The digital world is evolving at a rapid pace. If you want to stay ahead, you must understand the changes taking place.
In the latest episode of the Brand Authority Podcast, I share 4 of the most important digital marketing skills in demand right now that you need to know. Listen in and read the recap below!
Subscribe to Brand Authority Podcast on iTunes
Highlights from episode 16
1. Data-analysis
There's no room for guesswork in marketing. If you're not making data-driven decisions in 2018, you've already lost your edge. Think about it. If you want to create effective marketing campaigns, you must have a full understanding of your audience:
- Who they are
- What they like
- What they need
- When they're online
Because without a clear picture, there's no way to create content that solves their problems. And without that, you can't encourage a relationship, nurture trust, or offer them the exact solution they're looking for. To do all of that and avoid extinction through irrelevance, you have to keep a close eye on analytics.
Pay attention to what's working, what's not, and make educated decisions to iterate and adjust.
2. Content marketing strategy
Content marketing has evolved. While high-quality, relevant content has been the key to attracting attention, driving traffic, acquiring new leads, and bringing customers to your doorstep....That won't change in 2018. What will change is how you create and position the content you share.
Whether it's a blog post or the creation of ebooks, infographics, visuals, webinars, or social posts, the focus is on relevance and personalization. Take your piece of content and speak to your audience of one, instead of shouting at an audience of none.
3. Video- creation
The popularity of video is growing at a massive rate. Just look around. Everyone you see is watching video on their mobile device. Problem is, we're reaching a saturation point. The video we're willing to watch today isn't the unprofessional, poorly outlined, and uninspiring video we were willing to watch yesterday.
If you want to capture the attention of your audience, you better stand out. But more than that, you have to figure out how to create appealing, relevant, and "make me wanna stop scrolling," types of video. There are two ways you can do this:
- Recorded video. Creating videos that are highly stylized, edited, and branded. According to Tubular’s new sponsored social video intelligence product, DealMaker, views on branded video content have increased by 258% on Facebook and 99% on YouTube as of June 2017.
- Live Streaming. Taking your knowledge, thoughts, skills, and talents to a live audience. Why? People spend 3x longer watching video which is Live compared to video which is no longer Live.
4. SEO
Some beat the drum that SEO is dead, but that couldn't be further from the truth. As with everything, it's only evolved in 2018. If you're a digital marketer, it's vital that you know what affects search results, how your content is sorted, will eventually show up, and leads potential customers to you.
Begin with understanding your audience, their needs, and true intent. Rather than "keyword stuffing," try to answer a specific question better than anyone else. Why should that matter? Because...Google RankBrain will award you for it.
Not familiar with what it is? It's really pretty simple. The better your content, the more people interact with your content, the higher you'll rank in search. As Brian Dean from Backlinko explains it,
"RankBrain is a machine learning system that helps Google sort their search results. RankBrain simply measures how users interact with the search results and ranks them accordingly."
Understanding SEO in 2018 will help you get your content in front of your audience and consistently drive leads and traffic off of that content. Want to learn more?
Subscribe to the Brand Authority podcast
Want to view on YouTube instead?
About Rebekah Radice
Rebekah Radice, co-founder of BRIL.LA, has traded narcissism for purpose. When not driving growth, you'll find her tricking family into thinking she's Emeril Lagasse - likely covered in marinara. The spotlight was fun, but impact is better. These days she's using 20+ years of brand brilliance for good.