Well, it’s almost 2018. I know we’ve been talking about the new year like a broken record, but this is the time to get your marketing plan in place so that you’ve got a little boost over the competition.
And, we think you need to know these marketing and advertising buzzwords in 2018.
Don’t worry, they’re not the useless jargon style advertising buzzwords so many people loathe. These are useful marketing terms that will need to be part of your vocabulary this year!
Want to check out 2020's buzzwords? Click here to start reading!
Here are your digital marketing and advertising buzzwords for 2018:
Algorithm – "Algorithm" is a huge digital marketing buzzword! Everyone wants to talk about Google’s algorithm updates or the Facebook algorithm making it hard for businesses to get their marketing messages in front of their target audience, but what does it really mean?
Well, you can think of an algorithm as a formula. It’s a set of rules Google or Facebook uses to determine what content shows up where. So, Google uses its algorithm to determine which businesses and websites show up for certain searches, while Facebook uses its algorithm to determine which posts are most important and relevant to its users.
SEO – SEO stands for search engine optimization and it is the way that we optimize for Google’s algorithm.
SEO involves optimizing your business’s website for searches by adding keywords, meta-tags and other information that search engines need to know in order to rank your business in the right searches for the right consumers. Don’t forget there’s more than one kind of SEO. Learn about the difference between local SEO and organic SEO here.
Marketing Automation – Marketing automation is exactly what it sounds like. It is software that allows you to automate certain marketing tasks.
Even if this makes it sound hands-off for you, you still need a human touch to set up your automations and make sure everything continues to run smoothly.
AI – AI stands for artificial intelligence, and it’s taking over the marketing world. You can think of AI as any time a machine mimics human intelligence.
Those algorithms we mentioned earlier are one example of how AI impacts your marketing strategies. The algorithms replace humans by quickly figuring out which businesses or websites should show up in your search results, newsfeed, etc. AI is also used in advertising to determine which consumers see your business's ads in search results or their Facebook newsfeeds.
AI is already an important part of digital marketing, but we expect it to become even bigger in 2018 and beyond.
Customer Journey – Your consumer’s path to purchase is longer than you think and involves multiple touchpoints across different channels and devices.
People don’t purchase products or services after the first click – it's much more complicated than that! The customer journey is one of the most important things to understand when creating a digital marketing strategy. Shout out to our Paid Advertising Manager, Erica Flinn, for sending me this buzzword!
Omnichannel – Along the same lines, omnichannel marketing means creating a seamless online presence (and marketing plan) that reaches customers wherever they’re searching or browsing.
Because the consumer’s path to purchase is longer and more complicated than it used to be before they could find everything they’ve ever wanted to know about a topic (or a business) on the Internet, omnichannel marketing is more important than ever.
Attribution – Attribution is a fancy way to say figuring out which marketing channels are driving ROI (ROI was one of our buzzwords for 2017).
Attribution can be tricky, though, since consumers will likely interact with your business in a few different ways (visit your website, scroll through your social media, be served a retargeting ad or any other number of ways) before making a purchase.
You can track attribution through the first way a customer ever interacted with your business, assign attribution to each step of the way or even use the very last action/interaction before the customer made a purchase.
Geofencing – Geofencing is a form of location-based marketing.
It is setting a virtual boundary around a specific location. Think of it like drawing a circle (or polygon) around your business on a map to target people who are in the area.
Businesses that have an app can use geofencing to target people near the business and draw them in with a special offer or promotion.
Click here to learn more about geofencing!
Micro-Moments – Google talks about micro-moments all the time. They’re those little moments in your life when you need help with something so you reach for your phone.
Micro-moments are broken down into moments such as “I want to know,” “I want to go” and “I want to do,” among others. The point of micro-moments is to understand that there are plenty of small moments when you can be there for a consumer if your business has a consistent, correct online presence.
Smart Content – For a long time, everyone was saying that content is king. But it looks like smart content may be planning to usurp the throne.
Smart content is a term that people are throwing around a lot right now. It refers to personalized content that is designed to meet a consumer’s needs. This could be anything from adding the consumer’s name to an email or personalizing a call-to-action depending on where the consumer is in the buying cycle.
Hyperlocal – The word “hyperlocal” is nothing new, and neither is the marketing concept. But, with Facebook and Google making it easier and easier for local consumers to find the right business in their area, having a hyperlocal marketing strategy is imperative for businesses that want to compete in today’s digital world.
Local search marketing is a good place to get started with a hyperlocal strategy so that your business shows up when local consumers are looking for your products and services.
Bonus digital marketing buzzword:
Clickbait – Honestly, we can't believe clickbait is still a thing in 2018, but here we are. Clickbait usually comes in the form of outrageous headlines involving phrases similar to "You won't believe what happened next" or "number 9 had us screaming."
Clickbait is a problem because the headline often has nothing to do with the article, and it's ever so slightly deceiving. Don't practice clickbait, people. It's not okay. This is a digital marketing buzzword you want to avoid at all costs.
Looking for more 2018-focused digital marketing ideas? Check out these recent posts to get your fix:
There you have it. These are your digital marketing buzzwords for 2018. We hope you learned a few new tactics to put your business on the map. And hey, we hope you have a happy new year!