As we turn this final page of digital content marketing and say goodbye to 2017, I thought we could take some time to reflect upon this past year. Why? Well, we can only benefit from this opportunity to prepare ourselves for the upcoming year by reviewing and analysing the previous one. We’ll start with online content marketing insights, new user/consumer’s needs and behaviors.

We noticed that people are becoming more curious, astute, knowledgeable, demanding, and less patient than ever before. Before 2018 kicks off, here’s some of the best digital content marketing observations – big data, trends and a few case studies from 2017.
So read on, make your own analysis and gather all the information to start transforming your digital business and avoid mistakes. One thing to keep in mind – beware of the algorithms that will kick you out by penalising your website for its poor or irrelevant content in 2018.

Big Data and Value Proposition

This is an era where data is still freely available to us, so why not learn and transform it into valuable strategic assets? We need to identify the patterns, understand the role of our industry and customer data, the various sources of analytics at your disposal and the risks around data security.
This past year, millions of people have been turning to their smart devices with the aim of finding what they need right here and right now – whether it is shopping, health-care, education, holiday deals or online news.

• According to Google, search interest has tripled in the past two years and will increase further in 2018.
• 75% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps customise and deliver information to their location.
• Three in four smartphone users browse their mobile search beforehand in order to satisfy and/or address their needs.

Sources: Google/ Ipsos connect and Google data

Factoids:

• 1 in 3 travellers across many countries around the world are using “virtual/digital assistants” to help them with their travel research/ bookings.
• Almost 95% of vehicle buyers are now using digital as a source of information. The stats say that twice as many start their research via smart devices instead of going to a local car dealer.
• Online searches for the “vegan skin care” category have grown by 83% year over year in the U.S alone.

1 in 3 travellers now use virtual assistants to book their travel destination. Click To Tweet

We notice that there is a pattern here – the online shoppers are comparing, studying and collecting main benefits from sites who are providing better and more accurate information, helping them shape their final decisions.

To offer better value proposition to your customers, you need to continuously reshape your business offer by analysing your current offer vs market; threats and opportunities and (innovate) be a step ahead of the competition.

So if you’re looking to reach new customers or retain existing customers, you need all the above plus you need to push them to try your product/services. But all this starts online.

Source: Think with Google

Content strategy

You should hire a content strategist (freelance or not) and help them place your goals, efforts and money into a clear content strategy. If you haven’t done it so far you should seriously think about it. These people know how to research, coordinate, nurture and engage with your readers/fans whilst providing a fruitful experience from your website to their inbox and preferred social media channels.

By doing so you will also lead to increase revenue across channels.

Not convinced? I am.

Read the 10 Most read articles this 2017

Advertising

Mobile content users are paying attention to ads

Difficult to believe, but people across the globe are paying more attention to ads via their mobile than TV ads.
Primary channel to focus on: The mobile video – Some social media platforms such FB and Instagram were quick to adapt and offer their users the capability of uploading short video content (paid video content too). There will be a new focus towards the use of videos and live streaming.

• Paid “YouTube mobile” advertising is 84% more likely to receive viewers’ attention than a traditional TV advertising Source: Google/Ipsos
• YouTube and how to advertise – Case-study: 2017-brand-video-marketing-strategies

YouTube and others: stats, facts and figures for 2017 [Infographic]

Website and Mobile site speed optimisation

Did you know that over 50% of visitors abandoned a mobile site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load?
Recent analysis of leading retailers found that 54% suffer from ‘poor’ site’ page speed – currently taking over nine seconds to load. That’s terribly long. Imagine what that could do to your business. (people will leave your site and stop coming back). Dzone offer over a wide range of professional tips on how to start preparing your site now.

Here’s how to optimise your website for speed.

and

if you fancy knowing how your site is doing right now – you can test it with Gtmetrix.

Email marketing

The future of email isn’t dead at all. EMS have worked hard to improve their services – many has changed, they simply added artificial intelligence (A.I) and integrated email marketing automation.

To get it right let your email and/or sales marketing expert plan ahead for:

• The entire business quarterly goals
• Communicate the strategy planning
• Drag and drop segmentation for better targeting
• Improve copywriting, design and/or Layout
• More A/B Testing
• Optimisation

Alert: Note and keep in mind that 2018 onwards many artificial intelligence (A.I) powered tools are increasingly being used in email marketing automation and will definetely continue to adapt and evolve. Keep an eye on your Email Marketing Service provider but also on their competitor’s site (EMS) to learn how you could improve your email campaigns.

Conclusion:

More than ever before the key to success is based on – business strategy, value proposition and digital transformation. In other words be quick to respond to customer demand and disrupt the market. Be willing to self-analyse your own assumptions and quickly release a new mission statement of how and where and when to serve your customers.

Digital transformation isn’t easy, but it can be easy if you know where to go but it can also be complex and costly. It requires direction and commitment from the top to lead troops on the ground.

Businesses must constantly reimagine business models, develop a strategic digital team, processes, platforms and build new strategic alliances. Many ignore business strategy and digital transformation, including all the above. Big mistake!
Assess how you are doing with your digital content marketing efforts and point your team to the most needed moving parts. A clear and documented content marketing strategy will enable you to adapt and transform across your business.

Your priorities are:

a) business strategic key concepts;

b) customer centric;

c) harness midsized influencer networks (this will become core to your marketing) d) agile redesign and/or adapting your marketing funnel.

But above all never forget to:

Fully understand your customers before the competitor does, serve them better again and again. Develop, personalise and deliver consistent and meaningful experiences by tailoring products and services via a modern Supply chain.

††Sales operations and back-office – adapt, transform (or outsource) and manage via new cloud-enabled specialist platforms that use Artificial intelligence (A.I). This service is available to use at medium low cost and offer real-time data. Bonus: this will allow swift and efficient delivery to the end-users, but it will also gather huge amounts of data to analyse for better informed decisions to be taken in the future.
You need to transform your business this 2018 or set yourself-up for serious problems.

Tough, maybe but it’s the reality.

Enjoy your New Year! All the best.