fbpx

New Orleans Marketing Predictions for 2018

In a city so focused on tradition, it can be difficult to speculate on New Orleans marketing predictions for 2018. Fortunately, as marketing professionals, we’re able to examine our current work and look at where the trends are going in the industry. There are clear signals in multiple different marketing sectors that new changes are on the horizon. Below are some marketing predictions from our company’s experts.

New Orleans Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2018

Taylor Kincaid
Social Media Director

Social Media Marketing Predictions

  1. Facebook Fights Fake News – Facebook is looking to up its game as a more reputable content platform. New algorithm changes and screening processes will reward high-quality content over clickbait and engagement bait, forcing publishers to put an emphasis on quality over quantity on a platform that has gotten a bad rap over the past year.
  2. Instagram Stories Drive People to the Platform – Instagram Stories will continue to propel the platform to more people and tie New Orleans brands to younger age groups. Instagram will continue to outpace Snapchat as their preferred social network.
  3. Instagram Creates “Channels”– Instagram will create “channels” for Stories of current events, including celebrations and emergencies. Look to New Orleans brands to see how they navigate Instagram Channels in a city that puts emphasis on live events.

New Orleans SEO & Content Marketing Predictions for 2018

Sam Olmsted
SEO & Content Director

SEO Marketing Predictions

  1. Video Emerges as Businesses’ Preferred Form of Content – Video is forecasted to account for over 80% of all online traffic by 2019 and will be a huge factor in New Orleans marketing this year. With 64% of customers more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it, expect New Orleans brands to use video to explain their products and services more often.
  2. Local Bloggers Wield Power in Search – Due to New Orleans’ small size, local bloggers will continue to have an impact on SEO for businesses. Look to micro-influencers who work for smaller brands making a big impact on companies in 2018.
  3. Search Marketing Merges with Content Marketing and Public Relations – As the power of backlinks becomes more apparent, SEO will begin to merge with content marketing and PR to make a significant impact online. Press releases and news mentions will be major factors of local New Orleans SEO.

 

New Orleans Pay Per Click Marketing Predictions for 2018

Morgan Bachemin
Digital Ads Director

Digital Ads Marketing Predictions

  1. Amazon Creates Serious Competition – As Amazon continues to grow as a global juggernaut, its forays into advertising are hardly a surprise.  Amazon’s advertising is still in the beta and preliminary stages, but many are arguing whether to include or ignore Amazon’s advertising. If you are an e-commerce retailer, ignoring the advertising platform of one of the world’s largest online retail stores doesn’t make much sense.
  2. AdWords Rolls Out Beta – Last year, Google AdWords rolled out their Beta Experience, and it has been met with interesting responses (like any beta program). While there are still some bugs to work out, I expect that the Beta format will be rolled out further in 2018 with removal of the previous AdWords interface. While I am excited for some things, like Promotion Extensions and improved reporting features, there is still a lot to be desired from the new interface.
  3. Advertising Moves to Voice Search – While there is no advertising strategy directly connected to voice search, devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home are selling rapidly. We saw this happening with the advent of Siri. However, many think that ads would disrupt the experience of the voice products. Marketers should be ready for the eventual reality of ads and voice search, but most experts don’t foresee this happening for a few more years.

New Orleans Design Predictions for 2018

Juan Pablo Madrid
Design Director

Design Marketing Predictions

  1. Designers Prefer SVGs over PNGs SVGs will become the preferred file type for designers in 2018. PNGs and JPEGs don’t always look crisp, so web designers have to struggle with optimizing them for web without sacrificing quality. SVGs are useful for logos, icons, and other custom graphics, which web designers have had to export at several scales for different resolutions.
  2. Digital Leather and Wood Are Back (but Not Really) Skeuomorphism died in 2013, but it’s making a quiet comeback in graphic and UI design. Designers are slowly incorporating more dimension to their work and fading the line between the real world and the digital one.
  3. Bold Stays Beautiful – Thin sans serifs have been the mark of beautiful design for a long time. In 2018, look to designers turning to bold and serif fonts, in both print and digital. Bold and serif fonts are expressive and may be very useful for SEO purposes. By making a clearer distinction between headers, designers will help visitors understand your content and navigate your website.

New Orleans Marketing Predictions for 2018

Flynn Zaiger
CEO

New Orleans Marketing Predictions

  1. New Orleans Breaks Visitor Records, Again – 2016 marked the first time that the city had broken the pre-Katrina peak for visitors. While 2017 numbers aren’t out yet, with a massive push for the Tricentennial, expect 2018 to be the peak for a while. The real question is whether the city can keep the growth moving into 2019.
  2. The Retail-Pocalypse Hits New Orleans—hard – It doesn’t take more than a trip down Magazine Street to see that small retailers are having trouble making rent, let alone profits. Expect those fighting against gentrification and those fighting against massive online retailers to join forces but, sadly, end up like all the other cities that have fought hard to resist. At the end of 2018, there will probably be more than one beloved New Orleans family-owned business that will be forced to call it quits.
  3. We Will Never Hit Peak Festivals – It’s become a joke to say that we have a festival for everything. But for ones that are decently run, they’re all doing quite well. And if it requires a tamale festival to actually get people off their couches watching Netflix and into the culture, then I’m all up for NutriaFest 2018 or whatever the next big one is.