Online users have come to expect that their experiences with consumer websites will be personalized to make everything more relevant to them. Artificial intelligence (AI) has allowed marketers to anticipate the individual needs of each consumer and then develop marketing campaigns directed specifically at individuals. It all sounds great, but there are some extremely important considerations to keep in mind if you want to get AI personalization right for your online customers.

Start With a Good Foundation

The temptation for most companies is to check out what the competition is doing and they trying to top that. But it is important to remember that Google, Facebook, and a lot of other large Internet platforms are also offering personalized experiences using AI, and those larger platforms are going to offer a broader experience because they are dealing with broader information. You should check out how everyone is using AI and then create the best experience for your customers and not for someone else's audience.

Offline Must Work With Online

When you offer a personalized experience for your users online, you need to have the right kind of offline support to make that experience robust. Utilizing AI to wow your customers is only effective if all of your support systems work and your customers can benefit from what you are creating.

Offer Relevant and Timely Content

There is only so much AI can do when it comes to helping to personalize a user's experience. If the only content a system has to work with is outdated and irrelevant, then the experience is not going to be that great for the client. It is critically important that any AI personalization experience uses updated material and stays in line with current consumer trends.

Don't Give Away the Farm

Pre-fabricated marketing messages mixed in with personalized content are going to be an effective way to get your message out to your clients and the messages of your sponsors as well. If you try to personalize the entire experience, you take away from the effectiveness of focused marketing. You need to decide which elements you are going to personalize and then maximize those elements with good AI.

Learn as You go Along

An AI personalized experience is just like any other marketing campaign in that you collect data on its effectiveness and make changes based on your findings. You should never consider your AI experiences to be finished products. You should always look to improve and make them not only more effective at selling products, but better for the users.

Giving online users personalized experiences is becoming an expected part of online marketing. Users are expecting to see banners that are designed specifically for them and marketing information that follows their buying trends. But it is also important to temper your AI personalization and learn to improve as you go along instead of trying to do it all at once.

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Every year business experts question how content marketing could possibly change and every year digital marketing experts release lists of changes that can be expected. The idea of delivering content on a website in a way that generates revenue is constantly evolving, and in 2018 we are starting to see what were once fads turning into full-blown content marketing trends.

Cross-Platform Dominance

There used to be an emphasis on creating a single piece of content and then doing everything possible to give the content legs across a variety of platforms. The same piece of content would be purposed for social media, blogs, and industry websites.

But in 2018, the fascination marketing experts have with specialization will reach the point where each platform will have its own content based on the needs of the platform users. Social media users don't want long pieces of content, so they will get a concise version of the content theme. That theme will run through every piece of content, but each platform will get its own customized piece to allow the company to dominate those platforms.

Marketing Is Expanding

The Internet of Things is a process where a single user is connected through the Internet to everything from their car to their fridge. The things a person does in other parts of their life will create data that can be used to personalize their experiences with other devices.

Marketing experts have been looking at ways of putting advertising on the Internet of Things, and we will start seeing the results of that work in 2018. When you swipe your card at the gas station, an ad that is designed to appeal specifically to you will appear on the gas pump's television screen. The hope is to reach into every part of a person's life and give them buying options based on their real-life usage preferences.

Marketing Is Becoming Seamless

New marketing studies show that most people hate having to watch commercials or click through ads to get to their content. In 2018, the drive to make the content part of the advertising will continue through the expansion of native advertising and other marketing options.

When you look up a user's manual online, you might see references to other products in there with links to click to make purchases. There has been a growing trend to make marketing seamless, and that trend will evolve considerably in 2018.

Voice Search

Not too long ago, a major hamburger chain put out an ad that had content in it that would launch voice search devices to read information about the company's hamburgers. The makers of voice search devices asked the hamburger chain to remove the television commercials, and it did. But the foundation had been laid for content that will integrate with voice search devices to deliver more information than users had ever thought possible.

Content marketing is constantly evolving, and that is exciting to digital marketing experts. The latest trends revolve around delivering content that is not perceived as being advertising in mediums that were never marketing platforms before. All in all, 2018 looks to be an exciting year for content marketing.

Voice searching has become extremely popular over the past few years to the point where mega-retailers such as Amazon are releasing their own voice-activated products. The idea of being able to speak your search criteria into a search engine started as a novelty, but it has quickly expanded into one of the fastest growing parts of digital marketing. There are plenty of good reasons why some of the biggest brands in the world are developing content that speaks directly to people who use voice searching.

Speaking The Same Language

One of the biggest limitations of text searching has always been the inability of the search device to determine any accents users may have. By being able to detect accents, a voice search device could determine what types of cultures are found in various geographic areas. After a while, voice searches could help big brands to determine the dominant cultures in any given area and develop content that speaks directly to those groups.

Learning The Local Lingo

People in different parts of the country use different words, and they often pronounce those words differently as well. For example, people in Central New York call soft drinks soda, while Western New Yorkers call it pop. You can get the different word uses from text searches, but you cannot get the different pronunciations. By using voice search, big brands are developing video and audio content that is in tune with how people in their geographical target markets speak.

Talking Like A Local

Text searching is very two-dimensional and lacks any of the vocal cues that allow a marketing company to truly talk to a local audience. Voice searching gives a marketing company everything they would need to know about how people in a specific geographic area talk. Voice searching provides insight into:

• The tempo at which people talk
• How certain words are emphasized in various situations
• How words are properly or improperly used interchangeably
• Local phrases that are created by running words together that you would never see in a text search

Once again, the point to gathering all of this information is to create content that sounds natural and is more appealing to a particular group of people. When you can talk directly to a group in a manner they understand, your message gains credibility and your company starts to feel like a local business. The largest brands in the world find that localizing their appeal as much as possible is an extremely effective marketing tactic.

Voice searching makes up a relatively small amount of the search data that is collected today, but it is growing rapidly. The information big brands are able to get from voice searches is turning out to be very valuable. The content being developed for voice searches is intended to enhance the emotional bond between the consumer and the brand, and every marketing expert knows that a strong emotional bond means more sales.

In order for your website to be effective, it must have a purpose. Most business owners would think that the purpose of their website is to inspire customers to buy products or services, but how would you do that? Most of the content on a website is written to enhance a brand and gain recognition within a certain target audience. But if your website does not have the right kind of purpose, then it will be a useless marketing tool.

The Call-to-Action (CTA)

The CTA is a statement you make that directly instructs customers on how you want them to react. When consumers read your content, they might feel moved by it but they are often unsure as to what type of effect the content wants to have. The CTA makes it clear to consumers as to what you want them to do after reading the content and how you want them to feel. Most purchases are done on an emotional level, and a good CTA is the ideal way to inspire that kind of emotional response.

Examples Of CTAs

If you want consumers to buy a product, then use a CTA to tell them. For example, at the end of a product description you can include a CTA that says "contact one of our sales representatives to buy your product today." The urgency in a CTA is critically important in getting the consumer to act while they are still emotionally charged from your sales text.

Some companies want consumers to contact the sales team for more information about complex products. A CTA that tells customers to "contact our sales department today for more information about this product" is important because it lets consumers know that they are not supposed to have made a buying decision yet. Instead, you want them to contact the sales department to learn more. This relieves any potential confusion and helps to convert more traffic into buying customers.

When To Use CTAs

You would use a CTA any time you want to clarify exactly what you want consumers to do in response to the content they just read. A general CTA such as "fill out this form to get our monthly newsletter" will work anywhere on your website because signing up for the newsletter is a reaction to the general content on your website.

It is important that the CTA match the action that you want consumers to take to help avoid confusing consumers on how they are to react to your content. Your content will whip your traffic into a buying frenzy, and the CTA explains how your traffic should use that positive energy they have developed.

A good CTA will increase the conversion rate on your website and turn more casual traffic into paying customers. Without a good CTA, your traffic will not know exactly how they can react to the content you have created. When you enhance good sales content with an effective CTA, you exponentially increase your chances of turning your website traffic into more revenue for your business.

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A marketing distribution channel is the medium used to get your message out to your target audience. You can have a broad channel such as Internet websites, and then break them down into more specific genres that would better fit your audience. There are three primary groups of distribution channels you can used; proprietary, third-party, and paid. In order to use each type efficiently, you need to understand how they each work.

Proprietary

Proprietary distribution channels are channels your company creates, owns, and maintains. The primary sub-categories of this channel are:

• Website
• Social media platform
• Newsletters
• Blog

While there are plenty of ways of promoting your proprietary distribution channels to people outside of your customer base, your primary audience with these channels will be your current customers and people already loyal to your brand. These are the channels you use to announce new products, offer support, and generate content meant to keep your clients excited about your company.

Third-Party

The third-party marketing distribution channels are the ones you use to reach your target audience and grow your web traffic with people interested in your products. A third-party distribution channel is made up of websites and print outlets that you submit content to and that content is published on the outlet's network. Examples of third-party distribution channels include:

• Content websites
• News media websites and publications
• Directories
• Industry publications
• Video sharing websites

These are the outlets you submit press releases to and publish corporate videos on. Your digital marketing expert will target outlets that your audience uses, and get your content published so that your audience can see it. When your company is seen in third-party information distribution outlets, it adds a level of credibility to your brand and your product.

Paid

In general, paid marketing distribution outlets are any form of advertising you use online or offline. This type of marketing can be done to do research on current customers, determine new target audiences, or to reach a current target audience. Digital marketing professionals love paid advertising because it is one of the most reliable ways to measure reactions to different types of marketing campaigns by different groups of people.

Paid marketing can be extremely focused, and the rise of big data in marketing means that you can now gauge emotional responses to various marketing tactics as well. Another benefit to paid marketing is that it can be updated in response to client feedback and made more effective. Many paid advertising outlets offer a comprehensive set of analytics that marketing experts can use to improve future marketing campaigns.

Developing a great marketing message is pointless if you don't know how to get that message to your intended audience. Marketing distribution channels have changed significantly since the advent of the Internet, but there are still hard-and-fast rules you should follow when it comes to determining which channel works best for your marketing plan.

The type of distribution channel you choose depends on what type of audience you are trying to reach. If you are only using your proprietary channels to reach new customers, then you will not get the results you need. An experienced digital marketing expert will know exactly what types of distribution channels to use to reach your intended audience.

In this throw-away society it is not usual for a website owner to archive old content and relegate it to a part of the website that never gets any traffic. In its best days, that content was able to generate traffic that helped to push your website up the results pages of all of the major search engines and that content, no matter how old, still has some SEO punch to it. There are a few ways you can drag that old content out, repurpose it, and use it to bring in new traffic for your website.

Make A Movie Out Of It

Do you have an old piece of content that is evergreen, told a story, and drew a lot of traffic? Instead of burying that content on your website, you should look at turning that story into a video that could go viral.

The key is to find a digital marketing agency that can help you to create an engaging video out of your post for a reasonable price, and then give that video a chance to be seen on your social media pages. Video is extremely popular these days, and turning old content into video content can be a powerful way of bring in new traffic without upsetting the manner in which that content has helped improve your SEO ranking.

Update The Content

Years ago you published a piece that was relevant to your industry and your audience ate it up. While some of the facts have changed over time and there may even be more information to add to that content, the basic premise is still very popular in your industry. Instead of writing a brand new article, you should bring out that old content and update it. You can add the new facts, update the situational information, and create a new piece that has the core of the original piece working to its advantage.

Use It To Create A Sales Letter

One of the fun parts of reviewing old content is that you remind yourself of how much of an industry expert you have become. Instead of letting that great information stay buried on your site, you should bring it out and use it to create engaging sales letters. You can create sales emails or even use that old content as a spotlight piece on your upcoming newsletter.

Transition The Content To Other Platforms

When you created your older content, there weren't many popular visual social media platforms to use to circulate it to your audience. These days, Instagram and Snapchat have audiences that are growing at dramatic rates. You can take that old content and use images to get your message across on these platforms and grow your audience.

Turn The Information Into An Infographic

A good digital agency can take the information from one your older articles and turn it into an engaging infographic that can be shared all over the Internet. Infographics are extremely popular, and the right one can turn that old information into a viral success.

The older content on your website helped to move your website up in the search engine results pages. Now it acts as the foundation of your SEO rating, but it can be reused to your benefit. Repurpose your old content and give it new life, and use it to increase your traffic as well.