Top 4 Social Media & Digital Marketing Trends

Hey guys, what’s up!!! Glad you stopped by. In this post I’ll be sharing 4 MAJOR social media and digital marketing trends you should absolutely be paying attention to this year to stay alive and thrive in the ever-changing wild wild west that is the Internet.

So, if you’re an entrepreneur, digital marketer or copywriter, be sure to hit subscribe over on my YouTube Channel because every single week I release a new tutorial on marketing, copywriting and other entrepreneurial delights.

Alright so I learned a lot in the process of making this post. I mean, knew the hot trends I wanted to share with you guys from my own experience in this industry over the last 10 years, and especially the changes I’ve seen happening recently, but some of the stats I found blew my mind. Like seriously… So, get out a notebook and get ready to take some notes!

Major Marketing Trend #1: Video Is Taking Over

I don’t need to tell you how awesome video is. Between Netflix, Snapchat, Instagram Stories, and Facebook Live, it’s no secret that video has become a staple of our everyday lives. A whopping 75 MILLION consumers in the US alone watch video content on a daily basis…

And it’s predicted that 82% of ALL internet traffic will come through video by 2021. Guys, that is huge! So if you’re not taking advantage of video in your marketing, you absolutely need to be… And this includes LIVE video too. By 2021, it’s expected that 13% of all internet traffic will be specifically from LIVE video. Kinda cool right? It’s no secret that people love real, relatable and relevant content, which you’ll see is a huge underlying factor in the trends I’m sharing with you today.

So I’m curious to know – what video content do you create or consume most regularly outside of YouTube? Comment below and let me know.

Now, there’s something important I want to talk about when it comes to video… and that is the “attention span myth” – the belief that people’s attention spans are shorter than they used to be, therefore long video content no longer works. Well, I’m here to say that is absolutely not true. Think: when’s the last time you binged watched something for hours on Netflix? Well, Science says it was likely sometime in the last 24 hours. Lol. Netflix reports that its nearly 118 million subscribers watch 140 million hours of content on average per day. That’s 71 minutes per user per day!

So have people’s attention spans really gotten shorter?! NO! Not at all. But what has changed is the increase in easy and available options to choose from, and the simultaneous decrease in people’s intolerance of crappy content. The truth is, your video content can be as long as you want, as long as you’re adding educational or entertainment value, it’s high quality, easy and available!

This is what I call “The Netflix Effect” – there are TONS of incredibly high-quality video options available in just one click. But if someone isn’t loving what you’re putting out, they can move on…

So hate to say it guys, you can’t blame the algorithm or people’s “shorter attention spans” for your lame content. As marketers today, we are not only in the ATTENTION business, but in the RETENTION business… so how ya gonna get people to stick around? By creating engaging, valuable content.

But, before I move on, there’s something else that’s important to know about video length. If the purpose of your video is not education or entertainment, but rather ENGAGEMENT. Shorter videos do outperform longer videos. Testing has shown that videos around two minutes in length generate the highest levels of engagement. It makes sense right, when you’re asking for something from your viewer – i.e. engagement – get to the point or they gone.

Major Marketing Trend #2: Hyper-Relevant Behaviour-Based Content Is A Must

I hate to say this, especially as an email marketer, but gone are the days of relying SOLELY on “batch-and-blast” emails. Or in other words, sending the SAME email message to every single one of your subscribers at the same time, regardless of where they are in their consumer journey with you. The future of effective email marketing will be sending behaviour-based emails in REAL TIME to your subscribers. In fact 78% of consumers say that personally-relevant content is a determining factor in their purchasing decision and a lack of relevance in marketing messaging leads to an 83% decrease in engagement.

So it makes sense that a recent study showed that relevant e-mails triggered based on behavior are 3x more effective than “one size fits all” email blasts.

So for example, sending emails to potential buyers immediately after they leave items in their shopping cart… or sending viewers of a particular video a different email message than those who never watched it at all.

Yes, while it does mean creating MORE marketing assets, thanks to AI, it’s incredibly easy to monitor, track and create these relevant digital experiences and action-based communications using a robust CRM platform.

In my next post, I’ll talk more about how AI is influencing your marketing messaging, and what you, as a copywriter, need to do to stay relevant and effective. Don’t worry, in my opinion, machine-learning will never be able to match real, relevant and relatable copy written by a HUMAN… but it can help you streamline the process and give you invaluable data to fuel your creative genius.

Major Marketing Trend #3: Omni-Channel Marketing Is Expected

Look, while it’s still possible to run effective marketing campaigns through a single channel, say Facebook Ads, Email Marketing or Social Media… What’s changing is the need to have all these channels COMMUNICATE with one another behind the scenes to create hyper-relevant communication tailored to your audience’s actions.

So, for example, if a follower clicks a post on Instagram and watches a webinar on their iPhone… You would not want to send them an email later that day that asks them to sign up for the webinar they just watched. You’d very likely be hurting your chances of that subscriber becoming a long term customer, because they no longer feel they are in a 1-to-1 relationship with you. It becomes apparent they are simply “being marketed to”.

This is becoming increasingly important as more and more people are engaging with brands ACROSS multiple devices which makes omni-channel and omni-device tracking a must. 98% of people switch between devices in the same day. I know I do!

Unfortunately, while your really customer doesn’t care about the integration that happens behind the scenes, they do EXPECT it. 87% of consumers believe brands should be putting more effort into omni-channel initiatives. So, I encourage you to use email, social media, chat bots, SMS, desktop notifications, paid ads and retargeting – or all of the above – in your marketing initiatives but – heads up – it’s no longer enough to create a strategy for each channel in isolation, but rather take a holistic approach and ensure these channels are connected and speaking to one another so that you can provide the hyper-relevant behaviour based content I just spoke about. And that is the key difference between multi-channel and omni-channel marketing. Omni-channel marketing helps create stronger brand loyalty and drastically improves your customer LTV. In fact, companies that utilize optimized omnichannel strategies report a 91% year-over-year increase in retention rate over those that do not.

Yeah. that’s huge.

Ok and finally…

Major Marketing Trend #4: Voice Search Is On The Rise

Guys, the future of search is VOICE. According to Google, right now 20% of all searches are voice queries through digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa… And by next year, that number will skyrocket to over 50%.

It makes sense as mobile usage has been on the rise for years and 71 percent of all mobile users between the ages of 18 and 29 use voice assistants on their smartphone.

I’m curious to know, how often do you use voice search or digital assistants? Do you have one in your home or rely on your smartphone? Comment below and let me know.

Voice Search is becoming second nature for anyone looking for a quick answer to something… And digital assistants are going beyond simple search AI and are evolving to understand user intent and behaviors. It actually grows smarter with every interaction… Kinda crazy right?

“Hey Siri, where is the highest rated Vietnamese restaurant near me?” Interactions like this happen so regularly that you may not even consider it a “Google Search” in the traditional sense…

And neither do many marketers….. Yet… And this creates a huge opportunity for you, if you know how to capitalize on it. Because the way people traditionally conduct a Google Search is very different than the way someone might conduct a voice search.

For example, when you are searching for a restaurant on Google, you might type in “Best Brunch in Los Angeles.” But when you use voice search you change your behavior to ask a question, like “Hey Siri – What restaurant has the best brunch in Los Angeles?” or “What restaurants near me are open for Brunch right Now?”

Knowing how to formulate your content and copy to appeal to the Voice Search algorithm is a key factor in using this trend to your advantage. In my next tutorial, I’ll talk about some key content and copywriting tips for doing just that.

Watch This Instead

Alright guys, those are the 4 MAJOR MARKETING TRENDS taking over the Internet right now. Please leave me a comment below if you found this post helpful!

In my next post I’ll be sharing what these marketing trends mean for all you copywriters out there and what you must do to stay ahead of the curve.

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and I’ll see you next week. Till then, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!