Editor's Note: Teena Thach is Socedo’s social media and marketing specialist. To celebrate the launch of our new Digital Fundamentals Certification, she joins us today to discuss the future of digital marketing, and fundamentals that will guide the industry for the foreseeable future.
To be successful, digital marketers must be able to think beyond the present. Not only should they understand the present state of the industry, but they should also have a grasp on what’s coming down the road. While this is no small task in the constantly shifting work of technology and social media, being able to view trends through the proverbial crystal ball will keep you ahead of the curve, ensuring that your strategy will keep both current and future prospects interested. With that in mind, let’s take a look at developments which seem to portend the future of digital marketing.
Social media gets more visual
In 2015, Shareaholic reported that more than 31% of traffic to websites was driven by the top 8 social media platforms that year, up from 23% in 2014. It’s clear that social media will continue to grow and remain an important way of attracting users to your website, though the venues and types of sharing may change. Keeping up with the most popular networks and how people are using them is key to keeping your brand relevant in the future.
The rising popularity of video platforms like YouTube, Vine and Snapchat has inspired other networks like Facebook and Instagram to add video features. If you’re not already using a video as a part of your digital marketing program, you might consider finding ways of integrating it into your strategy. Video content will continue to be a key growth area because of its popularity and potential to convert leads. How much potential? Shoppers exposed to videos are 174% more likely to follow through with a purchase. They’ll also stay on your site twice as long, and look at twice as many pages.
Forbes predicts that more people will want to experience events vicariously, meaning they’ll want to see video to get a feel for scenes they can’t attend in person. What better way to display your company culture than bringing your prospects to the party? Think of other ways you can share your company’s story, help people to learn about your brand, and provide useful content that helps users solve problems and pains.
Aesthetics become more inspiring
Your digital marketing efforts must hold the attention of your prospects while clearly demonstrating who you are. While attractive color schemes and eye-catching font are the basic places to start, aesthetics are moving to a deeper plane in the near future.
Forbes predicts that content will move from the practical to the emotional – what will touch your consumers? Think inspirational, artistic and beautiful. Think about the kinds of videos that go viral – often, they touch people in a deep way. Connect with your prospects on a visceral level, and your content has a better chance of moving them to action while achieving a broader reach.
No matter how your posts change, one constant that will take your digital marketing into the future is authenticity. People can see through rushed, generic content, and will lose interest before you can lure them in with discounts and offers.
Analytics get analyzed
If you only think about analytics in terms of finding out much web traffic you’re getting, you’re missing out. Future analytics will build upon the use of psychology to help drive the success of websites. Already, basic principles of psychology are at the core of most marketing campaigns: think of FOMO, or fear of missing out, and other countless ways that marketing is designed to make people feel positive or negative emotions. More psychology to predict consumer behavior is a natural progression, and will help to improve the results of your digital marketing strategy.
Factors that are increasingly taken into consideration include when and why consumers abandon a sales funnel, how they respond to price changes, and methods that work on certain kinds of visitors, such as “flash” sales which are mainly effective on impulse buyers. Combined with user data, these advanced analytics will benefit your conversions. This brings us back to the idea that inspirational content will become more popular: it’s all about appealing to people’s emotions. In the next generation of content marketing strategy,you’ll be taking the principles of authenticity and compelling content to a new level.
Branding gets fluid
How the public sees and recognizes your brand, can be enhanced by the kind of content you offer on your social media channels and through your website, blogs or direct emails. The fluidity of social media and targeted messages may be fueling another trend: shaping the brand to an audience. Landor says the look and feel of a company’s brand may be shaped by its appeal to particular audiences, and the days of carefully-guarded branding may be over. Moving forward, smart companies will increasingly adapt to the changing tides of audience mood, habits and feedback.
Location will matter for digital marketing
According to The Guardian, when people are ready for information on a product or service, 89% of them turn to search engines first. Search engine optimization (SEO) improves your target audience reach by raising the prominence that search engines give to your content and products. The future of SEO will move far beyond keywords and quality content. Going forward, GPS will start to play a greater role in SEO – even now, Google doesn’t just care what people are searching for, but where they are searching from. Location-based advertising and mobile marketing will be significant areas of growth.
Geolocation is being used now to target advertising customers who are located a certain distance from relevant businesses or venues. Starbucks allows consumers to pre-order when they’re close to a local branch, and some retailers bring purchases out to a customer’s car when they arrive for a pre-ordered pickup. In customizing a marketing campaign to customer needs, it’s clear that geolocation will be another target for optimization and research.
Not every crystal ball is clear: trends are bound to emerge that were not previously seen or anticipated. But hopefully this article has given you a sense of areas that already promise future relevance to your business. The key fundamental that will take you into the future is a sense of adaptability which allows you to change up your strategy with the times. By reading this article and keeping yourself informed, you’re already a step ahead of competitors who live entirely in the present.