We have all made a New Years Resolution in our lifetime. Maybe it was to go to the gym more or eat healthier; maybe it was to save more money. But what about a Digital Marketing Resolutions? When it comes to our marketing strategies, we all could stand to improve in one aspect or another, which is why we decided to make our last #SEMrushchat of 2017 all about what we could do to improve in 2018. Not sure where you should start? Read on to see some suggestions from our chat participants so you can ramp up your digital marketing efforts this year:
Q1. What was your favorite campaign of 2017?
With the rise of video and new social media strategies, brands got extremely creative in 2017, from politics to fashion, food to non-profits, there were a ton of great ones. Some of my personal favorites included Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign, Heineken’s “#OpenYourWorld” campaign, and of course, every single thing that Wendy’s did on their Twitter account. Here are some of the campaigns, both from other brands and personal accounts, that our chat participants loved:
A1 Crushing a 1.2 Karat diamond with a hydraulic Press - Favorite campaign of 2017 - over 10,000,000 million views on Youtube. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski (@bill_slawski) December 27, 2017
A1 My absolute favorite was Lamps For Hope! It was about supporting breast cancer awareness by promoting a contest to win a free purse that was donated to us by a two time cancer survivor. This was done during Breast Cancer Awareness month. #semrushchat https://t.co/fWJjtWkLHd
— Tri-County Young Professionals Network (@tricountyypn) December 27, 2017
A1: My favorite campaign of 2017 would have to be running an aftermarket automotive parts e-commerce for a San Diego based shop. It was my first e-commerce client, but what a thrill! #semrushchat
— Danny Ray Lima (@dannyraylima) December 27, 2017
A1: For us personally it was acquiring a big client and reorganizing their PPC account...we increased their conversions by 53% (& only spent 4% more).#semrushchat https://t.co/qmrks4fRAq
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) December 27, 2017
A1 wait - there was one that caught my attention - this is genius: https://t.co/6gGZOLVMwA
#SEMRushChat— Simon Cox (@simoncox) December 27, 2017
A1 Campaigned to me -> Grammarly. I kept seeing their darn YouTube ads until I installed it. So glad I did! Now no more ads, and I recommend it to everyone. #SEMrushchat
— Hilary St Jonn (@HilaryStJonn) December 27, 2017
What were some of your favorite campaigns of 2017? Let us know in the comments!
Q2. Which strategies should one implement in digital marketing to promote their brand in 2018?
Video
If you haven't started using video to promote your brand and tell your story, you need to start especially when it comes to social media. Social media won't be free for long, so better use the most of its organic reach while you can. Video, pictures, short/long posts, whatever gets your audience active, do it now.
A2: I still think content ‘quality’ and ‘relevance’ are pinnacle but I think 2018 is the year of Video and AR (with voice search increasing its relevance to users) #SEMRushChat
— Mark Sean Elliott (@MarkSeanElliott) December 27, 2017
A2: understand the different approaches users have with search; video, voice, images, and traditional. You need to incorporate organic & paid social. Also, invest in #ppc and #cro #semrushchat
— Danny Ray Lima (@dannyraylima) December 27, 2017
A2: Year after year, the answer is always video. If you haven't started using video to promote your brand and tell your story, you need to get on it. #semrushchat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) December 27, 2017
Quality Content
2018 should be the year where you stop selling your products and services outright, says Maria Marchewka - @_MariaMarchewka. It is important to create content that subtly sells your product and service and also educates your audience.
A2. I’ll be putting great emphasis on quality content. Instead of producing content for the sake of it, I’ll be putting time into making sure the content is higher quality, more engaging and readers are more willing to share to promote our brand. #semrushchat https://t.co/zltI78aSmB
— Carolanne Mangles (@AnnieMangles_) December 27, 2017
A2. I've been working on creating a community where folks can help one another, where we can educate them, no matter which company they purchased from, we are the company willing to help no matter what. #SEMrushchat
— Doris Shadouh (@DShadouh) December 27, 2017
Here is what some of our other chat guests had to say:
A2 Returning rich results on searches by photography (Google Lens) will rely upon the use of Schema, and will get noticed. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski (@bill_slawski) December 27, 2017
A2. Top 5 #digitalmarketing trends to look for in 2018.
1. Bigger budgets for Instgram ads and LinkedIn Advertising ✔
2. Video Content ✔
3. AI / Chatbots ✔
4. Amazon ads ✔
5. Voice Search ✔#semrushchat— MrAguilar (@MrAguilar_) December 27, 2017
A2: Go and Actively Engage People On Quora. #SEMrushchat https://t.co/M1yxwEk7DC
— Sheikh Aamir (@sheikhamir01) December 27, 2017
A2 Also look holistically at all strategies. Especially #seo #smm and #emailmarketing. Forgetting one over the other doesn’t help, they all work great together. Sprinkle some paid advertising and you are golden for 2018 #SEMrushchat
— Hilary St Jonn (@HilaryStJonn) December 27, 2017
A2. When was the last time you checked your PR strategy? Your market position?
Don't worry about the next big thing. Worry about the basics - you probably are missing those. #SEMrushchat https://t.co/HmU4rQq5fA
— 𝓓𝓸𝓾𝓰 𝓡. 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓼, 𝓔𝓼𝓺. (@ferkungamaboobo) December 27, 2017
What are some of your new digital marketing strategies for 2018? Let us know!
Q3. Almost all of us have vowed to be more organized. Going forward, what are some tools/strategies you plan on implementing to keep this resolution in 2018?
Special thanks to the following chat guests who helped us to create this list: @bill_slawski, @echwa, @navneetsau, @dannyraylima, @tricountyypn, @pelogia, @hilarystjonn, @rachelmhowe, and @toasthaiku
Q4. In which area of marketing do you plan to spend the most time in 2018: Social Media, PPC, SEO, Content, Etc.? Why?
To further discuss marketing strategies, we asked our chat participants where they should allocate their time in 2018, here is what they had to say:
1. Social Media
Many of our chat guests agreed that Social Media, both paid and organic, is something that they want to focus on in 2018. Whether you want it to or not, Social Media is here to stay; in the past year alone, Facebook took users away from Snapchat over to Instagram with the addition of stories, the president of the United States took to Twitter to communicate official policy positions, and Apple announced plans to alter the way we interact with our mobile devices.
A4. I am going to spend the most time on social media since that is what I do for my company. Content is a close second #SEMrushchat
— Cheval John (@chevd80) December 27, 2017
A4: Since my role is in social media, that would be the obvious answer for me in the year ahead. 😂 #semrushchat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) December 27, 2017
A4: Personally: social media, content (SEO) and video. For the company I work for: SEO, content, social...oh heck, I AM the marketing dept! ;) #semrushchat
— Rachel Howe (@rachelmhowe) December 27, 2017
2. Content
According to the 2017 benchmarks and trends report from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, over 60% of B2B marketers reported that their content marketing strategies are more effective than the year before. Brands that are experiencing the most success with content marketing aren’t just flooding their audience with content. Instead, they are taking a media publishing approach.
A4 Original content is definitely my plan for this year! The content will come first and then the SEO and social media will come after that! With #RankBrain being more important in 2018, you really need to have quality content to get the clicks! #SEMrushchat https://t.co/B2bnMxqqRY
— Tri-County Young Professionals Network (@tricountyypn) December 27, 2017
A4: Our team’s expanding Content and Social. Our company always had good stories (cars, trucks, bikes, racers, builders, etc.) and now we have the platforms to share them. #semrushchat
— Nick Lansing (@toasthaiku) December 27, 2017
A4. Content is always my number one priority. And everything else follows that, starting with SEO of course. Simply because quality content always wins. #semrushchat
— Ankitaa G Dalmia (@Anki_Live) December 27, 2017
A4 Content Creation this tends to drive the most shares, links, & views for us and capture the most attention (it also supplements the SEO we do well.) #SEMRushChat https://t.co/1gsoHcXCD8
— Bill Slawski (@bill_slawski) December 27, 2017
3. SEO
Many of our chat participants believe that SEO should remain one of the main focuses of your marketing strategy in 2018. According to Search Engine Watch, some of the top SEO trends for 2018 include:
- User Experience
- Featured Snippets and Quick Answers
- Mobile-first Indexing
A4: All things SEO. Main focus on enterprise SEO and e-commerce SEO. Will also spend some time training content agencies in content-driven SEO and training developers in technical SEO. And.... I’m moving to a new and bigger office! Woohooo! 🚀😇 #SEMrushchat
— Trond Lyngbø (@TrondLyngbo) December 27, 2017
A4. The most time will be almost always be SEO & Content - they're just really time-intensive and (if you're doing all of the above) provide you with assets for other channels. #SEMrushchat https://t.co/hvpU99Gnx1
— 𝓓𝓸𝓾𝓰 𝓡. 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓼, 𝓔𝓼𝓺. (@ferkungamaboobo) December 27, 2017
A4 Technical SEO - because thats what I do - but content evergreening / refreshing / IA / strategies need to be reviewed. #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) December 27, 2017
A4 - #SEO & #contentmarketing. I’ve been focusing solely on social lately and I find SEO still brings the most relevant traffic. I’ll focus on that and #smm & #ppc will be there to help support those efforts #SEMrushchat
— Hilary St Jonn (@HilaryStJonn) December 27, 2017
4. AI and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are already changing the way that search results are ranked. Machine learning can also facilitate the way searches take place, helping users to find contextualized results. With the rise of voice search and digital assistants, search is going to get even more personal.
A4: I would love to learn more about AI, machine learning and deep data analytics. This doesn’t count as “marketing”, but it becomes very close to all marketing subjects. SEO is, of course, my main occupation and will stay that way in 2018, too. #SEMrushchat
— Svetlana Stankovic (@locodebubu) December 27, 2017
What do you plan on focusing on this year? Let us know in the comments!
Q5. Keywords in 2018: What are the main changes and tendencies that we will see in how marketers work with keywords?
Finally, let’s take a look at the main changes we’ll see in how marketers work with their keywords and how they can capitalize on the latest digital marketing trends. In 2018 you have to put your focus on these factors to improve keyword rankings in 2018:
Site Speed. If you want to rank for specific keywords, you can’t compromise your site speed. To achieve a good user experience, your site must load in under 3 seconds as Google will be focusing more on user experience to give good rankings.
Mobile Friendliness. Google will not compromise on sites that aren’t mobile-friendly. To succeed in 2018, you must have a mobile-friendly site.
Bounce Rate. UX plays a huge role in improving your rankings. In order to get users to stay longer on your site, you need to write engaging content and answer their questions. Some factors that may make people stay longer on your site include:
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High-Quality, Informative Content
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Images and Videos
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Internal links
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Structured article with headings and subheadings
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Fewer Ads
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User-Friendly Themes
“With the advent of voice search, AI/Rankbrain, etc., searches are becoming much more colloquial; we're not relying on strict keyword research tools anymore. Nowadays it's about learning how your audience talks about your services/products.” Says Think SEM - @thinksem
That is all for today! Make sure to join this week’s #SEMrushchat as we discuss “Entrepreneurship - is being your own boss right for you?” with special guest, John Doherty!
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