We are
almost midway since the New Year was ushered in and are going to enter the
sleepy summer lull. Majorly, all digital marketing strategies are made
at the beginning of the year, but with still six more months to go, we need to
gear up for the other half of the year.
Take a
look at these ideas that are innovative of digital marketing that can help to improve and reinvigorate your brand. While some ideas are quite simple, the others
require a bit more planning and implementation; but all of them are sure to
liven up your plan and give your brand a competitive advantage going forward.
Over the
past few years email newsletters have seen a comeback of sorts. Different kinds of brands from retailers to
publishers have all recognized the advantages of an email newsletter: it’s easy
to share, personal, but also social; it sits neatly between content and email
marketing; and it has the additional bonus of helping you to collect consumers’
contact information. The email
newsletter revival may be fulled by the increasing flexibility of email
templates to mobile devices with 92% of email marketers using either a
responsive or mobile-aware design in their broadcast and segmented emails.
Augmented
reality is the next big thing in social media providing brands with
opportunities to experiment with combining it into their internet marketing. It is
first introduced by Snapchat with its interactive Lenses. This was followed by Facebook who introduced
Camera Effects Platform and Instagram’s face filters. In the interim, a new variety of AR apps are
being introduced onto mobile, opening up a whole new avenue for brands to
create augmented reality experiences inside a user’s Smartphone and be present
in their surroundings in an entirely different way.
Digital advertising services should
make 360 degree video and image content, which is still relatively uncommon in
brand marketing. If done in the right
way, then unique content can be made, which is beneficial for the success of
the brand. The difficulty and cost of
producing 360 degree content has reduced drastically over the past year or
so. Nowadays, most smartphones come with
a built-in ability to create 360 degree images.
This 360 degree imagery can be embedded into Facebook posts, WordPress
sites, websites or even mobile apps even if you do not have too much technical
know-how. 360 degree content will
especially be worthwhile for brands in the design and travel industries to
immerse the viewer in the travel destination or concept that they are trying to
sell. Nevertheless, they can be used
creatively in many ways.
The
explosion of popular gaming has brought with it a list of various skills
typically associated with gaming, such as creative storytelling, leveling up,
and puzzle-solving. These have impacted
the development of numerous technologies that we now take for granted. Online
marketing must take advantage of these skills and ‘gamify’ their marketing
campaigns and branding strategy by
combining features such as competitive and social elements, progress tracking,
and puzzle challenges into their content marketing. A good example for this is M&Ms USA who
created an ‘eye-spy’ puzzle challenge on Facebook to increase sales of its
pretzel-flavored confectionery. Another
example of a successful gamified social media content marketing idea is
Heineken’s ‘Crack the US Open’ campaign on Instagram.
The year
2017 was said to be the year of the video, with all kinds of brands turning to
video content to leave a visual impression with their marketing campaigns and
capture their audience’s attention. Out
of the various types of video, the popularity of live streaming has attracted
the most attention by far. Brands can
get on board with live video by using the wide array of live video platforms
available. Facebook Live is the most
popular one followed by YouTube, which also supports live video, Instagram
Stories, Tumblr, and Twitter-owned Periscope.
Brands can use live video for anything from interviews, to streaming
events, to broadcast a campaign launch.
Chatbot
technology has come a very long way in the past couple of years. They have gone from being a gimmicky novelty
to being a valid means of acquiring information and engaging with customers. The availability of chatbots 24/7 is a huge
advantage for customer service. Chatbots
inside mobile apps are present where consumers generally spend most of their
time: their smartphones. They are able
to give personalized responses and attention to consumers. They act as sales representatives and brand
advocates and, allowing people the much needed access to information about your
brand at any time from any part of the world.
They remove the barriers to entry for your brand by well-organized
process of making a purchase. User
experience is enhanced due to engagement and valuable consumer insights are
gathered through these interactions.
In
conclusion, from a digital marketing standpoint, there is much to look forward
to in the coming years. The recently added
functionalities, features, and services have opened new doors for digital
marketers who are looking to engage with users and influence them.