Well, it’s 2018, so now's the time to get your marketing plan in place, if you haven't done so already.
To help, we think you'll need to be aware of these marketing buzzwords in 2018.
Don’t worry, they’re not the useless jargon style buzzwords so many people loathe. These are useful marketing terms that will need to be part of your vocabulary this year.
Here are your digital marketing buzzwords for 2018:
Algorithm – Everyone wants to talk about Google’s algorithm updates or the Facebook algorithm making it hard for businesses to get their marketing messages in front of their target audience, but what does it really mean?
Well, you can think of an algorithm as a formula. It’s a set of rules Google or Facebook uses to determine what content shows up where. So, Google uses its algorithm to determine which businesses and websites show up for certain searches, while Facebook uses its algorithm to determine which posts are most important and relevant to its users.
SEO – SEO stands for search engine optimization and it's the way that we optimize for Google’s algorithm.
SEO involves optimizing your business’s website for searches by adding keywords, meta-tags and other information that search engines need to know in order to rank your business in the right searches for the right consumers. Don’t forget there’s more than one kind of SEO.
Marketing Automation – Marketing automation is exactly what it sounds like - it's software which enables you to automate certain marketing tasks.
Even if this makes it sound hands off for you, you still need a human touch to set up your automation and make sure everything continues to run smoothly.
AI – AI stands for artificial intelligence, and it’s taking over the marketing world. You can think of AI as any time a machine mimics human intelligence.
Those algorithms we mentioned earlier are one example of how AI impacts your marketing strategies - the algorithms replace humans by quickly figuring out which businesses or websites should show up in your search results, News Feed, etc. AI is also used in advertising to determine which consumers see your business's ads in search results or their Facebook newsfeeds.
AI is already an important part of digital marketing, but we expect it to become even bigger in 2018 and beyond.
Customer Journey – Your consumer’s path to purchase is longer than you think and involves multiple touchpoints across different channels and devices.
People don’t purchase products or services after the first click – it's much more complicated than that. The customer journey is one of the most important things to understand when creating a digital marketing strategy.
Omnichannel – Along the same lines, omnichannel marketing means creating a seamless online presence (and marketing plan) that reaches customers wherever they’re searching or browsing.
Because the consumer’s path to purchase is longer and more complicated than it used to be, omnichannel marketing is more important than ever.
Attribution – Attribution is a fancy way to say figuring out which marketing channels are driving ROI (ROI was one of our buzzwords for 2017).
Attribution can be tricky, though, since consumers will likely interact with your business in a few different ways (visit your website, scroll through your social media, be served a retargeting ad or any other number of ways) before making a purchase.
You can track attribution through the first way a customer ever interacted with your business, assign attribution to each step of the way or even use the very last action/interaction before the customer made a purchase.
Geofencing – Geofencing is a form of location-based marketing.
It's setting a virtual boundary around a specific location. Think of it like drawing a circle (or polygon) around your business on a map to target people who are in the area.
Businesses that have an app can use geofencing to target people near the business and draw them in with a special offer or promotion.
Micro-Moments – Google talks about micro-moments all the time - they’re those little moments in your life when you need help with something so you reach for your phone.
Micro-moments are broken down into moments such as “I want to know,” “I want to go” and “I want to do,” among others. The point of micro-moments is to understand that there are plenty of small moments when you can be there for a consumer if your business has a consistent, correct online presence.
Smart Content – For a long time, everyone was saying that content is king, but it looks like smart content may be planning to usurp the throne.
Smart content is a term that people are throwing around a lot right now. It refers to personalized content that's designed to meet a consumer’s needs. This could be anything from adding the consumer’s name to an email or personalizing a call-to-action depending on where the consumer is in the buying cycle.
Hyperlocal – The word “hyperlocal” is nothing new, and neither is the marketing concept. But, with Facebook and Google making it easier and easier for local consumers to find the right business in their area, having a hyperlocal marketing strategy is imperative for businesses that want to compete in today’s digital world.
Local search marketing is a good place to get started with a hyperlocal strategy so that your business shows up when local consumers are looking for your products and services.
These are the buzz terms we expect to see a lot of in 2018. Some have been around for a long time, others are new, but it's worth considering what each means in a modern context, and how they relate to your approach.
Written by: Isabella Andersen
Photo by: Alisa Mulder - Unsplash
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