Rabbit Rabbit! December is officially here and while bringing in the last month of 2016 we can’t help but start thinking about what the next year will bring for marketers.
Take a look below, are our predictions what you saw coming?
Click Here To Download Your E-Book: How Marketing Will Change In 2017
1. Engagement Won’t Matter
Brands are going to start focusing less on engagement numbers and more on targeting the right audience. It’s not so much about reaching the masses but about reaching real consumers.
This is why we will see brands use influencers more and more in the next year. Yes, their reach may be smaller but it is very targeted and their follower’s proven loyalty means much more in the long haul than high engagement numbers. Brands have realized that using influencers is the most organic and approachable way to reach their consumers. They would rather spend their money understanding the connection between influencer and their audience so they can learn how to apply that to their own brand and better understand why customers buy (or don’t buy) their product.
2. Offline Data Will Matter
There are still a lot of marketing platforms that are only focused on social and helping marketers understand that data but we will see consumer activity such as location, traditional media consumption, and point of sale further integrate with marketing tools. This will teach marketers new things about the role of every marketing channel, not just social, throughout the consumer journey so we can understand consumers even better.
3. Content Marketing Will Go Beyond The Blog
Of course, they are predicting content marketing will become an even more saturated market in 2017 but that was to be excepted! Marketers are going to have to experiment with other forms of content marketing to get true reach.
I think we’ve learned from the success of Pokemon Go that marketers should take the leap and be early adopters of forwards thinking content strategies. VR and augmented reality will certainly be one of those areas to experiment with and when there is evidence that another form could take off brands should set their marketing teams up for success by encouraging them to react quickly and to try new and different things.
4. Social Media Will Stop Living In Silos
You will stop seeing agencies just focused on social and you will stop seeing social media teams within organizations. Marketers will (and need to) start making social a part of every department within the company.
Social aligns with the rest of your marketing objectives and compliments them. Social is not at the top of the funnel, it supports every part of the funnel and we need to treat it that way. It is not a “special” marketing channel, the only thing special about it is it is a two-way marketing channel where you can actually talk to your customers.
Employee advocacy programs will also help drive social media marketing out of its silo. Brands will start finding social ambassadors in other teams within their organization to help get buy-in for social media’s success.
5. Reporting Will Change
In order for C-Level Executives to start taking social media seriously, marketers need to start bringing them business metrics that measure brand affinity, recall, and conversions. Likes are meaningless outside the marketing world and C-Level Executives care about money attribution and consumer shifts that are driven via social (not social media metrics themselves).
Saying “I can’t calculate social ROI” will no longer be an excuse as Executives will expect marketing departments to invest in analytics tools that are able to tie social to business results and track ROI across all campaigns. It is possible and will be mandatory for brands to tie marketing results to the business and show the impact that marketing has on business metrics.
Download our free e-book here to find out our sixth marketing prediction for 2017!
Click Here To Download Your E-Book: How Marketing Will Change In 2017
Wrap It Up
Are you surprised about what will be coming your way this next year? Do you have the tools needed and the right team in place to make these things happen?
As you start setting 2017 goals and Q1 KPIs you should keep these five things in mind and continue to watch what other predictions are being thrown out there in the marketing world!