Digital Marketing: Top 5 Trends to a Successful Marketing Campaign
Melanie Lavoie
Pablo Picasso once said: “Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.”
Behind every successful marketing campaign, there is at least one creative mind that has asked themselves the same question.
With the digital age rapidly evolving, the marketing industry is more competitive than ever before pushing marketers to turn out ideas like a well greased machine. We currently live in an interesting time where we have veteran Gen-X individuals who are experts in traditional marketing moving onto mid to senior level positions in marketing agencies, meanwhile, millennials are entering the workforce with valuable knowledge of technology — together this partnership is unstoppable in many ways to bring a marketing campaign to life!
In order for any campaign to even see the light of day, marketers begin their strategy with a funnelling process and through this funnel their job is to attract, react, then convert.
Digital marketing trends are changing on a constant basis and there are five essential steps to achieve a successful campaign.
Step 1: Ready, get set, PLAN and STRATEGIZE!…
Like winning a sports game, you cannot go in without a game plan. Prior to beginning your campaign, you have to put a digital marketing plan in place with concise strategies on how to attract your target audience and do it in the most cost effective way.
Essentially, a digital strategy is a series of actions that help you achieve your marketing goal or “call to action”. For example, you generate content on Facebook revolving around your product, in hopes to attract new customers and generate sales for your product. This is an example of a strategy that goes within your marketing plan.
Step 2: Give your brand a unique identity; tell a story
Brand identity is crucial if you want to reach your target market effectively with proper conversion. It is nurturing consumer’s mind to be familiar with your product. Take the “swoosh” for Nike or the infamous blue “F” for Facebook. Another brand that is successful with digital marketing is Calgary’s very own Camp Brand Goods. Following slightly over 1,000 people, they in return have over 165k followers! Unlike traditional brands, instead of giving consumers the “hard sell” sales pitch, the brand sells a lifestyle, picturesque visuals of millennials enjoying the outdoors in CAMP apparel. Keyword here are visuals — when you have captivating visuals, audience is more likely to read the caption to what you are selling. This is the magic of compelling storytelling, and look, you didn’t even have to wait for a fairy godmother to appear!
Step 3: Use “The Force”….of social media:
According to Statista.com about 66% of North Americans use social media and Canada is expected to have over 20 million users with at least one social media account by 2018. Social media has integrated as part of our day to day lives and it is one of the more cost effective way to bring positive ROI’s by growing brand awareness organically.
Tying back to building your marketing plan and strategies; by understanding your target market and the type of social media platform(s) that your audience prefers will determine the direction of your marketing efforts.
One recent trend that will likely continue in 2018 for digital marketing is more companies are collaborating with social media influencers, raising brand awareness by leveraging an already established fan base from both parties creating a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” type of partnership.
There are two types of influencers in social media (mega and micro) to keep in mind when seeking your potential match. Like online dating, chances are you wouldn’t match with someone who’s completely opposite of you, then why would you want them representing your product?
According to Hootsuite, there was a consistent rise from 2015 to 2017 in peer to peer marketing and would most likely be a trend that will continue to surge in 2018. P2P marketing is a method where influencers with a strong following are more likely to persuade consumers’ purchasing decision than direct marketing campaigns.
In the future, when you’re brainstorming your next campaign, try integrating strategies that include: Mega-Influencers to gain brand awareness (the bigger picture) and partner up with Micro-Influencers to help optimize purchasing criterias in the general public.
Step 4: Advertising: To Pay or Not to Pay?…
Given the expensive nature of paid advertising, it is worth building your brand awareness organically before generating paid advertisements. For example, you would not be able to build a house without proper foundation in place. The same logic goes into digital marketing; the faithful followers you have acquired organically are the foundation and all sales lead generated through paid advertising will be the essentials to build your house!
Prior to taking this step the most critical and of course most “fun” part is of course talking about the budget, the amount you are willing and/or able to spend in order to achieve your marketing goals.
If you are starting out as an entrepreneur, Facebook would be a great platform to try out paid advertising and target marketing. Despite the constant change in algorithm and user interface, they do make paid advertising more user friendly than some other platforms. With per se a $100 budget, you can target as specific as people based on age range, geographic location, gender and even their interests and marital statuses. By tailoring your ads to a certain market, you can double the exposure on social media to people more likely interested in your product!
Step 5: Promotions and Discounts
Now let’s be real, who doesn’t like free stuff?…Even when it is not free, a discount or promotion can hone one’s attention for longer than something that has nothing but plain ol’ text; take Black Friday and Cyber Monday as an example.
Although Black Friday is relatively new in Canada, the trend is rapidly growing each year. With brands catching on to Canadians’ new guilty pleasure, big box stores are competing with each other with “hot” deals left and right to convert shoppers into buyers and suddenly even a 15% discount is a godsend from the usual 5%!
Nonetheless, this is only a scratch on the surface of digital marketing; given the industry is constantly changing. If you are interested to learn more about the latest trends in digital marketing, check out Chic Geek’s next Meet’n’Tech:
UPCOMING EVENT
DIGITAL MARKETING
Join us as our experts share their experiences and personal stories around being involved in the rapidly changing digital marketing industry. Learn what digital marketing is and how it’s used, what tools are available for marketers, and how it comes together in a campaign to attract Amazon’s HQ2.
When: Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Location: ATB Entrepreneur Center
