7 Digital Marketing Trends That’ll Skyrocket Your Business Growth

In order for your business to grow (and keep growing) in the digital age, you need to develop a marketing strategy that keeps up with the latest trends.

But the question then arises: what are the latest trends driving revenue in digital, and which are likely to gain traction in the year(s) ahead?

Glad you asked.

Hottest Digital Trends Driving Revenue to Businesses

According to the 2017 Adobe Digital Marketing Study, delivering effective digital experiences is hard, but it's a rush when you get it right. The strategies that drive revenue online are constantly evolving, and consumers are engaging brands on channels that didn't exist a few years ago. Serious marketers need to know what these changing trends are, and prepare adequately to have an edge in the digital age.

Here are the some of the most significant trends in digital marketing you should adopt to drive more revenue online and thrive in the digital age:

1. Video Advertising

Demand for video is growing rapidly, accounting for 50 percent of all mobile traffic. The younger generation in particular is viewing more video on a wider range of devices than ever before. With growth and revenue a priority for most businesses, you should take video advertising seriously as it can make the difference for successful marketing of your products and services.

And it's not necessarily big budgets that win the day when it comes to video, but rather creative ideas that require minimum production costs, including Live video broadcasting. In 2014, a YouTube vlogger installed a Go-Pro camera on his dog's back to better understand how his pet behaves when the owner leaves the house. Audiences got extremely curious and the video went viral, drawing a lot of attention.

2. Mobile Marketing

Mobile has been a hot topic for search marketing since Google launched its mobile first mantra. As more people have optimized their business websites for mobile over the years, you might be tempted to think there are fewer opportunities for growth here. But, research shows retail conversion rates are significantly lower on smartphones. This means the mobile trend isn’t about to subside. There is still work to be done to optimize conversion and revenue generation on mobile, including leveraging mobile responsive site development, mobile advertising and mobile apps to grow your business.

3. Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation helps businesses to automate tasks and workflows for the marketing and sales process. It can include profiling prospects and customers, sending them personalized automated emails and web recommendations to support lead nurturing and customer engagement.

Studies show 97 percent of business leaders feel the future of marketing will consist of clever human marketers working in collaboration with automation entities and technologies that deliver higher behavioral-based web personalization to people.

This trend is growing and you don’t want to be left behind. The ability to respond quickly and accurately to shifts in customer behavior will be vital as people become more tech savvy and demanding.

4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tech

AI technology is a hot topic in many fields at the moment. But, AI is a broad term covering a wide range of different technologies. It means any technology that seeks to mimic human intelligence, and covers a range of capabilities in marketing, such as voice and image recognition and semantic search.

Some AI marketing applications help to attract customers, whilst others are useful for conversion or re-engaging past customers. AI powered content curation, for example, allow you to better engage visitors on your site by showing them content that’s most relevant to them. Other AI solutions tell you how to write, what, where, and when to publish, and similarly what to create for best results.

A really interesting area for AI is generated content. An AI writing program called ‘WordSmith’ reportedly produced 1.5 billion pieces of content in 2016, and is expected to grow further in popularity in the coming years. AI-powered Chatbots are also expected to continue turning heads going forward.

5. Big Data Marketing

This is closely tied into machine learning where “Big Data” and analytics are mined to identify propensity to convert given different customer behavior and characteristics. Its marketing applications include key customer and market insight, and predictive analytics.

People who have experienced an increase in volume, real-time data, and data types in their business and who want to exploit this value to increase sales through predictive email marketing or personalization on their websites, are adopting this marketing trend in earnest.

As Geoffrey Moore, author of “Crossing the Chasm,” says, “Without Big Data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway.”

6. Social Media Marketing

There is still huge interest in social media overall and its usage is expected to ramp up even more in the coming year, thanks to its wide reach and options to engage audiences. Besides, social media marketing is typically considered a low cost, high ROI strategy with many suitable platforms to choose.  

One emerging trend in social is to promote stories on Snapchat and Instagram as a way to gain favorable coverage with a younger audience. This trend also involves going directly to or engaging with social influencers on social media platforms to gain exposure. The key here is to expand to fast-rising mediums that deliver more awareness and traffic, and not rely solely on conventional outlets such as Facebook.  

7. Dark Social Marketing

People aren't just engaging and sharing links to articles, videos and images on social media sites alone anymore. They're also engaging socially using other, less monitored channels like email and messaging apps. Messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and WeChat are rapidly growing in popularity, with this “dark social” overall reported to be responsible for 84 percent of outbound sharing.  

Your business shouldn’t ignore “dark social.” Factor it in your marketing strategy for more business growth.