It’s said that a year online can be like a decade in regular time, and this year is no exception. With channels and platforms proliferating, and customer behavior changing, digital marketers have had to stay on their toes in 2018 to get the results they need from their marketing campaigns. That's also true here at Fiverr. As you can imagine, we also want to make sure buyers and sellers know what we have to offer.
At the helm of our team is our Chief Marketing Officer, Gali Arnon. That's why I decided to talk to her about the main digital marketing challenges in 2018, how she helped Fiverr meet those challenges, and the trends brands need to be aware of in 2019. Read this, and you'll be better prepared for your own 2019 digital marketing strategy.
Let's start with 2018's biggest challenge for digital marketers. Arnon says: "The biggest challenge digital marketers face is to create coherent story telling in a world of multichannels.
Your audience today can learn about you as a brand and understand who you are through so many different channels, many of which you don't control.
"It's true. As Marketo points out, rather than waiting for brands to dole out information, consumers are proactive, searching for what they need. Arnon agrees: “I have been in marketing for many years, and when I started it wasn't that complex. There were only a few channels you needed to consider, such as TV, radio, a few digital channels and, local marketing. Today you have hundreds of channels.
"So, what does this mean for marketers? Arnon says it’s important for brands to recognize that they’re no longer the only ones creating and distributing content. People will talk about them on YouTube, social media sites, forums, on their websites, and in other places that brands may not even know about. So that leads to a new challenge, says Arnon: "How do you create a coherent brand story in a multichannel world where mostly your community itself tells the story and not you?
"Plus, with multiple storytellers, how do brands gain, and retain, visibility?
Fiverr met this challenge head on, as Arnon explains: "In 2018 we continued to focus on brand and performance marketing to position Fiverr top of mind for any digital service in the world. We wanted to enhance our visibility, leadership and dominance as a brand that is creating a new way for businesses to get work done." There were four main components of the strategy:
Let's look at those in more detail.
We ensured that everything we did fitted in with our theme for the year, the Year of Do. This campaign focused on the entrepreneurs who are the backbone of Fiverr. We ran out of home campaigns showing real community members all around the US, as well as content creation, YouTube and video campaigns and social media campaigns to show the breadth of Fiverr services.
There are plenty of Fiverr fans and advocates out there, and a lot of influencers praising Fiverr. In 2018, we made a concerted effort to work with them more intentionally. Influencers we worked with included the well-known producer, musician and entrepreneur Wyclef; Rob Jannof, the Apple logo creator; Grammy nominee, Beau Vallis; and two-time Grammy winner, who recently joined Fiverr Pro, Chris "TEK" O'Ryan. All this amazing talent is available on Fiverr.
In fact, we're proud to be democratizing talent, so that both established and new talent feel at home on our platform. We've also featured Fiverr Doers on our blog. We even hired a chief digital nomad to inspire Fiverr Doers around the world.
Content marketing is here to stay, and is a key pillar of any digital marketing strategy. On the blog and social channels, we featured interviews with our community members: sellers and buyers, and with industry experts. We created the Discover website to showcase the amazing, inspiring work that is done by our sellers.
We also added guides to help people improve their business with Fiverr services. And we committed to education to help sellers and other grow their business with the Learn from Fiverr platform.
SEO has been one of our main strategies, and we have built it into all parts of our marketing, to show the scale and diversity of services available via Fiverr and make it available throughout the Internet .And we’ve seen the strategy pay off. But that was 2018, and now we're looking ahead to 2019.
Arnon foresees two major shift which will affect not just Fiverr marketers, but all digital marketers in the New Year.
First, she sees a continuing rise in the use of videos, images, and visual content in general, led by Instagram. Instagram hit a billion monthly users in the middle of 2018, and has continued to grow. Around 40% of its users are under 24.So why is Instagram the one to watch? Arnon points out that people relate to images, which can really tap into emotions. And, quite simply, "Customers prefer visuals, especially millennials and Gen Z".
As these generations gain more buying power, digital marketers have to go where they are. “Brands need to find a creative way to communicate via Instagram,” says Arnon. That's because 85% of teens use Instagram at least monthly, and that's where most of them prefer to learn about new products and services.
Arnon's second prediction is the continuing rise of "on-demand content” in 2019. "People, especially young people, do not watch TV anymore. Everything is on-demand content." People want to consume content when they want it, on the platform where they most want to see it.
A recent study from Pew reinforces this: most under 29s now get their news primarily from social media. This is where Arnon sees the biggest challenge. "Brands will need to find a way to integrate on-demand content into their marketing mix. Most brands are not there yet, and struggle to understand how to target/measure this kind of content."
Fiverr is ready to meet those challenges, says Arnon: "At Fiverr, we understand how strong visual content and video are. That's why we are investing a lot of effort into showcasing the amazing, inspiring creative talent we have on the platform by showing their deliveries and demonstrating their skills.
"In relation to on-demand content, Arnon adds: "We are about to launch something really special, and the channels we will use and the content we will create are based on the insight that content is consumed on demand today. Stay tuned, because 2019 is going to be very interesting here on Fiverr!"
What were your biggest marketing challenges of 2018, and what do you plan to focus on in 2019?
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