Published: January 13, 2015
Digital is moving at the speed of light, and each year brings new and exciting things not imagined the year before. 2015 is set to be the most innovative year yet, with many upgrades and new products to hit the market. But how will this effect digital marketing?
Forbes has six predictions for digital marketing in 2015.
1. Content will be more important than ever.
Creating content for your brand has always been important, but it is now a necessity in business. Search engine optimization will always create a need for content, but customers are also requiring diverse and vibrant content explaining your brand. As customers move away from in-person contact and looking to shop ahead, a digital presence with varied content is important.
2. Marketing channels will be even more connected.
Social media and content creators have, until this point, been a conundrum to many in the other areas of marketing. But things are changing, and in 2015 every aspect of the marketing team will be just as important as others. Team members will learn the mindset that working together will, in the end, be better for the customer.
“Content creation, search optimization and social media will be less siloed as specific departments and treated more like skills that exist across the organization. Optimization will move beyond individual tactics and focus more on overall customer experience across channels. Marketing is everybody’s job and more companies will leverage internal resources through social business and collaboration platforms as well as participation marketing with their community to integrate scaled content creation and social media engagement.” — Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
3. Mobile will take over.
Mobile web traffic is rising at a much faster rate than the amount of responsive websites being rolled out. As Google catches up and starts to index things like mobile apps, companies are being left behind when optimizing their website for mobile.
4. Marketing campaigns will be more data-driven and more hyper-targeted.
In the future, marketing will be even more targeted. Facebook has announced a targeting platform that can target a consumer within a mile.
“As usual, data will get better, but in 2015 you will see proximity messaging take off. With so many mobile payments options that track your purchases, location and everything else about you, I expect to see targeted messaging based on who, what and where I am. “Hey Dan, don’t forget to pickup Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.” goes the push notification from my iPhone as I walk into the grocery store.” — Dan McGaw CEO and Founder, Fuelzee
5. The laggards will finally adopt.
“Businesses will finally wake up to the fact that social media and mobile marketing are no longer new phenomena and should be integrated right from the start of any marketing campaign or inbound initiative. The future of digital lies in companies being social and mobile by design!” — Mel Carson, Founder, Delightful Communications
The adoption will include more than just social media and mobile marketing, and will help companies understand that organic reach will only get them so far. Better content, SEO and PPC will become necessities in order to compete.
6. Google+ will go extinct.
It’s not clear what Google would feel about this one, but the social network is used now by marketers mainly as a way to increase search visibility. Google made an effort in an attempt to compete with Facebook, but in 2015, they will finally realize the amount of manpower they are putting behind it is not worth it.
“In 2015 I think there’s about a 50% chance that Google could completely kill of Google Plus. I do not recommend companies spend much time investing in the platform.” — Ross Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media
By Nicole Ekström, Digital Marketing Strategist