Here are the 6 must-know digital marketing trends for 2018 from Jim Huffman's presentation at General Assembly Seattle. The digital marketing trends include: The Big 3 Personalization Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning Search Moving Toward Voice Augmented Reality Video is the New Normal Plus, Jim, the CEO of GrowthHit, breaks down how to win in the B2B business and the B2C business in 2018. To learn more, go to the website Growthhit.com. If you want to read more about how GrowthHit runs growth marketing and scales VC-backed startups then check out the book, The Growth Marketer's Playbook. In this book, the founder of GrowthHit walks you through how he scales startups from idea to seven figure business. https://growthhit.com/growth-marketers-playbook/

1. Digital Marketing
Trends for 2018
by: Jim Huffman

2. Hi, my name is Jim
• GrowthHit CEO, a growth marketing agency
• Author of The Growth Marketer’s Playbook
• Growth Mentor at Techstars
• VC Advisor: Sephora Accelerate & Stratus VC
• Growth Instructor for ANA & General Assembly
• Grown two startups from $0 to $10M+
Companies I’ve Worked with:
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 2

3. Where Should You Focus in 2018?
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 3
• Podcasts
• Snapchat
• Facebook / Instagram
• Google / YouTube
• Forums / Communities
• Vero
• Quora
• Webinars
• Artificial Intelligence
• Bots
• Machine Learning
• Mobile
• Alexa Skills
• Google AMP
• Customer Service as Marketing
• Live Video

4. Lots of Options = I’m Overwhelmed
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 4

5. How did we get here?

6. A History of Growth Channels
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 6

7. The Smartphone Happened
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 7

8. It’s Not Slowing Down (By 2020, 5B Smartphones)
Source: A16z growthhit.com 8

9. What Marketing Strategies Have Worked?
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 9

10. Success Story: Referral Tools
Source: Dropbox growthhit.com 10
• Turn customers into marketers

11. Success Story: Social Ads
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 11

12. Success Story: Community-Based Marketing
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 12
• STRIPE: Facilitated developer meetups, sponsored hackathons and
other developer events.

13. Success Story: Engineering as Marketing
Source: Hitlist growthhit.com 13
Make a free product to help
acquire potential customers.

14. Where are we
Going in 2018?

15. The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 15
Trends for 2018
1. The Big 3
2. Personalization
3. AI / Machine Learning
4. Search Moving Toward Voice
5. Augmented Reality
6. Video is the New Normal
BONUS: How to win in B2B & B2C in 2018

16. I know who you are . . .
I know what you’re
looking for . . .
I know what you bought
and what you’ll buy next.
(1) The Big 3

17. Expected Amazon Advertising
Revenue in 2018:
$5 BILLION
Facebook and Google
represent two-thirds of
digital advertising revenue
and almost 100% of the
growth.
Source: LUMA
TREND: The Big 3 Aren’t Slowing Down

18. Source: FORBES
YOUR MOVE: Watch for Updates in 2018
Facebook’s algorithm, Google AMP, Amazon acquisitions, etc.

19. Source: Milano
(2) Personalization

20. Source: McKinsey & Company
TREND: Personalization = Increased ROI
It Works . . .
• Personalization reduces
acquisition costs by 50%
and lifts sales by 15%
Customers Like It . . .
• 78% of U.S. users said
personally relevant content
from brands increases
purchase intent.

21. Source: Convert Flow and Right Message
Step 1: Collect the customer data (in a CRM or ESP) that will add value to them.
Step 2: Premium personalization tools are getting better & more affordable!
YOUR MOVE: Collect the Data & Start Testing

22. Source: LUMA
(3) AI & Machine Learning

23. “We are now witnessing a new shift in computing: the
move from a mobile-first to an AI-first world. And as
before, it is forcing us to reimagine our products for a
world that allows a more natural, seamless way of
interacting with technology.”
Sundar Pichai, Google CEO
“These big trends are not that hard to spot (they get talked
and written about a lot), but they can be strangely hard for
large organizations to embrace. We’re in the middle of an
obvious one right now: machine learning and artificial
intelligence.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO
$-
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
$35,000
$40,000
2016 2020 2025
AI Revenue (in millions)
AI Revenue (in millions)
Source: LUMA
TRENDS: AI Projected Revenue

24. TRENDS: The Voice Assistant Land Rush
growthhit.com 24
Alexa Skills = 266% Growth, Google App = 900% Growth
Source: Voicebot

25. TRENDS: Machine Learning’s Impact of Marketing
Source: Rachel Anna Adler growthhit.com 25
97% of CEOs feel the future of
marketing will consist of marketers
collaborating with machine learning-
based entities.
EX: Meet Connie, the World’s First
Watson-Enabled Hotel Concierge
by Hilton & IBM

26. TRENDS: Chatbots are Just the Start
growthhit.com 26
• 100,000 chatbots on
Facebook Messenger take
orders, give product
guidance & gather
information.
• 80% of companies will
have chatbots in their
marketing strategy in 2020.
Source: Tracxn.com

27. Source: GrowthHackers Conf
YOUR MOVE: Leverage Existing Platforms
ALEXA: Create and submit your first
Alexa Skill
MESSENGER: Build a chatbot with no
coding skills required.

28. (4) Search is Moving Towards Voice
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 28

29. TRENDS: Smart Assistants are Getting “Smarter”
growthhit.com 29
• Voice assistants hit an error
rate below 5%.
• Google had it’s Home AI
reading thousands of
romance novels to improve
it’s language skills.
Source: Statista, OgilvyRed

30. TRENDS: How Are People Using It?
growthhit.com 30
• 53% while driving
• 21% while doing another activity
• 22% of queries are for local
content
• 50% of searches will be by voice in
2020
Source: Higher Visibility, ComScore

31. YOUR MOVE: Voice SEO
growthhit.com 31
• Optimize FAQ pages to get featured
• Average word count of a Google voice
search results page = 2,312 words.
• Appearing in featured snippets gets you
in voice results (Average 29 words)
Source: BACKLINKO

32. (5) Augmented Reality
growthhit.com 32Source: OgilvyRed

33. TRENDS: The Perfect Time for AR
growthhit.com 33
Perfect Timing:
• Good mobile tech!
• Strong AR platforms!
• User penetration on AR platforms!
The technological breakthrough . . .
Dancing wieners!
Source: OgilvyRed

34. YOUR MOVE: Put AR In Your Marketing Plan
growthhit.com 34
How can you . . .
(1) Entertain Customers
or
(2) Add Value
. . . with augmented reality?
Leverage face filters on social channels
and/or 3rd party technologies to do
the heavy lifting.
Source: Snapchat

35. (6) Video is the New Normal
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 35

36. TRENDS: Video has a Better ROI
Source: Cisco, MistMedia growthhit.com 36
• 53% of marketers said that video has
the best ROI
• 88% more time spent on a website
with video
• 43% of consumers want more video
from marketers
By 2021, 82% of online traffic will be
video

37. YOUR MOVE: Be a Video-First Company
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 37
Have a Video-First Marketing Campaign. Build video into every customer
touch point: ads, website, pdp, customer service, product, etc.
The ProductAds Website

38. The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 38
But, what about my B2C business or
my B2B business in 2018?
What should I do?

39. B2C: How to Beat
Amazon in 2018

40. PROBLEM: Amazon is Getting Stronger
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 40
Amazon to have 50% of E-commerce market share by 2021

41. How Do You Beat Amazon in 2018?
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 41
1. A Unique Product / High Quality
2. A Superior Customer Experience
3. A Mission-Driven Brand
4. A Passionate Community

42. (1) A Unique Product
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 42
• New performance technology, premium materials, high quality,
“most comfortable shoes in the world”
• Not a commodity product (tube socks)

43. (2) A Superior Customer Experience
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 43
• Warby Parker: Changed how people shop for glasses online

44. (3) A Mission-Driven Brand
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 44
• Create brand loyalty because you stand for something!
• An easy-to-remember value proposition: One for One

45. (4) A Passionate Community
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 45
• Parachute has a loyal following of
influencers/fans that share/engage
• 40% of purchases come from direct &
referral traffic
• Where to build a community? Social
channels, Slack, Facebook Groups,
Forums, Reddit, etc.

46. SUMMARY: How to Beat Amazon in 2018
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 46
1. A Unique Product
2. A Superior Experience
3. A Mission-Driven Brand
4. A Passionate Community

47. B2B: How to Win in
the B2B Space
in 2018

48. PROBLEM: Too Many Options in B2B
Source: Chiefmartec.com growthhit.com 48

49. WARNING: You’ll Have 10 Competitors in Year 1
Source: Price Intelligently growthhit.com 49
• Went from 2.6 competitors (5 years ago) to 9.6 competitors in 2018

50. But, Customers are Still Unhappy
Source: Price Intelligently growthhit.com 50
• Went from an average NPS of 33 (5 years ago) to 10 in 2018

51. WHY? We’re Not Talking to Customers
Source: Price Intelligently growthhit.com 51
• 68% of companies speak to under 10 customers per month in a product
development capacity

52. Your Advantage: ABCs
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 52
Always
Be
Customer Developing (Talk to Your Customers)

53. Your Advantage: Speak with Customers
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 53
How:
• In their language (academic,
casual, visual, emojis, etc.)
When:
• During product development
• When they’re the most
excited about your product
Persona 1 Persona 2
Gender
Age
Region
Academic Profile
Career
Sites they visit
Influencers they like
Hobbies
Income
Brands they Like

54. BONUS: A Marketing
Tech Stack in 2018

55. Tech Stack in 2018
The Growth Marketer’s Playbook growthhit.com 55
1. Email Capture: Convert Flow
2. Chat: Drift
3. Personalization: Right Message
4. Video Tool: Vidyard
5. Heatmap: Hotjar
6. Analytics: Heap
7. Email Service Provider: Drip

56. Everything Our Agency Knows in One Book
• $10 OFF The Growth Marketer’s Playbook,
Use Promo code: ga10off
• Website: Growthhit.com/growth-
marketers-playbook/
Where to find me:
• Twitter: @jimwhuffman
• Site: Growthhit.com
How Our Growth Agency Scales Startups

57. Thank you!
Jim Huffman
GrowthHit.com
@jimwhuffman