Influenced: South Africa’s Top 4 Digital Marketing Trends

February 5, 2018

What do we expect from digital marketing trends in South Africa in 2018?

South Africa’s population is just over 57 million, of which around 29 million are online: 16 million people are active on Facebook, 8 million on Twitter, 3.8 on Instagram and just under 10 million on YouTube. The digital space is the perfect playground for marketers, and the means of taking advantage of this connected audience are becoming more sophisticated.

South Africa’s population is just over 57 million, of which around 29 million are online: 16 million people are active on Facebook, 8 million on Twitter, 3.8 on Instagram and just under 10 million on YouTube. The digital space is the perfect playground for marketers, and the means of taking advantage of this connected audience are becoming more sophisticated.

These are the top four marketing trends that we expect to dominate the digital space in South Africa this year.

Micro influencers

Social media influencers are social media users who have relationships with companies/brands and get paid to promote products on their personal profiles to their followers. Brands usually use influencers with a high number of followers (macro influencers); however, this year brands will be targeting social media users who have a smaller following but high interactivity – micro influencers. Brands believe they are the easiest to relate to on digital platforms because they are more interactive with their followers and thus have a higher chance of driving sales through brand promotion.

Privacy protection

People are becoming more concerned about their online privacy and security. Marketers will be using this as a selling point to their potential customers. With online shopping getting more popular in South Africa, brands will be focusing on gaining consumer trust by proving security and turning it into direct sales.

Hyper-personalization of content

Brands are no longer producing just one post or video and are instead producing numerous content pieces for single campaigns. This strategy allows the brand to expand its reach by targeting larger numbers of people in segmented groups. In 2017, YouTube introduced a service called Director Mix, which allows brands to deliver numerous videos in one campaign. The video the viewer sees is determined by their online behavior (searches, downloads, purchases etc.). The marketer will deliver the most relevant campaign to the customer based on this information.

Live video streaming

According to quicksprout.com, 80 percent of consumers prefer watching a live video from a brand rather than reading a blog. Because of this, brands will be making more use of the live video feature on their social media. This will allow them to interact directly with their audiences and gain instant feedback. The most popular live video platforms are Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.