Best Inbound Marketing Strategies of 2017

What's different about marketing in 2017 compared to more recent years? With the explosion of social media usage, influencers are playing a larger role in persuading consumers to buy from previously unfamiliar brands and video is what is really drawing people in instead of static images. Each new year brings along certain sets of challenges for marketers to grow their profits and their share of an increasingly competitive market where almost anyone in the world can become a consumer and at any stage of the sales funnel.

Through inbound marketing and search engine optimization, marketers can solve many of those challenges with the right strategies.

Here are the best marketing strategies for 2017:

Personalize Content to Target Audience

With the technology available to market toward individual consumers within their core audience, marketers are realizing the significance of personalized marketing in driving their revenue. A Consumer Personalization Survey by e-Tailing and MyBuys found half of consumers want to have their personal information used to develop a better shopping experience.

Consumers are more open to the idea of their purchasing data used by brands if it benefits them. The report revealed about 3 in 4 shoppers said they were willing to allow access to their purchase data for personalization purposes wherever they shop, including via websites and mobile.

The concept of personalization has grown beyond exclusive offers and has expanded to recommendations for purchases. Search results relevant to current consumer interests related to products and services will be crucial in creating a personalized shopping experience.

To get the information needed to have more tailored interactions with consumers, put forth a content offer or special deal in exchange for their personal information entered on a form. This personal information can include income, job/title, topic/shopping interests and more.

You can then use inbound marketing tools like HubSpot's personalization tokens for email marketing to engage with consumers using the personal information they provided. For example, these personalization tokens allow marketers to address consumers by their first name in emails or send out individual offers based on their company title or income.

Draw Consumers In with Video

One of the best marketing strategies has to do with appealing to consumer senses, namely making great visual content. According to the State of Inbound report by HubSpot, almost half of surveyed marketers expect to add video to their content distribution channels. The report showed 48 percent of marketers plan to add YouTube while 46 percent will add Facebook video.

To make sure videos will be able to aid in their SEO marketing efforts, display a transcription in the description box on YouTube and Facebook video pages as well as write a post for pages with embedded videos that will have relevant search terms and topics. This will give search engines what they need to generate page results when consumers look for words related to their products and services.

Analyze Data from Current Marketing Campaigns

What makes an inbound marketing campaign successful and can you measure return on investment? HubSpot showed 40 percent of marketers said their company's biggest marketing challenge was proving the return on investment of their marketing activities. With marketing data analysis, marketers and executives will have a definitive answer for that question by evaluating chosen key performance indicators and comparing them to their competitors.

Only then will you be able to discern what are the best marketing strategies that work for your company and which ones to cut from your future campaigns.

Use Influencers to Build Links

SEO tool platform SEM Rush recommends companies work with influencers to boost their link building campaigns. Not only do influencers have large follower numbers on popular social networks, but they can persuade consumers to make purchasing decisions through their personal connection -- something many brands may struggle with.

Forbes wrote that influencer marketing is poised to rise in 2017, including on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Whereas consumers can block pay per click ads with ad blockers, they are willingly following influencers on social media platforms and are more likely to trust influencers when they promote a product or service. This could lead to more shares on social media and links on websites when influencers put a sponsored product in display in front of thousands or millions of followers.

Further, SEM Rush notes that marketers could develop visuals that they will be able to use in influencer marketing. For example, they may want to create videos that influencers are more inclined to share with their followers on social media.

Additionally, what makes this one of the best marketing strategies is shares from influencers with high authority over a particular niche in a target market could mean higher rankings on search engine result pages if they use your chosen keywords or phrases.

Market Toward Mobile Devices

The best marketing strategies of 2017 are not complete without turning attention to the importance of mobile devices in how brands are found by consumers. Mobile search marketing is taking on more of the market share for overall search marketing as more consumers look at sites and ads via mobile devices. The Data & Marketing Association noted about 88 percent of U.S. adults have a mobile phone and about half have a tablet.

There is a noticeable shift in how internet users are consuming content and ads, with more of them viewing ads on their mobile devices as opposed to desktop computers. According to the Cross-Channel Marketing Report by Oracle and Econsultancy, 39 percent of companies said they were engaged in mobile search marketing. In addition, 35 percent said they were involved in mobile display advertising, namely banner ads.

Mobile ads are some of the biggest money makers for search engines and are only expected to increase revenue. More than 60 percent of Google's ad revenues in the U.S. are projected to be from mobile spending by 2018, eMarketer reported. Along with designing their content to be displayed properly on all screen sizes, marketers must account for how mobile device users consume and search for content.

Since local search is rising in importance, marketers should ensure their websites display mobile-friendly content, such as addresses and maps of their store locations and phone numbers that can be easily clicked and dialed on consumer smartphones.

Through these best marketing strategies, marketers can tackle the daily challenges that come with engaging with their target audience and meeting their sales goals.

Source: Best Inbound Marketing Strategies of 2017