The new year has a penchant for introducing new technology and standards of best practice for online marketers. With user behavior evolving alongside technology, the ability to decipher which trends are worth following is essential for attracting and retaining customers. Successful businesses know that keeping an eye on industry trends in online marketing is required to stay relevant and competitive for the long term.
However, not all online marketing trends hold up to the hype. Remember the craze around QR codes and Groupon? Plenty of companies still waste time on platforms like these, only to find there is little to no profit. This is why we recommend consulting with a quality marketing expert before putting down any major investment. Current trends could lead to great opportunity for some businesses but not necessarily yours. It takes more discipline to look beyond fads and analyze which ones could be right for your business.
It is always a calculated gamble in terms of which marketing channels are worth the investment, but with the right expertise you can be sure you are getting a measurable impact on your bottom line. Since we have already done the research, here are the top online marketing trends for 2015.
1. Mobile usage will outshine desktop
The impact of mobile has grown significantly in the last few years, and it is only getting bigger. Research analysts are predicting that usage of the mobile web will outshine desktop, and by 2017 mobile devices are expected to make up the large majority of internet-enabled technology sales.
One of the hottest mobile-friendly trends is parallax scrolling, one-page websites. Not only is this design more engaging for both desktop and mobile users, thanks to intuitive touchscreen action, but it is also easier to navigate. Users scroll through content faster and are more likely to click through on calls to action. The caveat is that, if built improperly, it can hurt SEO: shorter content on one-pagers limits the impact of keywords that target potential leads. The solution is to create sub-pages for supporting keywords while maintaining the same user-friendly style. That way you achieve the SEO impact of a traditional website while keeping a fresher edge.
Bottom line: a pleasant user experience across all devices is required for attracting and converting leads. But an awesome UX does not mean you should neglect the technical aspects of SEO. Build for mobile, but cross your t's and dot your i's with keyword-optimized titles and pages, use H-tags well in your content layout, and include keyword-optimized links to help users navigate to your sub-pages.
2. In terms of content, less is not more
The sales funnel has become more reliant on marketing than ever before. In one study by Eloqua and Kapost, content marketing was found to produce three times more qualified leads than traditional sales and marketing. Since prospects now prefer to independently research products before investing in brands, you need a solid content marketing strategy that resonates with your ideal customer's interests.
Pro tip: make your content relevant and helpful rather than interruptive. A sales-heavy approach is easily detectable by readers, and if over-optimized for keywords, search algorithms will penalize your content by lowering your rankings. Keep yours rising by writing blogs with a healthy word count, maintaining a human and relatable voice, linking out to other helpful content, adding images or videos for visual aid, and encouraging engagement across other channels like social media.
3. Cross-channel marketing becomes a priority
Cross-channel marketing, not to be confused with multichannel marketing, is the seamless integration of campaigns across various channels. Unlike multichannel marketing, which runs individual campaigns on different channels, cross-channel presents more challenges: marketers need to tailor campaigns based on the target consumer's journey across platforms and devices, which requires granular analysis of consumer data. Messaging needs to be consistent and posted at the right time, or your brand will be forgettable at best.
Customers captured through cross-channel efforts tend to spend three to four times more than single-channel customers. From a nurture standpoint, this makes sense. Cross-channel converted customers understand and trust your brand from consistent exposure, which lets them feel confident in bigger purchases. The idea is to target the same users through different parts of the engagement funnel across different platforms.
Here is an example. You launch an email campaign to a targeted list of leads. The email contains links to resources on your website or landing pages, and when clicked, the user activates a tracking pixel that can be used for retargeting. Retargeting ads follow the leads across partner networks and social media to provide consistent messaging. You can also layer in paid campaigns based on geo-location, and use direct mail or out-of-home to simultaneously target prospects and keep them engaged.
4. Hyper-targeting for better engagement
Although hyper-targeting is nothing new for marketers, the goal is to get as close as you can to a specific group of people. With PPC, that is through keywords. But social platforms let you target people based on many different criteria such as interests, demographics and behaviors. By targeting at such a granular level, you can provide messaging that resonates immediately and improves conversion rates.
Hyper-targeting lets marketers invest resources into the people most likely to convert, and personalize the brand's messaging to those prospects throughout the entire sales cycle.
5. Analytics will be newer and smarter
There are dozens of analytics tools marketers use to understand consumer behavior in relation to their products and services. As the amount of available data increases exponentially, spend on new analytics software is climbing, and we are seeing legacy systems fall behind while newer, easier-to-implement platforms gain traction.
Point solutions can be great at solving specific marketing needs, but without integrating them, you risk amassing a pile of underused products that eat away at your budget and fail to provide a complete view of your conversion funnel and customer lifetime value. Expect more marketers to go beyond basic conversions and place more emphasis on customer lifetime value, cohort analysis and attribution.
Keep in mind there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all strategy. Always consult with your head of marketing or an advisor to see how you can incorporate new trends into your plan. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.