4 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2017

design that is optimized for use on mobile devices. Google will rank your site better in searches if it passes the mobile test.

Take advantage of mobile buying options on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

And, customize your content for mobile-only social platforms. Users expect content tailored to the mobile experience on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram.

In a recent announcement, Google looks to be further expediting the mobile shift. The search engine has stated that it will soon begin to flip its search index to more accurately reflect the rising percentage of mobile searches. This means that mobile results will now be prioritized in searches over desktop results.

If you want to rank higher in search pages, you will need to have some degree of mobile presence.

Action Item: Take some time to examine how well your site looks and performs on mobile devices. Consider looking into responsive designs from Squarespace or WordPress.

Shifts in Paid Advertising
If you still are doing your online ads like it’s 2006, there is a good chance you’re not doing so hot.

Gone are the days of blanketing websites with incessant pop-up and banner ads. If pop-ups on your site make the content less accessible for users, Google is going to start taking that into account in your search rankings. Google wants to ensure positive user experiences for its top search results and ads deemed as inconvenient may eventually lower your performance.

Given this, 2017 will see an even further shift to more personalized forms of online ads such as native advertisements.

Native ads are a form of marketing where the format of the ad is designed to closely match the look and feel of the user experience where it’s found.

These types of advertisements work so well because consumers don’t perceive them to be as disruptive as traditional ads. Here are a few examples of different kinds of native ads, along with reasons why they are effective.

Below is one of the most popular forms of native advertising where the ad content mirrors a normal article you might find on the site.

Action Item: Examine your current paid ads and see what you can do better. If you haven’t started running online ads, consider doing some initial experimenting.

The Convergence of E-commerce & Social Media
Social media has become increasingly intertwined with e-commerce in recent years and now is the time to take advantage of this trend.

All the major platforms, from Facebook to Pinterest, are incorporating more direct selling methods for advertisers. With “Buyable Pins,” Pinterest has morphed from a “wish list of stuff I think is super-cute” to a legitimate online shopping platform.

Additionally, Instagram now gives pages the option to add “Buy Now” links to their ads. This is a huge addition to a platform that was previously very difficult to connect to tangible ROI.

Thanks to some awesome research by Shopify, we can even tell you which platform to focus on first in your social ecommerce strategy. With respect to the jewelry industry specifically, a stunning 92 percent of all online orders that came through social media belong to Facebook.

Similar to Instagram, Facebook allows for “Buy Now” icons on their in-feed advertisements, and the platform has unique carousel ads that enable you to showcase multiple products in one post.

Social selling is especially easy for jewelers because they sell visually appealing products that pop out of a user’s news feed. Even if you are a small boutique store, Facebook’s targeting allows you to be very specific about who will see your ads. The platform makes it possible to put your jewelry in front of the very people whom you think would be most interested in purchasing it.

Action Item: Plan and execute one sales-focused ad on Facebook or Instagram in the first quarter of 2017.

In order to properly summarize, let’s take a quick look at a few statistics published by Pew Research in December 2016.
--Seventy-nine percent of all consumers have purchased something online.
--Seventy-seven percent of millennials have made a purchase from their smartphone.
--Sixty-three percent of shoppers younger than 30 use their phone in stores to check online reviews of a product.

Clearly, maintaining an online presence is vital. The most important thing to consider when looking at these numbers is that these trends are only going to become more prevalent in coming years.

Now is the time to examine the digital marketing trends that are shaping 2017 and beyond. If you don’t have any kind of digital marketing strategy in place, it is never too late to start. Use this article as a jumping-off point and get off to a great start for the new year.

Mike Farrell is the former community manager at Likeable Local’s New York office. He is now a freelance copywriter. Connect with Mike on Twitter, @mikefarrelldude.