Mobile Marketing Trends To Keep Track Of In 2018

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Mobile marketing has taken its place over the past few years as one of the most important marketing strategies that you can implement. This should be no surprise, considering the fact that mobile devices accounted for almost 50 percent of the world’s web page views last year. Because of this, it’s important that you keep your eye on mobile marketing trends that could potentially improve the success of your mobile marketing strategy. The following are a number of mobile marketing trends that have caught on in 2018 worth taking note of:

  1. Playable Ads

    Playable ads help improve engagement since they allow users to interact with the ad. According to a recent survey, some 71 percent of advertisers who experimented with playable ads found them to be effective.

  2. Live Streaming

    Live streams, such as through Facebook Live or Periscope, give viewers a sense that they are part of something exclusive since they are viewing content that can’t be accessed if it’s missed. Many people will view live streams from their mobile phones because it allows them to partake no matter where they are.

  3. Progressive Web Apps

    Offering a progressive web app makes it easier for consumers to access your website, will make your website load quicker, and will greatly improve the user experience.

  4. Mobile First Indexing

    Mobile first indexing refers to your website’s mobile ranking. This is based on how mobile-friendly your website is and requires that your site load quickly, be displayed properly, and be user-friendly on mobile devices.

  5. Augmented Reality

    AR can help consumers interact with products or ads in real time using their smartphones. For example, using an app, you can take a picture of a food product. The app can then pull up a recipe that you can use that product in.

  6. Ephemeral Content

    Ephemeral content is content that lasts a short period of time before disappearing. SnapChat is a platform focused on ephemeral content. Ephemeral content can be effective because your audience won’t put off watching or reading it knowing that they could potentially miss out.

  7. Voice

    Voice is going to become more and more important as it replaces typing, especially on mobile devices and with the growing popularity of virtual assistants. As a result, voice search is something to keep in mind while implementing your SEO strategy.

  8. Quick Load Times

    Mobile users are often looking for specific things while on the move, which means that if your site doesn’t load quickly on mobile, your bounce rate is likely to be high. Quick load times are a must in the age of mobile use.

  9. Micro Moments

    Micro moments refer to the brief moments that consumers pull their phones out to look something up. Identifying your target audience’s micro moments will make it easier to target them effectively.

    Read our article: How First Person Experience Videos Can Make An Impact On Your Video Marketing Strategy

Keeping track of mobile marketing trends can help you discover new mobile marketing tactics that could benefit your marketing campaign. These are some of the mobile marketing strategies that are gaining steam in 2018 that are worth looking into.

A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

Digital Marketing Strategies For Higher Education

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As a college or university, you have a lot to offer to your students in terms of obtaining a higher education that can help them pursue their dreams of a career. However, you’re not the only school around, which means you’ll need to implement effective marketing strategies for higher education in order to attract prospective students and to convince them to enroll. The following are a few digital marketing strategies for higher education that are proven to be effective if leveraged properly:

Using PPC advertising

PPC (pay-per-click) ads are an excellent way to reach the students in your target audience and to generate high-quality leads. Prospective students will perform a significant amount of searches when trying to find higher education options, which means that PPC ads are a great way to put your school in a position to be found. They’re also very cost-efficient since you are only paying for the clicks that your ad gets.

When using PPC ads, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. For example, you need to know who your audience is and what they are searching for in order to choose the right keywords and create effective ad copy. You will also need to take great care in deciding where to place your ads to best reach your audience.

Optimizing your site for SEO

To improve your page rankings and increase exposure to potential students, you’ll need to make sure that your website is properly optimized for SEO (search engine optimization). This includes paying attention to both on-page and technical SEO, using high-quality, relevant keywords, and earning high-quality external links. All of these elements are important in bringing in more organic traffic. Building up your external links will also help you bring in a bigger audience from other relevant websites and will go a long way towards expanding brand awareness and building a positive brand reputation for your school.

Read our article: Essential Website Optimization Techniques To Increase Visitors

Creating high-value content

Prospective students will do a substantial amount of research before making a decision. Not only do most students have to pay for a higher education, it requires them to commit a significant amount of their time to it as well. They’ll want to make sure they make the right choice, w

hich is why you will want to provide them with plenty of content on your site that is relevant and helpful to their interests.

Not only can good content help with your SEO efforts (thereby drawing in more organic traffic), it can help establish your school as an authority, which will make your programs more attractive to potential students.

Establish a regular social media presence

A regular social media presence will put you in a position to communicate directly with prospective students, allowing you to address questions and concerns, provide valuable information, and to develop relationships with students, thereby building trust.

These are just a few of the marketing strategies for higher education that can help give your school an advantage attracting prospective students for years to come.

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Top Trends in Social Media

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Today, a number of brands and advertising agencies rely on social media to connect with their audience. However, with so many companies competing with each other, it is important you look for ways to stand out. Also, creating content that is tailored to go viral or attract your customers. Monitoring and keeping an eye on social media trends can save you plenty of time and effort. This is allowing you to make the most of your audience’s short attention span. Here are some of the most important social media trends that you shouldn’t miss out on:

Going ‘Live’

Facebook Live has been a tremendous success as numerous brands are using the feature to broadcast events, launch new products or simply interact with their audience. However, simply going ‘live’ isn’t good enough as you’ll need to look for ways to engage with viewers by asking questions or suggestions. Live streaming also tests the commitment of your audience, which means that people who are uninterested in the subject will naturally stay clear.

Senior Living Tips for Facebook Advertising

Say Hello to ‘Snaps’ and Expired Content

SnapChat is living proof that you can exploit the audience’s sense of urgency by featuring content that will only last a short period of time. This type of content usually contains short video stories that only last for 24 hours from the initial posting time. Because users are always fearful of missing out on videos, this type of content creates an urgency, causing you to check your phone after every few hours. A number of brands and celebrities have been using snaps to announce exciting news or promote product launches. This helps marketing companies generate immediate results of their campaigns. Recently, Instagram stepped up a notch by introducing a polling feature that allows followers to cast votes on Instagram stories. Users can also customize their poll options to receive a more customized feedback.

Rise of Social-Chat Bots

Social media has revolutionized customer service by introducing chat bots. This is a kind of software application that is built to mimic human-conversation. The obvious benefit of a chat bot its immediate response. Customers don’t have to wait for brand-representatives to get back to their queries. Some chat-bots are used to build lasting relationships with potential customers and audiences. Another notable advantage of using chat bots is that you can always expect the program to be polite to people no matter how rude the customer replies may be.

Influencer Marketing

Influencers are people who have authority of a certain niche and possess the ability to influence a certain audience. In the past few months, you must have seen an incredible rise in influencer marketing, especially on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This provides marketing companies the chance to benefit from the influencer’s large social media following list. Brands typically use influencers to host competitions or collaborations that encourages the audience to follow the company’s social media profile.

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Beacon Marketing: Bringing Personalized Marketing To Retail Outlets

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One of your customers is browsing your store and gets an alert on her phone. She glances at the screen and her face lights up. She looks up at the nearest employee with a huge smile on her face. The customer just received a customized alert on her phone offering a 20% discount, if she makes a purchase in your store today.

Was that a big coincidence? Nope. It was beacon marketing.

What is Beacon Marketing?

More and more consumers rely on their mobile devices to search for products and to do price comparisons. They often download their favorite brands’ apps to get special offers and other incentives. This kind of marketing takes personalized marketing to another level.

The beacons are small, battery-powered devices, that can be installed throughout any physical location. The beacons emit a special Bluetooth signal known as a BLE. Within a certain range, mobile devices can pick up the BLE signal and receive push notifications. Those notifications allow you to interact with your customers in new and different ways.

Some beacon setups currently require consumers to have the brand/store app installed to receive these notifications. However, Twitter has paired with beacon start-up, Swirl. They are developing ways of bypassing the app requirement and using Twitter instead. Instead of requiring a consumer to install an app, all that person needs to do is follow the brand on Twitter.

Does It Really Work?

Yes.

More than 50% of the top 100 brands already use beacons within their physical stores, with great success. Macy’s implemented these signaling devices throughout their chain after conducting a hugely successful trial run over a Christmas season.

The beauty of these devices is that they can be used in businesses of various sizes and in different industries. For example, casinos can engage their guests from the moment they walk through the door. If a VIP walks through the door, the casino can send a welcome and have a staff member waiting in the VIP room with the customer’s favorite drink in hand. Someone in the slots area can receive a special offer to come visit the roulette tables. Other guests can receive discount offers for dining and entertainment.

Now, the success a business has with beacon marketing depends on what value you offer to the customer. This form of marketing enhances the way your business can interact and engage with your customers. Offering tips, perks, and discounts are all effective ways to provide value to consumers.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

Brick-and-mortar stores continue to fight the pressure of online competitors. Competing on price is difficult with the overhead costs of running a physical location. To remain competitive, stores have to find new ways to differentiate themselves from the online competition.

Using beacons to interact with customers opens up new opportunities to engage consumers and entice them to make in-store purchases. That makes beacon marketing a promising channel for the long-term success of brick-and-mortar stores.

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