Digital marketing trends for 2015

Now that 2015 is underway, we can’t help but share a few of the digital marketing trends we think all marketers need to take note of, and action on, this year.

Trend #1: Mobile rules
Current industry reports indicate that sales of tablets and smartphones will overtake desktop PC sales in 2015. With more devices in hand and more people communicating (and preferring to communicate) on-the-go, the need for marketers to be mobile savvy and lead digital efforts with mobile solutions is now an absolute necessity.

Trend #2: Adopting the next generation of online search?
As more people engage on-the-go, search will be dominated by mobile which has already extended to voice (and voice-activated search companions like Siri). So not only will you need to plan for your search optimization, but now you must also consider site optimization for mobile viewers. Why? If you come up in the results set and convert visitors to your website, but it’s not easily consumable on a viewer’s device, your visitors will have no choice but to move on—and you will have lost the opportunity to engage them on your product or service.

Trend #3: All things video
Video is on track to account for 69 percent of all Internet traffic, according to worldwide IT giant, Cisco. And this seems to jive with what our own marketing research has revealed. In a study we conducted earlier this year, 85 percent of consumers we surveyed said getting a link to watch a video was the most appealing call-to-action in a marketing campaign. When asked what they would most prefer as a “free offer” 45 percent said getting access to an online video library on a topic they were interested in.

Video also impacts SEO. So consider developing a separate landing page strategy to host each one of your videos. This way, search engines can find and index each video asset individually. Adding video transcriptions directly to the HTML of each of the page gives viewers the option to “read” the video content if they can’t listen to it—and maximizes keyword richness a search engine needs.

Trend #4: Customized content to engage more audiences
If content marketing was the “it” goal for digital last year, creating more custom content is definitely a driving trend we see this year. With the advent of geo-targeting, retargeting and real-time selling, it’s getting easier to customize and automate content…not just for a particular audience, but also for when and where that audience prefers to receive it—and engage with it. The rise of beacon technology allows retailers, for example, to target shoppers in stores. . .and send a coupon for an item they happen to be near.

Trend #5: Changing appetite for TV
With live streaming and the ability for viewers to watch a program whenever, wherever from their phone or tablet, many consumers, particularly millennials, no longer need a TV to tune in. According to Nielsen, traditional TV viewing was down four percent in Q3 2014, yet online video streaming was up 60 percent. So moving forward, marketers should account for tactics that incorporate the cable-cutting, video-streaming audiences . . . reaching all segments no matter when and where they watch.

Trend #6: Paid and earned media now the norm for social
With Facebook announcing that it will further limit reach on business posts that look and sound like ads and other social platforms offering opportunities to buy “ads”, brands must start to allocate budgets for paid media—and cease and desist from thinking social is “free.” A well-integrated social marketing strategy now includes both paid and earned.

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