The Best Marketing Posts to Read to Get Ready for 2018

2018 is just around the corner, and as is typical this time of year, there is a flurry of trends, tips and predictions to bring in the new year. We played along, writing our own “New Marketing Tactics to Consider in 2018” post a few weeks back, but there’s some really good stuff out there that small business owners should read when it comes to preparing their marketing efforts for the new year. Below we’ve listed some of the best marketing posts to read to get ready for 2018, all in one place. Can’t get any easier than that, can it? Read on and get ready for an amazing 2018!

9 Content Marketing Trends to Look Forward to in 2018

Neil Patel is considered one of the top influencers on the web so when he talks about trends for 2018, best listen up! According to Patel, there’s a greater process you have to follow where ideas are constantly improved on, customized for different audiences, and adapted to new formats that consumers are using. You need diverse content creation resources to nail it in 2018, including writers, videographers and graphic designers. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to break the bank to hire a slew of people, but it does mean you should continue to diversify your content and better customize it to your audience segments.

10 Marketing Trends to Act on in 2018

First of all, we love articles with lots of images and graphs so you can easily scan to get the data you want, don’t you? No surprise here that content marketing continues to be the #1 tactic that all marketers need to commit to for a solid 2018. The second and third items could scare off a lot of small business marketers but take a moment and check it out. Big data is market and customer insight and predictive analytics. In plain English, that means getting to know your audience and customizing your marketing message to them. It means segmenting your audience. And it means understanding where people are in the buying cycle and customizing your marketing message to them. Of course they write about integrating video into the customer journey; 2018 is the year to embrace video!

18 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018

Yep, another article with list, which people love, by the way. Lots of good ideas here from Entrepreneur. What was surprising is that the very first trend they list is artificial intelligence. Again, this could be intimidating but it’s really not!  It can be as simple as adding artificial-intelligence-powered live-chat tools to communicate with customers. They predict more people will leverage this in the new year. Our favorite trend is #6 on the list:  optimizing content for voice search. Think about it: how many times are you, as a consumer, now talking to your phone to do a search?  Voice search is easier than typing, so searches tend to surface more long-tail content. That means you need to create content that aligns with those types of searches.

10 Marketing Trends to Think About for 2018

Huff Post always has great articles and this one is no exception. We won’t list all 10 ideas, but here are the top 5 that they suggest you consider as part of your 2018 marketing activities:

• Live streaming
• Mobile video
• Growth hacking
• Artificial Intelligence
• Explainer videos

A bit about each. Live streaming are basically live videos that stream on channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.  Video views on phones and tablets is expected to grow by 25%, so this is a trend you definitely want to at least consider. Growth hacking tactics are marketing processes specifically targeted for increasing growth in revenue. According to the article, SEO is the still one of the best growth hacking strategies. AI again targets highly customized content delivery to your audience. It’s still pricey at the moment, but even taking a small step is a good start. Explainer videos are, well, videos that explain things. How-tos are a great example and people LOVE them.

12 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

Many of the same ideas presented in the other articles are included here as well, but here are a few new ideas to consider. One is customer experience marketing; making sure the customer has a good experience when you market to them. Make the experience a good one and customers will be loyal to your brand. “TV” advertising is also discussed, but really they’re talking about Facebook, YouTube and Amazon. Our favorite is marketing with transparency. This is especially true if you’re a local business. Reviews are huge (using customer reviews to market your business in a must!), and acting like a human is a good idea too (try it!).

So there you are!  Our list of some of the best marketing articles to read to get ready for 2018. Overwhelmed at how you might implement some of these?  Reach out to a company offering strategic marketing services to help you get started. Plan now make 2018 the best year yet for your small business!