Digital Marketing Tips, Tricks and Trends for 2018

As the founder and president of a measurable marketing agency, I often get requests from the media, partners and even clients for my thoughts about the future of digital marketing. While we at Anvil have a more formalized approach to sharing and evaluating marketing predictions, I thought I’d share a few additional thoughts on amping up your marketing for 2018, based on best practices, trends and predictions. I’ve outlined just a few below for your enjoyment. Feel free to offer your thoughts in the comment section below.

Create a remarkable customer journey

Before investing a good deal in external sales and marketing efforts, I recommend first investing in your people, processes, platform and partners (we call it The Swing at Anvil). Map out your customers' journey and look for weak spots. Hire, train and develop the best talent you can afford and ensure your customer service and support maximize retention and referrals. In fact, I’ve found building trust with clients to retain and grow them is by far the most effective method to fuel growth. This is important since the easiest incremental revenue is generated from existing clients (vs new customers). At Anvil, we've developed the following steps to ensure we delight and elevate our clients to the point they provide testimonials, case studies, references, referrals and strong NetPromoter scores. We start by building responsiveness into our culture: we focus on providing timely communications throughout the customer journey (from new business to customer service). Next, we ensure quality, not just quantity, in our timely responses. We provide training and incentives to our team to ensure the interactions are positive and productive. We also take good notes. We build a dossier on each of our prospects or clients and add any useful insights like birthdays, anniversaries, pet and children names, etc. We use that information to create a closer connection to our customers with timely emails, cards or gifts. Lastly, we empower the team. We've created a process that allows our team to problem-solve independently and resolve issues as they see fit. Related article: Impact Marketing: Winning Customers with Quick Wits.

Own and manage your brand and reputation online

In today’s reputation economy, it’s essential to proactively manage your brand online. This effort includes claiming, optimizing and monitoring profiles on popular review sites like Google and Yelp and related industry review sites (i.e. TripAdvisor for hotels, AngiesList for services or Amazon for products). More importantly than achieving a 4.5/5.0-star review, is the act of systematically turning unhappy customers around. According to research, a customer that has a bad experience tells 5 people. If the brand rectifies the issue and satisfies the customer, they will tell 10 people. That statistic is amplified via social media. As such, there is significant motivation to turn bad customer experiences around online. I recommend a three-step approach to resolving customer complaints and disputes. Step 1: Acknowledge the complaint/issue and apologize. Sometimes, unhappy customers just want to be heard. Step 2: Fix the issue and communicate how you’ve ensured it won’t happen again. Sometimes, customers are more interested in protecting others and are less concerned about their own well-being. Either way, it’s smart business. Step 3: Ask what you can do to make it better/make them happy and resolve the issue. Always better to ask what would make them happy, as it may not be as expensive a fix as you might expect. For example, an unhappy hotel guest may be happy with a discount on a meal in the hotel instead of a free night. As a customer at two Las Vegas properties, a free meal resolved my issues on both occasions and I shared my positive experience on social media. Related article: How to Get Found in Search Engines & Online Directories.

Master the fundamentals of search marketing

Before getting too distracted by shiny marketing objects like AI, AR, VR, crypto-currency or even video marketing (more on this later), ensure you have a solid foundation on which to build. I recommend focusing on the most cost-effective and measurable forms of marketing, which include search engine optimization (SEO) and paid media (pay-per-click and paid social). You can build, launch, and refine campaigns quickly and relatively easily, with help from consultants, agencies like Anvil or investing the time to learn and DIY. The reason is that search is the first and often last step in the buying process, so SEO & PPC are great ways to maximize visibility and generate qualified leads or online sales. Most business owners do not have the budget to get the best ROI on print, outdoor or broadcast advertising and don’t have large contact databases to leverage for effective email marketing. As a result, search ends up being a great starting point, and if you're already doing it, you should invest in testing and optimizing programs further in 2018. Related resources: Anvil's articles, cheat sheets, white papers, webinars and more.

Optimize for voice search + position 0

Digital assistants on mobile devices will continue to dramatically affect the way consumers search in 2018. According to ComScore, 40 percent of adults use voice search once per day. Twenty percent of searches are currently voice-related, which means they are likely to trigger a position 0 result (particularly on devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa). That means local/location-based retailers must rank in the “near me” searches while larger national brands should aim to own answers to common industry questions as thought leadership strategy. Owing position 0 means you’ve doubled your real estate in select organic searches. Not only that, but on voice-enabled devices like Google Home, position 0 is the ONLY answer/result. That means you are more likely to get a new customer now or in the future. These two topics can get very technical, so I recommend reading my lengthy article on iMedia when it goes live in January. In the meantime, we have a bit more information on our blog at Anvil: Voice Search and Position 0 – Are You Ready?

Generate awareness, engagement and new customers via digital video

Video is five times more compelling than the written word and increase both retention and engagement as a result. There are a few ways to stand out when using video online. The first and more important step is to create videos that are authentic, unique and provide some sort of value (informative or entertaining). Keep in mind that you should differentiate from your competitors, so understand what they are doing and take a different approach. For example, if they spent a ton on glossy studio-qualify videos, go raw with cell phone footage instead. Make sure your videos are optimized to look good, can be found on YouTube and Facebook and always include a call-to-action at the end of your video. Progressive brands will incorporate live ads into their media mix: with the initial use of live video in 2017, brands adoption of live video will continue to grow in 2018 and will expand to live-streaming ads. For maximum reach, syndicate the videos, or parts of the videos on your website and other social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest for maximum reach. Importantly, create a dedicated YouTube strategy. YouTube is the largest video platform in the World and the second largest search engine. That means people are using YouTube to find information and answers to questions. As a result, you need to have a presence and build videos to address user needs while meeting your own. Related article: Creating and Optimizing Videos for the YouTube Sales Funnel.

Amplify and expand your marketing efforts via social media

In 2018, take your social media to the next level. Hopefully, you’ve already created profiles on the popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube). Don’t forget other established platforms, like Google+ (for the SEO value), LinkedIn (for targeting B2B customers, B2C recruiting and strategic partnerships) and relevant second tier or emerging platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat, WhatsApp and SlideShare. Don’t forget to tie it all together via your corporate blog on your website. It’s a great way to amplify video marketing (creating context around embedded YouTube videos with text), images, infographics, animations and other key content. Google loves blog posts, which also provide ideal fodder for social media platform feeds. That said, the value of social media depends on the quality and quantity of your follower/fanbase. As a result, I recommend taking the following steps to grow your follower-base. Start by building compelling profiles (quality images, keyword-loaded descriptions) people want to like and follow. Create content consistently (compelling, unique yet relevant) that generates engagement like sharing. Amplify reach (optimize, syndicate and measure your content across multiple platforms). Expand your network (leverage tools to identify and connect with new prospects and influencers). Be generous (share valuable content from your network and industry publications and say thank you to your fans). Expedite the growth curve (utilize advertising/sponsored and boosted posts to increase reach). Resource article: How to get more social media followers.

Stay on top of emerging and evolving platforms and technology

As outlined in our 2018 predictions article, we at Anvil believe there are many improvements established platforms are making that are noteworthy. If you are a manufacturer or retailer of consumer products, for example, you need to have an Amazon and eBay marketing strategy. All brands should be doubling down on mobile websites (via AMP) and apps. For marketing on popular social platforms, look beyond mainstream influencers to micro-influencers and even diehard fans to co-create and promote content. Don't be afraid to explore artificial intelligence (AI) including chatbots, which can aid in the sales and customer support process. On the video and animation front, look at augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality. If you are a larger ecommerce player, you need to evaluate accepting crypto-currency like BitCoin for transactions. Not all of these platforms and technology may be relevant to your brand, but they are worth watching. Related article: Anvil Digital Marketing Predictions for 2018.

Rather than dazzle you with buzzwords and cutting-edge tech that won’t be mainstream (if ever) in the coming years, I’ve focused a majority of my 2018 marketing recommendations on optimizing the fundamentals. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore new and emerging tech to differentiate from your competitors, but it does mean you should build an effective foundation first. I hope you’ve found these six strategies useful as you plan your 2018 marketing strategies and tactics.