Digital marketing is an increasingly important strategy for businesses of all sizes. Business owners should keep on top of the digital marketing trends in 2017 to ensure that they are using effective strategies. Here are 4 digital marketing trends that will make a big difference in 2017 and beyond!

Franchise Digital Marketing Trends

Stay Social

Social media has been an important part of digital marketing for some time, and that is not expected to change. In a survey of small business owners, more than 56% of respondents planned to increase their social media spending in 2017¹. Social media has proven to be effective in digital marketing, especially to brands that target the 18-34 age group.

Selling your product on social media is a big digital marketing trend in 2017. The key to keeping your followers interested and building authenticity is to balance between 3 things:

1. Sales pitches
2. Informational content
3. Fun topics

Be Credible

One thing that customers love is feeling like a brand is trustworthy and credible. People don’t like a brand that is just trying to sell them something. Although the goal of digital marketing is to drive sales and bring in customers, your customers want to see more from you than sales pitches.

Customers, especially the younger ones, are interested in brands that get personal and feel real. When your customers feel like they can make a connection with your brand, they keep coming back for more.

Choose Your Platforms

Most of us spend a lot of time on social media these days. Whether we are scrolling through Facebook, updating LinkedIn, or double-tapping on Instagram, we love to keep up online. And prospective customers are the same way! Because of that, they have a feel for the type of content that fits on each platform and they can tell when something feels out of place. A post on Facebook that does well may be completely ignored on Twitter. So think deliberately about your content to ensure it goes on the right platform.

Because social media can take up a lot of your time if you let it, be choosy about which platforms you use. Maybe you can’t afford to spend several hours a week creating quality content for each social media? In that case, choose the one that best reaches your customers and focus on it for maximum efficacy.

Use Data

According to research, 47% of business owners don’t actually know if their marketing efforts are effective¹. Not knowing if your marketing is working means that you are wasting your money! Most business owners cannot afford to do that, so use your data.

The good news is that nearly every online platform has analytical tools that you can use. Take advantage of these tools to see what is working and what isn’t. Look at your data on a regular basis and learn from it. Data is available on everything from your website’s rankings to your social media’s followers, and so much more. There is no reason not to use this data, as it can be a huge boon to your digital marketing strategy.

Nearly half of small business owners handle their own marketing. Even though most of them do not have a background (or skill) in marketing, they do the work themselves. Working with Hot Dog on a Stick’s marketing team gives you access to professional resources and helps you learn the skills that will make your own marketing more effective.

Sources:

1. 2017 SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING TRENDS REPORT—AN INFUSIONSOFT RESEARCH PROJECT

2. https://www.score.org/blog/2017-digital-marketing-trends-will-matter-most-your-small-business

3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/coxbusiness/2016/05/11/why-social-networking-matters-for-small-business-owners/#5835bfc38832