Digital marketing trends for 2017

According to a recent Forbes article, the top digital marketing trends for 2017 are

1.  Artificial Intelligence Solutions: Artificial intelligence will play an increasingly bigger role in digital marketing. Data analytics and AI solutions are a way for consumers to navigate the increasing complex digital world from advance electronic application to predicting consumer needs, AI will be used in a big way
2. Niche Curation Of  Information: Humans now have more information available to them than has ever been, and we simply can’t process it. As a result, we’ve increasingly come to rely not just on curated information, but on the people we most trust to curate this information for us in a way that resonates with our lifestyle, interests, and values. In 2017, consumers will find peer specialists with niche expertise to filter recommendations that meet their needs in a customized way.
3. Mobile devices enable on-the-go consumerism: With mobile devices getting faster and better, we will see emergence of electronics evolution. As these devices offer smarter, faster, and more intuitive information, they will become even more ingrained into our daily patterns and connected culture and dramatically influence consumers at the point of purchase. Mobile devices will emerge as shoppers’ most valued shopping partner, as consumers check them for recommendations from their network of trusted advisors while fact-checking product attributes and using online coupons.
4. Influencer Marketing as a Fundamental Brand Strategy: Many brands now recognize Influencer Marketing as the industry’s hot “go-to” strategy, but they struggle on how best to leverage it and measure it from the perspective of business results and attribution modeling. As we head into 2017, influencers will entrench as defining voices in consumer marketing, as brands concede advertising control and look to passionate brand advocates to sway consumers on social media.
5. Consumer Resentment of Intrusive Marketing Deepens: Pop-ups, banner ads, and disruptive brand messages are all falling out of favor. Today’s consumers don’t want brands aggressively pushing their way into social media feeds, whether on Facebook, through promoted Pins or Tweets, or paid-for Snapchat stories. As consumers seek to learn more about new products on their own time, expect continued resentment over intrusive marketing to deepen in 2017. Consumers will continue to walk away from social platforms that inundate them with brand marketing. Similarly, the tone and content of ads needs to be geared to the new Gen Z paradigm: fast, smart, sassy, and relevant.
6. Mobile device usage increases: This year consumers will continue to ratchet up their mobile dependency as more usages emerge. Retailers that do not consider the impact of this sea change, and deal with it intelligently, will be left behind on shore.
7. Images and Videos will rule: Visuals and videos have truly surged over the past six months, and consumers – particularly those in the Millennial and rising Generation Z cohorts – have truly embraced pictures and videos as a way to gather and share information.  Look for new visual platforms to roll out in 2017 to accompany existing ones as consumers gravitate toward authentic, live-action, visual storytelling.