Is your inbound marketing strategy ready for 2017? The new year is rolling along, and that means it's time to evaluate your marketing plans and goals for 2017 - if you haven't already.
Here are some of the key trends that industry experts expect to take the forefront for inbound marketers in 2017.
1. Interactive Content
While blogging and long-form content is still king, interactive content is bringing more and more customers to the table. Polls, calculators, interactive infographics, webinars, and other rich content can bring fresh life to your blog content and make it that much more likely to generate traction.
Just make sure it's mobile-friendly. Always.
2. Create Buyer Personas
In 2017, knowing your audience will be more critical than ever, and that means creating a detailed personas of just who your customers are.
A buyer persona is a reflection of your audience: their age, spending habits, interests, and even quirks of personality. The more thorough, the better. Figure out your audience, create content that speaks directly to them, and reap the rewards.
3. Time to Go Mobile
By now, it's no secret that mobile-friendly design is key to attracting and keeping an audience. Mobile technology is growing fast, and it isn't going anywhere.
Everything you do - from your video content to your ecommerce website, should be tailored toward a mobile market. Because chances are, that's where the customers will be.
4. Nurturing Your Leads
Here's a question - once you have an audience interested, is your plan for keeping them interested better than last year's?
Inbound marketing doesn't stop once you get someone hooked - whether it's building an email lead or using digital downloads to convert, your 2017 goals should include stepping up your nurturing game.
5. Solid Social Media
Chances are, you already have a social media strategy for your inbound marketing, but if you don't, now's the time to create one. On the other hand, if you do already have a social strategy, maybe now's the time to re-evaluate your social media tools.
A solid social media strategy doesn't have to involve every social media platform out there - your time is likely better spent on the key platforms that convert the best, while the other(s) can be trimmed back or left on the back burner for now.
It's also important that social media doesn't just mean tweeting a few times a month. A great social media strategy must also include great content, whether it's videos, blog posts, or other well-curated content.
6. Keep Email Alive
Yes, interactive content is growing fast, and video has been primed to take over for some time now, but email marketing is still one of the most reliable and lucrative channels in the inbound marketing game.
With the right strategies in place, email can still generate a great ROI and continue to be a useful tool years into the future.
Marketing never stands still for long, and neither should your strategy. A shrewd inbound marketer should always have an eye on the future and be ready to update their strategy accordingly.
2017's just getting started - now's the time to dive in with one or more of these strategies and start enjoying the benefits.
Main image via Pexels.