As any marketing and international business student knows, it is essential to stay in the loop of new marketing initiatives that come about at the turn of a new year. It’s easy to see how tremendously the worlds of digital and inbound marketing have grown. In the recent years, there have been changes to how consumers find information and engage with companies; like in most fields, marketing will continue to evolve and focus more on the consumers’ needs.
It is crucial for businesses to establish trust and bond with their customers. One way that businesses can build that bond with their customers is by consistently creating valuable marketing content through various social media outlets—this is called content marketing. Valuable content not only promotes brand awareness, but also allows you to build a positive reputation with a loyal following. High-quality and valuable content will continue to grow as one of the most successful and foolproof marketing tactics.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content marketing, both play hand-in-hand on relaying social media for optimal success. Social media sharing is crucial to increase search visibility and brand awareness. When users search something on Google, Google’s main goal is to provide them with a high-quality article, website or blog, based on key words from their search bar. This is done by the amount of shares that article, website or blog receives; the more shares it has, the higher it will be on the page results. Businesses are continuing to increase their social media presence, in order to gain brand awareness and a more interactive relationship with consumers.
Have you ever searched for a pair of shoes on a specific website and made your way to, say, Facebook, and see the same pair of shoes in an advertisement? This is a popular method called Ad Retargeting, where browser cookies are used to track every website the user visits. A lot of companies are incorporating this within their marketing methods. This helps reminds consumers of the products they have previously viewed. There will be a significant increase in ad retargeting as a result of its success rate. Recently, Facebook has decreased its organic algorithm where related advertisements will show up, depending on what type of posts are in your newsfeed. In order to supplement the lack of organic ads, there will be an increased popularity of paid advertisements. The benefit of paid advertisements allows businesses to advertise their brand/company onto every Facebook newsfeed, rather than just the small organic amount.
Desktop sites are a thing of the past, resulting in mobile-friendly sites gaining popularity. Businesses should not only focus on creating a mobile-friendly site, but also on developing a mobile app. If a mobile app development is not possible, then a mobile-friendly site with an “app-like” design should help with the responsiveness and fluidity of the site. A large amount of people spend a significant fraction of their time on their smartphones, so mobile ads will grow exceedingly rewarding over the next few years.
Mobile-friendly sites are becoming crucial, but lack human interaction. Consumers don’t want to be bombarded by corporate-sounding verbiage; they wish to interact with businesses in a casual manner. A great way for businesses to connect with their customers is through the use of social media outlets. Businesses can utilize Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to produce a strong brand following, which will lead to increased brand loyalty and happier customers. The ability to show consumers that your business is human will create a huge impact on how the consumer perceives your company/business.
We can truly see how far marketing has come over the past few years. As consumers become more and more active online, businesses must learn to adapt and incorporate those emerging marketing trends. Businesses don’t just market their products; they market solutions to the consumers’ problems and needs.
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