- Write specific, creative content.
- Pay attention to visuals with video and typography.
- Make a point to reach out to your existing sphere.
With 2017 just around the corner, we must turn our attention to marketing best practices for the new year.
While the majority of marketing changes don’t happen overnight, there are trends emerging that will continue to impact the new year.
Unless you just got started in marketing, you already know that content has reigned supreme for the past few years.
Guess what? This isn’t going to change.
What will change is what is considered content worthy of our time and how search engines will rank different types of content.
1. Creative content
Don’t just write blog posts — get creative. Produce visual content that appeals to your target audience and that they want to share.
Content comes in many shapes and sizes: text, images, sounds, video, animations, illustrations and more. Content is anything that adds to a user’s experience while they are visiting your website.
If you are worried about the impact that less copy and more images will have on your SEO rank, don’t be. Search engines have become much more sophisticated and are capable of indexing more than just text.
2. Get specific
The days of high-level general content are long gone. It is all about being specific.
When producing content, don’t just scratch the surface — dig deep. Take a topic and get as detailed as possible.
What makes you stand out is your lengthy knowledge of the different aspects or features of a particular subject.
There is a lot of general information being pushed out there that is not very valuable. Make your content a reflection of you.
If you are the leader in international real estate, prove it with your content.
3. Shoot video
Did you know that videos bring the highest return on investment? That stands true across all platforms.
If you own a smartphone, you should be shooting video.
If you are sharing a video on Facebook, you’re going to get more engagement because people love videos.
How many videos do you watch a day? Syndacast predicted in 2014 that by 2017, videos will generate 74 percent of all traffic.
One important tip for your videos is to make sure you include captions. The majority of people don’t have their audio on when they watch videos on social media; they prefer to read.
4. Retention approach
Agents tend to focus on client acquisition instead of retention. They tend to think that past clients will remember them for years to come, or anytime a friend or a relative needs to buy or sell their home.
After one year, 70 percent of homebuyers forget their agent’s name.
If you want to be remembered, you need to maintain the relationship. Your transaction does not end when the contract is signed.
You must keep the attention of your existing and faithful audience. Make sure that you are regularly communicating and helping referral sources, as well as future clients, remember you.
5. Make it bold
The small fonts we’ve all grown tired of are getting replaced by big, bold and beautiful typography.
That’s right: The farsighted can rejoice in this new trend that doesn’t force you to wear your glasses to be able to decipher a message that is close up.
Not only are bold fonts in, but so are bright colors. If you want to be a trend-setter, start incorporating bold colors and oversized fonts in your marketing.
There are more than just five observable trends for 2017, but with attention spans ever-shrinking, I thought it would be best to limit myself.
Other new marketing trends will include: more live video streaming, a greater use of virtual reality/augmented reality, native advertising (again), shorter content and web design that starts with mobile, not the desktop.
Whether you’ve already made your 2017 marketing plans or are planning to do it over the holiday, be sure that everything listed above makes the cut in your marketing plan.
Laura Ure is the CEO of Keenability, a marketing agency specializing in lifestyle marketing that targets the affluent buyer. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
