Top 10 Digital Trends to watch out for in 2018 – Mitchelle Carvalho, CogMat

[box type=”shadow” align=”alignright” class=”” width=””]A lot has changed in the last year in digital advertising and marketing. It’s time to take a look at the digital trends that will most likely make headlines in 2018.[/box]

Top 10 Digital Trends to watch out for in 2018 – Mitchelle Carvalho, CEO, CogMat

1. Disappearing content (Instagram and Facebook Stories) will be a hero for many marketing activities

Social media users have time and again proven the saying “time is of the essence” with their growing needs of shorter, crisper, micro-content and platforms that provide opportunities to share stories along the same lines too. Which is why disappearing content like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook stories have been receiving much love in recent times. The advantage of disappearing content is both users and brands can bring novel ideas to the fore and watch it being consumed effectively. Brands can use such style of content to promote important events and activities as well as launch new products or services with the allure and mysticism leaving users wanting for more.

2. Instagram will be a rising star for brands and users

Instagram is an 800 million user community that is strong and growing each day. Though, India consists of 5% of the total market, the founders of Instagram in various interviews have been bullish towards its India growth story. Brands are realising the potential that Instagram brings to the table with its unique features and filters, as such India has seen an upward trend in branding and marketing exercises focused and sometimes centered around Instagram. For brands like Mufti Jeans, we aggressively used Instagram to connect users’ offline that resulted in sales for the brand. We’re betting big on Instagram this year and will see several brands do the same.

3. Video creation and consumption in the content category will be at an all-time high

Cheaper 4G Handsets and data connectivity by the telecom industry has been instrumental in seeing a rise in internet consumption in India all of 2017. Entire 2018 will continue to see video content consumption by both urban and rural users. Videos in the entertainment category will continue to see a rise as original content for the OTT market has risen significantly in the last one year. Brands and production houses shall focus on engaging video content throughout the year.

4. Influencer marketing will continue to get a sizeable chunk of the marketing budget

Though many have written off Influencer marketing and hashtag trends, they will continue to own a decent chunk out of several marketing budgets this year. Influencer marketing will undergo a few changes in style and type however the ROI in terms of brand awareness and recall created by a relevant Influencer marketing plan will continue to stay relevant for brands all of 2018

5. Regional languages in social media conversations by brands will see a rise

A Google-KPMG report suggests that 536 million Indian internet users are expected to use regional languages by 2021. SMB’s and other brands that have a region-specific audience will create content meant especially for them to engage better and bring about increased relevancy. Channels like Facebook and Google have been fairly successful with regional language content and the industry will see more and more brands undertake regional language digital marketing to assert dominance and relevance in their respective regions.

6. SEO will be an important digital marketing asset

2017 was a good year as 79% of the world’s desktop search traffic was attributed to Google. Long-tail keywords accounted for 50% percent or more search queries last year going to show that users are taking the time to search for specific things on the internet which brands can benefit from by having an effective SEO strategy and execution in place. With more and more people browsing, buying and selling on the internet, relevance of keyword search that is brought about efficiently by SEO should be an important digital marketing feature for everyone in 2018.

7. Whatsapp for Business will bring about a new style of CRM

Whatsapp has recently launched Whatsapp for Business particularly focusing on Small Businesses. With features where on downloading the app businesses can customize their profile (business description, store and email addresses) and provision of smart business tools for a quicker feedback and customer response system, Whatsapp for Business will be the new go-to in customer relationship management. We will see many brands opting for this feature throughout 2018.

8. Brand perception listening and ORM will be more important than the last year

Brands will continue to focus on sentiment analysis, social listening and Online Reputation Management as new additions to apps. Social networks will make end-consumers more accessible thereby increasing feedback and grievances.

9. Brands will focus on ultra-relevant content

With social networks releasing new features ever so often, brands are trying to keep up with user behaviour and consumption to modulate their content and creatives around it. In a bid to stay above the cut sometimes brands take it too far with too many things happening at once. This year the focus will be on ultra-relevant content to get away from the clutter online.

10. Digital advertising will be the new ‘Audience of One’

With users sprawled across various online networks it becomes imperative to focus on a single-minded ad type to appeal to them. Digital advertising though growing at a rapid pace will respond effectively to ads that are created with a specific focus.

This article is authored by Ms Mitchelle Carvalho, CEO, CogMat Digital Marketing Agency.