The Top 7 Online Marketing Trends Dominating 2014

Late last year, I made some predictions for online marketing in 2014. If you missed that post, you can read it here. Given the clear shift toward inbound marketing methods, I considered how trends in SEO, social media, and content marketing were likely to impact businesses over the coming year.

As we’re around the mid-way point of 2014, I thought it would be useful to evaluate how my predictions fared: what I got right, and what I got….well, wrong.

Following are the seven online marketing predictions I made, and how they compare with what we’re seeing so far this year.

Prediction #1: Content Marketing Will Be Bigger Than Ever

In my original article, I predicted that content marketing – using valuable content to attract customers and clients, and to gain authority and trust – was the way forward for businesses in 2014. Using blog posts, newsletters, social media, videos and other inbound marketing techniques, businesses can build relationships, authority and trust with their audience; and ultimately, increase sales.

Midway through 2014, we’re still seeing budgets shifted away from traditional marketing methods like TV and magazine ads, and towards inbound marketing strategies. However, according to a study by Forrester Research, businesses are struggling with achieving business results through their content marketing strategy. In fact, only 14% of businesses reported that their strategy was ‘very effective’.

Businesses also continue to struggle with measuring the ROI of their content marketing campaigns, making company-wide support for the strategy a particular pain point for online marketers in 2014. Businesses need to continue to find ways to tie their content marketing in with their overall business goals, in order to measure and prove its effectiveness within the wider goals of the organization.

Finally, a lack of education may be at least partly to blame for content marketing not reaching its potential in some organizations. According to Aaron Kahlow, founder of the Online Marketing Institute, lack of trained personnel is a significant roadblock: “There simply aren’t enough trained content marketers to do the leg work. But the imperative for education is here and seen across the board, from entry level to CMO.”

Prediction #2: Social Media Marketing Will Require More Diversity

In my previous article, I suggested that businesses would increasingly use a variety of social networking platforms – not just Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. With new platforms coming out of the woodwork every few months, businesses are constantly needing to evaluate which ones are the best use of their time and budget.

When deciding which platforms to invest in, it’s important to determine where your target market is active, and also which ones your competitors are using successfully. According to Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, the usual culprits still lead the pack in terms of popularity among businesses: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are still the most commonly used platforms among marketers.

social-media-networks

Keep in mind that while you should have a presence on at least one of these three networks, using a smaller network – if it’s well-suited to your audience or business – can potentially result in a greater ROI. Continue to test and measure your company’s effectiveness on each platform to determine which ones will help you best achieve your goals.

Prediction #3: Image-Centric Content Will Rule

With 70% of marketers recently reporting that they planned on increasing their use of images in 2014, image-centric content is becoming a central part of most marketing plans. Using attractive and well-placed images within your blog and social media posts, as well as using infographics to drive traffic and build inbound links, are both now common practices among businesses who understand the importance of images.

Businesses looking to reach certain demographics – such as women and teens – will need to continue to expand their presence on visually based social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.

Prediction #4: Less Will be More

The trend towards simplicity in marketing was the topic of an article I recently wrote, called Here’s the Simple Secret to Apple’s Marketing Success. In the article, I discussed how consumers are increasingly tiring of being bombarded by loud, flashy and complex websites and advertisements.

I suggested that the constant attempt to be ‘bigger and better’ when it comes to marketing is simply unsustainable: “Increasingly, marketers are finding that offering more – more copy, more complexity, more information – isn’t working like it once did. With estimates that the average American sees anywhere from 250 to several thousand ads or marketing messages every day, there’s simply no way to keep pace if your strategy is to be ‘bigger and louder’. Instead, brands need to think strategically about how to stand out amidst the clutter.”

Oreo’s ‘Snack Hacks’ campaign is one example of a brand who is simplifying their content in 2014: Using Vine to showcase simple, short (6-second) videos – mostly involving a single person against a stark white background – they stand out by simplifying. No flashy or complex filmography, no big production budget. Just a great example of a company standing out by cutting through the noise.

oreo-snack-hacksPrediction #5: Mobile-Friendly Content Will Be Necessary

I predicted that marketers would need to be strategic about how their content would be accessed on mobile devices. I’ve discussed before about how having a mobile content strategy should be a key part of any business owner’s marketing plan; I’ve even written about exactly how to create a mobile-optimized content marketing strategy.

Sadly, it seems many businesses haven’t gotten the message. In fact, according to Exact Target’s 2014 State of Marketing report, 42% of respondents said they ‘rarely or never’ use mobile responsive design for their business emails.

This number would be surprising enough when taken on its own; however, 24% of respondents also said that 31-50% of their subscribers opened their emails on a mobile device. There’s clearly a disconnect between what marketers know about the importance of mobile, and what they’re actually doing.

It’s one thing to understand the pervasiveness of mobile, but it’s another to think strategically about how to keep pace, and then actually implement changes. Business owners need to translate their knowledge about mobile into action by producing short-form, actionable content for easy reading on mobile devices, focusing on catchy headlines that will grab the attention of users ‘on the go’, and ensuring that their website and emails are properly accessible on mobile. For more on the emerging importance of mobile content, see my article, Google Hummingbird: A Mobile Content Strategy Just Became Essential.

Prediction # 6: Ad Retargeting Will Grow in Effectiveness

I had predicted that the practice of ad retargeting – utilizing browser cookies to advertise to users who had previously visited a website – would continue to grow in popularity and effectiveness.

This prediction seems to be on point, particularly considering Twitter’s recent acquisition of mobile ad retargeting company TapCommerce. The TapCommerce software allows advertisers to reach users who have previously downloaded their apps, thereby “re-activating” existing users.

When Twitter announced the acquisition, they wrote: “Consumers are starting to use their phones not just to install and use apps, but for making purchases of both virtual and real-world products and services. Advertisers spend aggressively to get new users, but re-activating existing or previous users can provide just as attractive a return on investment.”

It will be interesting to see how ad retargeting continues to grow and change over the coming year, particularly when it comes to mobile.

Prediction #7: SEO and Social Signals Will Become Even More Intertwined

I had previously written about the direct and indirect benefits of social signals, and their increasing significance when it came to organic search results. I wrote, “While it’s difficult to predict how algorithms will evolve in the future, there’s a reasonable chance that social shares will match or even outweigh traditional inbound links by the end of 2014. “

In my recent post, Does Google Use Social Signals From Facebook and Twitter in Its Rankings?, I tackled this question in light of Matt Cutts’ Google Webmaster video from earlier this year. The surprising answer? According to Matt Cutts, social signals don’t have any effect on rankings, and likely never will.

Despite many marketers offering evidence that social media likes and shares are a ranking factor, Cutts claims that this is correlation, not causation: “There was an SEO that said ‘We see a lot of likes on Facebook, and those are the pages that rank well; but that’s correlation, that’s not causation. Instead, it’s probably that there’s something really awesome, and because there’s something awesome, then it gets a lot of likes on Facebook, and a lot of people decide to link to it.”

In other words, while social signals may not be panning out like we originally thought, the indirect benefits of social media for rankings are undeniable: The more people who see and share your content, the more inbound links you attract, and the more brand buzz you build. And the more inbound links you earn, the better your organic search rankings.

Marketers should continue to find new and creative ways to reach new users on social media, not only to increase brand awareness and engagement, but to indirectly impact search rankings as well.

Conclusion

All in all, apart from the role of social signals in organic search rankings, there have been no major surprises since my original article. I’ll continue to monitor and report any breaking news or announcements as they relate to online marketing trends during the remainder of 2014.

Do any of the updates above surprise you? Is online marketing in 2014 as you predicted it would be?

Courtesy: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/07/22/the-top-7-online-marketing-trends-dominating-2014/