Social Media Messengers

Popular apps used for communication between friends also serve as a powerful marketing tool. In addition to conversations, sharing emotions, and attachments, messengers allow advertisers to display ads to users.

What does this mean from a marketer’s perspective? Considering the number of active users on each messenger platform, advertising within these apps has immense potential for reaching both current and new target audiences. WhatsApp and Messenger combined have more users than Facebook itself. Brands should be where their customers are spending a lot of time.

Messengers are also useful for direct communication between a brand and its customer because of the personalization that leads to positive user experiences. This allows brands to meet the expectations of users, for whom in-app chat is one of the fastest and most convenient methods of interacting with the brand.

Influencer Marketing

This type of marketing is a form of word-of-mouth marketing, except here we have a clear and loudly heard voice, delivered by individuals who are popular on social media. These can be celebrities, but more often they are popular Instagrammers and YouTubers who have reached a specific segment and have their own group of followers, allowing them to promote a brand’s message.

Thanks to the language tailored to the specific group of recipients, influencers are perceived as authentic. This makes their recommendations and opinions about products more credible to users than direct messages from brands. As a result, this influences users’ purchasing decisions.

Social Commerce

The rapid growth of e-commerce and the vast reach of social media form an ideal combination for boosting sales. Given the aforementioned popularity of social media and the amount of time users spend on these platforms, brands are using these channels to facilitate shopping transactions.

As social commerce continues to grow, more brands and stores will allow users to make purchases without leaving the social media app. The potential of this solution is huge due to the time saved and the convenience it offers users.

If you want to learn more about social commerce, check out our separate articles dedicated to this topic. You can find them directly here: Social commerce — a growing market, How social commerce works technically.

Visual Search

Visual search is continually evolving, and we already have tools on the market that enable it on a larger scale. This trend will continue to grow this year, and we will undoubtedly see new solutions. For now, let’s look at the current possibilities.

Pinterest Lens — a tool that turns your phone’s camera into a search engine. Simply take a picture of an object, and the algorithm will help you find places where you can buy it online, as well as show related products or images.

Google Lens — an even more advanced visual search tool that operates through augmented reality. It allows users to do things like saving a phone number from a business card photo, identifying the ingredients of a product by scanning its barcode, or learning the history and opening hours of a building based on a photo.

Bing Visual Search — while relatively less popular compared to the giant from Mountain View, Bing also has its own image-based search tool. Interestingly, it allows users to search for information about specific objects within an image — for example, by using a photo of an interior, you can narrow your search specifically to a chair in the room.

Video Marketing

This has been one of the most popular marketing trends in recent years and will likely remain so for several more. Video is a highly effective form of communication with the audience, is widely consumed, and engages users more frequently than other media. This applies not only to ads but also to branding and informational materials.

Short-form video is also one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and spread information about a new product. And most interestingly, video is no longer limited to YouTube or Facebook. It includes Instagram Stories, all of TikTok, and numerous live streams on various platforms.

This format allows brands to create engaging product campaigns, live Q&As, or even sell products during live streams. The possibilities are nearly endless. Additionally, video content on a brand’s website contributes to its search ranking as well.