

For example, if you have an old guide to SEO on your website that was created a few years ago, you can update that guide and republish it so that it’s relevant to the current day. Or, another thing you can do with this content is to turn it into another form of media. As videos, images, and podcasts are becoming more popular ways to share content, perhaps this article can be transformed into a video script or edited into a highly shareable infographic.

Repurposing content in this way is a great method to add life to posts that have stopped attracting users and can be a simple way to help boost your marketing efforts.

When using old content, you need to first make sure that it’s up to scratch and is of good quality. For this, you need good proofing software to ensure that you don’t miss any glaring mistakes or inaccuracies that can damage your reputation. When choosing proofing software, some features to consider include the ability to spot plagiarism and how well it allows for collaboration.

Getting the right proofing software for your creative team will make turning old content into something else a lot easier and will also help you streamline the content review and approval process.

TREND 4: Omni-Channel Marketing

There are a variety of ways that a potential customer can learn about your company, as well as your products and services. As such, you can no longer rely on a linear buying journey, since it simply doesn’t exist anymore.

So, what can you do?

Embrace an omni-channel marketing strategy that includes:

• Advertising
• Chatbots
• Mobile Apps
• Social Media
• Website Content

Provide people with a seamless experience across ALL of your marketing channels. Ensure that your brand style, tone, and voice is consistent, regardless of whether someone is reading a landing page on your website or interacting with your Facebook chatbot. Consistency is key.

Go Forth with Confidence

The only real certainty in digital marketing is that what works today probably won’t work anywhere near as well in a few months. Things just change far too rapidly, meaning that certain techniques may become obsolete.

The best way to stack the cards in your favor is by staying ahead of trends and learning about the upcoming developments within digital marketing so that you are embracing them early on, as opposed to showing up to the party a little too late.

We hope that the 4 trends we’ve outlined here play a key role in how you plan out your upcoming marketing campaigns, and lead to massive amounts of success from both a branding and a sales standpoint. Embracing change and new ways of thinking will help your marketing efforts from becoming old-fashioned and outdated.