Dead trends and lessons learned: Top transformations in digital marketing
If you run a business, there’s a good chance you will need to invest in some kind of digital marketing. But the problem with digital marketing is that it never stays still, and every year new transformations come along.
So here are some of the most important transformations to look out for in the coming months to ensure you spend your digital marketing budget wisely.
The evolution of SEO
SEO has been around ever since search engines first appeared. Just like all areas of digital marketing, it is constantly changing. Whereas once it was fine to simply stuff lots of keywords into your web pages to start ranking, things have come a long way since.
These days, you are only likely to rank if you have a solid content strategy in place, and that means creating content that provides genuine value to your target audience and then promoting it via social media and elsewhere.
It is getting harder to cheat the search algorithms, so black-hat techniques are out, and there are no shortcuts anymore. This is only going to become more important over the coming years, and it’s something that people like Alex Miller, the co-founder of PosiRank, have been saying for a while.
Voice search
Sticking with SEO, voice search is becoming increasingly important. People are speaking directly into their phones more and more by using tools like Google Now and Apple’s Siri. Voice searches tend to be different to written searches in that they are longer and more complex.
It therefore makes sense to optimise your website for these kinds of queries, and that means more focus on long-tail keywords and natural language.
Live video
Live video is one of the biggest trends right now in digital marketing. While videos have been popular online for many years, live video is still quite new. With platforms like Facebook and Periscope providing tools for creating live videos, this is a trend likely to continue.
Live video is popular because it is easy to access and it provides an honest and slightly raw view of you and your business. There is no editing, no hiding, and many consumers like this. It also helps you to make a stronger connection with your targets.
Try it out for yourself. Start creating live events where you answer questions, provide tips, or virtually show people around your office.
Fast-loading mobile sites
As more people access the web via their smartphones, one common problem is the length of time some sites take to load. While most sites are now mobile friendly, some still take far too long to load. That’s why things like AMP are becoming so important.
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. Essentially, it leads to a faster mobile website experience, and this creates a better user experience. It is not yet a ranking factor, but it could well be in the future, meaning now could be a good time to use AMP for your site.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing has also been around for a while now, but it is becoming more important all the time. Influencers are important for increasing trust in your brand and generating more interest in your business, which can lead to more shares, links, and leads. They have big social media communities, and they can become very powerful brand advocates.
Big data
Big data is another area to watch closely. Your business might not have used it yet, but it is expected to become increasingly common. It can be used to guide your marketing efforts, such as where to focus your efforts, which messages have the most effect, and more. Although it may still be early days, it’s an area to keep an eye on.
One of the ways that big data can be used is to create a more personalised experience. Personalisation is set to become much more important in the coming years because it can improve the customer experience and help to increase conversions and sales.
By personalising the experience to make it more relevant for your target customers, you will also help to increase trust in your brand.
Keep up with digital marketing transformations
These are just a few of the big trends to look out for, and that’s without even mentioning virtual reality and augmented reality.
Make sure you keep an eye on the latest trends in digital marketing. You don’t have to use all of the strategies in your own marketing, but it certainly helps to know what the main trends are so that you can keep up with them and enjoy more success with your marketing.
Jessica Thompson has worked in the digital marketing industry ever since graduating in 2009. Her articles discuss all aspects of marketing in today’s tech-savvy modern world.
