Marketing Trends Series for 2018

Following on from the success of our Marketing Insights for 2018 trends presentation, we’ve developed a Marketing Insights NZ 2018 Presentation Series which focusses in on some of the hottest and most important NZ marketing topics and trends for 2018 and beyond.

These presentations look ahead at what marketers should expect and plan for in 2018 — based on local and global trends you may not yet have had the opportunity to examine — turning those forecasts into a comprehensive report & slide deck in PowerPoint format (with accompanying notes) – information that you can easily present to your team and your clients, bringing everyone up to speed on the latest New Zealand Marketing Insights as we accelerate through 2018. All presentations are unbranded, so you can add your own branding and comments.

Each presentation consists of at least 150 slides, dealing with as many key insights.

We’ve settled on six of the most important topics of the year ahead, starting with a comprehensive look at the New Zealand marketplace:

2 Content Marketing 2018 (available NOW)

Content Marketing continues to blossom, especially in New Zealand, as more and more brands realise that consumers are doing their own homework online rather than seeking advice from salespeople (who may — how can we put this delicately? — not be entirely objective).

One of the solutions: provide helpful, relevant content online so that when consumers do their homework, you’re able to shape their thinking accordingly.

That’s why Content Marketing has earned its place as one of the topics we cover in this year’s Marketing Insights Presentation Series.

Here are some of the issues we feature:

The power of Nearby and Micro-Moment Marketing
The ubiquitous smart phone continue to change the game. Where once longform content was king, now snackable snippets — served up in answer to queries like “restaurant near me” — have become the new currency. We explore the trend and its implications.

Content Marketing as Defensive Mechanism
So many people are talking — not always positively — about brands and companies online, and organisations don’t always get the chance to present their own point of view as part of that conversation. As a result, many are turning to Content Marketing as a means to get their message out there.

Talking to Your Own
Content marketing has also seen itself become an internal PR tool, used to communicate in a planned and more effective manner with staff, dealers and suppliers. How are you ensuring that your own people know what they should about your organisation?

Overcoming “Content Shock”
Even when marketers do invest in Content Marketing, there are challenges. One of the biggest challenge: getting heard out there, in the midst of the ever-increasing cacophony of social media posts, blogs, video and all. It’s been dubbed “Content Shock” — and we look at how to deal with it.

Content Will Get useful or Get Ignored
Smart marketers will begin to invest in bigger content projects such as creating free and robust online tools, writing the go-to books in their industries, and creating environments where their customers can build a community to share knowledge

Accountability
Content marketers will be held accountable not just for how much content they create, but what it does for the business (much like demand generation teams).

Other topics that feature in this presentation include:

• Personalisation
• Engagement
• Data-driven Insights
• Interactive Experiences
• Face-to-face Opportunities & Live Events
• challenges of developing engaging visual content
• the talent shortage
• Algorithm-driven content distribution
• Live video
• compelling content experiences
• the emergence of AI journalism
• Immersive Content Formats
• Science-based content marketing
• The rise of the Content Librarian
• The continuing rise of paid promotion and the decline of organic reach

Scroll down to order.

4 Search Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

Next: an examination of Search Marketing Trends as we head through 2018.

In this presentation, we’ll wax lyrical about a wide ranging collection of topics, including:

Mobile Really Must Be First
In May 2015, Google reported that mobile searches had surpassed desktop searches on its search engine. Since then, the company has taken many steps which signal that mobile, not desktop, should be considered as the default user experience. Google is moving towards giving priority to mobile-centric indexing, which means that your website must as well.

Three Seconds is the New Fast
According to a study Google presented in late 2016, website that gain priority in search results will be expected to load in three seconds or less. That’s simply a recognition by Google of the impatience of mobile-wielding web surfers. As you might imagine, that has direct implications for your website structure — and whether or not you opt for accelerated mobile pages (AMP) or Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which allow a website to work as if it were an app.

How Machine Learning is Revolutionising Google Search
Google CEO Sundar Pichai laid out the corporate mindset: “Machine learning is a core, transformative way by which we’re rethinking how we’re doing everything. We are thoughtfully applying it across all our products, be it search, ads, YouTube, or Play. And we’re in early days, but you will see us — in a systematic way — apply machine learning in all these areas.”

Perils of the Google Answer Box
In 2017/18, brands will need to place value on optimizing their digital content based on intent rather than specific keywords. As you have no doubt noticed, Google has become more and more likely to offer up specific answers rather than simply links to search results.

For example, here’s Google’s answer to the query “what is the height of mt egmont”:

So how do you get chosen to be the answer to such a query? We explore the options.

Google Shopping Now in NZ
Google Shopping has arrived in New Zealand and is likely to play a larger and larger role in commerce-based search queries. We look at the players so far and examine the possibilities.

Big Data + Search = Attribution Challenges
Today’s conversion paths are extremely complex and as a result, micro-moments matter more than ever. Engaging with customers’ days, weeks, and even months before they’re ready to convert is going to be the new norm.

Reconsider Bing
Bing is a big player among the new breed of digital assistants. It’s fueling the search of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, apart from being the default search engine of Microsoft’s Cortana. Ignore it at your peril.

The Move to Natural Language Queries
Why does Google have this irresistible interest in natural language? Sure, on an ideal level, it’s because Google wants “to provide the better answer to users’ needs,” and to do that, Google must:

• Understand what each web document is about (semantics);
• Understand what users are actually searching for, now that more and more using their voice to search

Voice Search
Already 20% of mobile queries are Voice Search (and will be 50% in 2020, according to Microsoft). Voice Search is going above and beyond voice recognition and evolving into voice understanding. This involves several changes with respect to:

• previous searches
• location-based context
• context based on frequently used apps
• personalised information
• keyword research based on spoken queries

How should marketers modify their content to cope with those new search parameters?

The Search Marketing presentation also looks at:

• the big challenges of cross-channel marketing
• getting to know Google RankBrain
• image recognition searches
• Key SEO Stats
• Google’s top 3 ranking signals
• User Experience Optimisation
• Content Marketing That Impacts SEO
• and, of course, a whole lot more

3 Online Video Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

Online Video is no longer an “up-and-coming” marketing tactic — it’s here, and it’s a powerful way to communicate your brand story, explain your value proposition, and build relationships with your customers and prospects.

And the statistics show that it’s working its socks off, especially with younger audiences:

The 2016 Nielsen New Zealand Multi-Screen Report, covering trends of Kiwi video viewing, reveals that around a quarter (26%) of New Zealanders watch TV content through other devices (not a TV set) in an average week. Besides the TV set, the most popular devices for watching video content across a week are desktops/laptops (39%), smartphones (27%) and tablets (18%).

We offer a training course covering Online Video Marketing, but the topic has become so important that we’re also creating this special report/presentation to bring you up to speed with the latest developments in Online Video.

In the presentation, we cover:

Google Loves Video
It’s not always evident down our way, but Google gives priority in search results to those that include videos. Which spells opportunity: add videos to your pages, optimised for relevant keywords, and feel the Google love.

Customers Now Expect Moving Pictures
When you realize that 25% of consumers will lose interest in your brand if you don’t have a video explaining your product or service, you’ll quickly decide the videos are really important for your brand as well.

The Transformative Nature of Live Video
Facebook and YouTube have gone all-in on live video, giving live content pride of place on their respective networks. If you can create relevant, entertaining live video for your brand, this just could be the most effective weapon in your marketing arsenal.

One Size No Longer Fits All
Gone are the days when you could make one video on Youtube and share it all over social media. Nowadays, it’s vital to create content that’s relevant to each platform.

Vertical Videos Are A Thing
The near-universal adoption of smartphones, as both capture and viewing mechanism, means that Vertical Video is now a valid — and desirable — format. But you do need to develop content that’s optimised for that format.

More Videos Will Be Designed to Play Without Sound
According to Digiday, 85 percent of Facebook video is watched without sound. Suddenly, that stark statistic underlines the necessity of providing effective captions for your videos. In this section we reveal a surprisingly easy way to create captions for Facebook.

Other topics featured in this presentation include:

• the steady growth of VR and 360 degree videos
• how brands have already started integrating videos into their website design
• the unexpected value of video voicemail
• skyrocketing Video Advertising budgets
• the accelerated growth of Video Retargeting
• Increase in A/B Video Testing
• Crisis Management and Video
• the viral ingredients of successful videos

All that and the latest breaking news and trends, in the Online Video Marketing NZ 2018 report and slide presentation, coming soon. Again, to order see the available packages below.

5 Social Media Marketing Trends 2018 (coming soon)

Now we turn the spotlight on social media trends for 2018, inspired by an infographic from Filmora (available here).

1 Video

First on the list is the least surprising of all: social goes video. Yep, all those moving pictures clamouring for attention on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram (now joined by LinkedIn, which has recently added its own native video offerings) will continue to get all the attention.

What that means for marketers: if you are not using video in social media, you are much less likely to get noticed — and even less likely to get remembered. According to data gathered by Filmora, 95% of video messages will be retained by consumers while only 10% of text-based posts will enjoy that privilege.

Oh, and if you can, make those videos live. Facebook Live videos are watched three times longer than regular videos.

2 Ephemeral is Hot

The move to short-lived content, pioneered by Snapchat and shamelessly copied by Instagram Stories, will continue to be a thing in 2018.

Why? There are a few factors at work, including:

• increased concentration on the actual post content, precisely because it will disappear
• fear of missing out, because the messages are limited and time-constrained
• users can afford not to worry about little things like spelling, grammar or accuracy, because their messages don’t hang around long enough to be critiqued

3 Chatbots are multiplying

There are now some 12,000 active chatbots on Facebook Messenger and it is estimated that 30% of our chat conversations will be with the little creatures this year.

Why? Because, in many cases they are smarter than humans — at least when it comes to talking about what they know (are programmed) to chat about.

If you already know the most frequently asked questions about your organisation, a chatbot is the simplest, most efficient and friendliest (!) way to share that information with your prospects and customers.

4 Influencer Marketing is growing strongly

Influencer Marketing is the fastest-growing marketing channel, according to Filmora data.

That’s because, with all due respect to traditional media channels, Influencer Marketing is (or can/should be):

• more targeted
• more credible
• more affordable

Influencer Marketing can also be more successful, according to 94% of those who use the channel.

And, since these days consumers put more trust in friends, whanau and peers, Influencer Marketing is an easy approach to gather endorsements that hopefully turn into sales.

5 Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Yeah, we may never actually arrive at the long-promised “year of the mobile“, but this is pretty darned close.

More than 90% of Kiwis under 55 now have smartphones and, guess what, we actually use them — most especially, for checking in on social media many times a day.

And yes, that means that any marketing or promotion that you do on social media needs to be mobile-friendly — and, if you are sending anybody from a social medium to your own website, that better be mobile-friendly as well.

All that and of course much more, in the Social Media Marketing NZ Trends 2018 report and slide presentation, coming out soon. Again, to order this presentation, see the available packages below.

6 Influencer Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

Our next special report/presentation deals with the fast-growing topic of Influencer Marketing.

If you’re not sure exactly what Influencer Marketing is, allow TapInfluence to explain:

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire / hire / pay Influencers to get out the word for you.

Influencer Marketing has evolved from humble origins to end up as the preferred buzzword to describe the current iteration of a well-established and familiar marketing tool: using “celebrities” to promote your products.

There’s a bit more to Influencer Marketing than just plunking a few celebrities into a TV commercial, however. Today’s definition of “celebrities” (Influencers) has broadened to encompass those who are, in the words of Andy Warhol, “famous for 15 minutes”.

At the same time, the number of celebrity followers that an Influencer might attract has shrunk from hundreds of thousands to, sometimes mere hundreds (whose celebrity leaders have been accordingly dubbed micro-influencers).

The Internet in general, and social media in particular, has brought us thousands of influencers and micro-influencers, whose hustling on behalf of a product can encourage many of their followers to actually purchase said product.

Why? Because, according to a report by Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from individuals over brands. And, let’s face it, many brands have brought that fate upon themselves by their own less-than-trustworthy behaviour.

Anyway, here’s how Google Trends depicts Influencer Marketing’s growth in search popularity over the last few years:

How hot is Influencer Marketing, really?

Here’s one indicator: 84% of US marketers are planning to use Influencer Marketing this year (according to Acorn Influence).

So, to bring you up to speed with Influencer Marketing, we’re producing this special presentation, whose topics include:

The Seven Most Effective Influencer Marketing Strategies
As it turns out, there’s a bit more to Influencer Marketing than simply tracking down people who seem to have a lot of followers in social media. We share proven strategies which will help lessen potential heartache.

How to Choose the Influencers Who are Right for You
Not all Influencers are created equal (and there are more than a few pretenders to the throne out there). We discuss what to look for (and what to avoid) — and why you should proceed slowly as you assemble your Influencer team.

Best Practices on Connecting with Influencers
Once you’ve determined the most appropriate Influencers for your brand, it’s time to reach out and connect. If you’re not careful though, and haven’t thought through the right approach, you might be turned down — or end up paying too much. We share lessons from others that will help ease the way.

Where and How to Find Kiwi Influencers
There are surprising numbers of influential New Zealanders who have attracted a wide following through their efforts on YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and elsewhere. We show you how to find them — and also sound a few cautionary notes.

In the Influencer Marketing NZ Presentation, we also examine:

• the top Power Words to use
• creative ways to incentivize influencers
• Influencer Marketing measurement, KPIs & ROI
• the four Rs of effective Influencer Marketing
• how to run successful Influencer Marketing campaigns
• what Google’s purchase of Famebit tells us about the future of Influencer Marketing
• why major players are now buying Influencers
• Influencer Case Studies
• Influencer Marketing Tools
• why Influencer campaigns fail
• the fastest way to destroy your Influencer Marketing efforts
• twenty trends that will shape Influencer Marketing in the next year

All that and of course much more, in the Influencer Marketing NZ 2018 report and slide presentation, coming out soon. Again, to order this presentation, see the available packages below.

Available Marketing Insights 2018 Packages

Any single presentation $597. Click here to sign up for the single presentation option via PayPal.

Any two presentations $1094, saving you $100 on the individual purchase price. Click here to sign up for the two presentation option via PayPal.

Any three presentations $1597, saving you $194 on the individual purchase price. Click here to sign up for the three presentation option via PayPal.

Any four presentations $1997, saving you $391 on the individual purchase price. Click here to sign up for the four presentation option via PayPal.

Five presentations $2347, saving you $638 on the individual purchase price). Click here to sign up for the five presentation option via PayPal.

All six presentations $2597, saving you $985 on the individual purchase price. Click here to sign up for the all 6 presentations option via PayPal.

BILLING OPTIONS

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice before making payment, please send an email to [email protected] with details of your request. (The service provider will be shown as Netmarketing Courses in your transaction and on your credit card statement).

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

1. Your purchase will be confirmed by email (if you have not received a confirmation within 24 hours, feel free to email [email protected]).
2. If you selected anything other than the “all presentations” option, we will email you to determine which presentation(s) you wish to purchase.
3. As each presentation is published, download instructions will be provided to you by email.