Marketing News Digest: December 2017

Happy New Year! As 2017 came to a close, a lot of good marketing headlines were submerged beneath last-minute meetings, seasonal shopping, and other forms of festive excess. That's why we gathered together some of the more important news items into this quick monthly digest. Marketing News: December 2017

Here are some of the stories you might have missed during the final month of the year:

• Exclusive and Anxious E-mails: These are two of the many takeaways from the team at Persado, who studied holiday marketing e-mail subject lines and found certain emotions to be key. Exclusivity, anxiety, and fascination are all cited in the results, which can be applied to any time of year if you're regularly e-mailing offers to your prospect list.
• Chase the Trends: We took a deep dive into the emerging marketing trends to watch in 2018. Among the commonly covered developments like video marketing and chatbots, we also discuss several cross-channel concepts that could improve your campaigns over the next twelve months. Take a look to see if your marketing strategy for 2018 could use some adjustment.
• Sharing the Wealth: Buzzsumo unveiled the most shared Facebook content of 2017, where video overwhelmingly ruled the roost and the topics were reassuringly diverse. 85% of the top 20 posts were non-video and the most popular topics ranged from the functional (guides and how-to videos) to those that are just plain fun (pets and music videos). The takeaway for marketers? Your specialist subject is likely to find an audience on Facebook, but you'll need to film it to really reach them.
• Smart Technology Comes of Age: Between the advent of voice commerce and the slow-burning potential of clumsily titled Internet of Things (IoT), smart technology finally started to gain momentum in 2017. Unsurprisingly, that means that marketers are starting to pay attention to this shiny new object. While your business might not be ready to dive in, it pays to read up on the broader subject, and the American Marketing Association has you covered with this article.

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• Facebook Broadens Its Broadcasts: Love it or loathe it, Facebook is expanding into every part of our online life. For marketers, that means more opportunities to connect with customers. The latest of these is Messenger Broadcast, which widens the scope of communication on Facebook's popular instant messaging app. Though it's still in the testing phase, the ability to send and schedule messages to multiple accounts holds a lot of potential for businesses. Start to think about how you can adapt your marketing communications for this short-form channel.
• Events and Experiential Marketing Take Center Stage: As the economy continues to expand and business-friendly conditions prevail, investment in larger scale marketing initiatives will increase in 2018. That means more events and immersive experiences set up for customers by companies eager to increase awareness of their products and services. Adweek connects the dots between online advertising and real-world events in this detailed guide.
• 2017's Most Memorable?: The underlying theme of this blog is helping your business achieve more memorable marketing, so it's little surprise that we've been on the lookout for the most memorable campaigns from the past twelve months. Forbes presents a pleasingly diverse list of twelve intriguing marketing initiatives, while Brandwatch showcases some of the major campaigns from big brands in 2017. Take a look at the lists and see if any of the ideas could be converted for your 2018 marketing plan.

And that's a (marketing news) wrap for 2017! Join us again in February for the first digest of the New Year. You canalso watch our Facebook feed, or Twitter and Linkedin, for the latest headlines and memorable marketing advice.