9 KEY DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2018

_The retail industry is experiencing a fundamental digital shift in how brands approach the market and establish their presence. To keep pace, retailers must find ways to deliver the relevant, timely content that consumers demand — fully leveraging an omnichannel approach that spans online, mobile, and in-person experiences. A RetailMeNot study identified several key trends shaping the retail landscape that are likely to influence marketing decisions in the year ahead. _ 1. Shifting Budget Toward Social Media 78% of retailers surveyed said they plan to spend more on social media marketing in 2018. While 67% said they would continue using email marketing and driving mobile action rates to attract more customers, a portion (10%) of the largest retailers indicated they would keep their budgets flat from 2017. "Brands are recognizing social media as both a branding channel and one they can fully own and measure," said Marissa Tarleton, CMO at RetailMeNot Inc. "In the past, marketers underinvested in brand-building through social media. Now they're putting more into it because they can actually see the return." When evaluating social media performance, Tarleton said the most important factors brands and retailers need to consider are precision targeting capability and measurability. 2. Consumers Want Deals and Promotions Promotions and offers play a significant role in driving revenue and building customer loyalty. 76% of retailers surveyed plan to ramp up their promotions activity in 2018, looking to approach promotional strategy more intentionally — designing promotional experiences and working with partners in more strategic ways to better measure performance across all channels. Increased sales revenue is the top indicator of promotional success, consistently ranked first among the factors retailers and brands use to evaluate their offers (56%), followed by new customer growth (55%) and brand awareness (50%). Retailers who think re-engaging past customers isn't worth the effort are leaving significant opportunity on the table. Offers are a powerful marketing tool for bringing customers back to a brand — and they frequently redirect a consumer's shopping journey back to the retailer, resulting in a purchase. Tarleton noted that consumers want savings to be as frictionless as possible, across any platform or location. Limiting promotions to online-only or in-store-only often removes the very ease that makes omnichannel deals attractive in the first place. 50% of retailers surveyed said multi-touch attribution would be a key focus this year, in order to better track the quality of traffic coming from advertising investments. 3. Elevating Brand Awareness Another defining trend of 2018 is a growing emphasis on brand awareness. While sales revenue and new customer growth remain important, a rising number of retailers are pointing to brand awareness as the primary lens through which they'll evaluate the success of promotion- and offer-focused marketing. One in five retail marketers said it would be their single most important success metric in 2018. Tarleton noted that retailers are increasingly investing in technology, personalization, and loyalty programs to differentiate themselves from competitors — driven by a clear recognition of how much brand reputation matters when consumers are deciding between options. 4. The Website and App Pairing Matters The combination of website and app presence is a critical element of digital marketing strategy. Nearly 9 in 10 marketers said their brand would be partnering with websites or apps focused on promotions, deals, and loyalty programs. The majority of marketers surveyed (62%) said they prefer working with comprehensive deals apps, followed by cash-back platforms (53%) and loyalty apps (50%). Retailers are seeing the strongest results from deal-focused sites and apps — combinations that deliver an end-to-end digital marketing solution, building brand awareness and driving revenue across multiple channels simultaneously. 5. Shifting Focus to Younger Audiences Most retailers are moving their attention away from Baby Boomers and toward younger consumer segments. As shopping behavior continues to evolve across generations, so do retailer targets and prospective audiences. Marketers are looking to capitalize on younger generations' spending habits and are gradually reallocating marketing budgets from older to newer demographics. In 2018, retailers will pay closer attention to how younger shoppers approach the purchase journey and what they expect from the shopping experience. Tarleton said she wasn't surprised to see marketers increasing spend on Millennials in parallel with broader investment in social media. Today's marketers are investing in content — including blog posts and brand influencers — specifically to reach this segment of shoppers. 6. Saying No to Ad Fraud This year, 6 in 10 marketers plan to take greater direct control of media buying in order to better track the quality of traffic from their advertising investments. Nearly half (48%) of retailers also plan to reduce fraudulent ad traffic by pulling back on programmatic advertising spend. One area under particularly close scrutiny is the growth of multi-touch attribution — how it works in practice and how it compares to last-click measurement models. 7. Simplifying Mobile Payments One of the most pressing challenges retailers need to address is the friction in mobile checkout — and ensuring their brand is equipped to meaningfully improve that experience for customers. The survey found that mobile will be a critical focus area for retailers looking to drive meaningful sales growth and deliver the smartphone shopping experience consumers are looking for. For retailers who also operate physical stores, in-store cash-back offers and card-linking are seen as highly valuable tactics, with more than half (54%) planning to test these approaches in 2018. 8. Using Mobile Marketing to Drive In-Store Sales Marketers are investing more in mobile marketing to help drive foot traffic and in-store sales. There is a clear shift underway — from treating mobile purely as an e-commerce platform to recognizing it as a broader digital marketing channel capable of influencing both online and offline behavior. 72% of retailers surveyed use mobile marketing to drive in-store sales, 82% use it for mobile app sales, and 93% use it to grow online revenue. Additionally, 50% of retail marketers said their mobile marketing team now sits within the broader digital marketing function — up from 41% in 2016. Tarleton said mobile is influencing every channel because consumers today are increasingly making purchase decisions through shopping apps on their phones. "It's critical that you show up where your customers are. That applies to social media too, because people spend a significant amount of their phone time there," Tarleton said. Source: http://multichannelmerchant.com/marketing/9-key-trends-digital-marketing-2018/