By Roger Gallager
It’s pretty alarming that a lot of digital marketing trends are swarming the web right now, especially when lean thinking in digital marketing is a crucial approach to employ.
But what’s more alarming is those proclaiming the trends are ignoring those that may revolutionize the whole field of digital marketing, altogether.
Following are the seven brutal truths about digital marketing trends.
All Hail Data
Data-less digital marketing just won’t cut it anymore.
With the amount of consumer data available online waiting to be mined and analyzed, failing to use the power of data might just spell ruin for your business. Most of your competitors are surely using data to secure their position and wield an edge over the competition in the digital marketing world.
Using data in digital marketing is a surefire way to capitalize on trends and accordingly hinge your brand, increasing brand exposure and awareness as efficiently as possible.
Data also allows digital marketers to craft a personalized approach to certain groups and niches that increases the probability of repeat visitors or even convert them into loyal customers.
Data is necessary for digital marketers to identify which content, channel, or platform truly works.
From there, you can either focus on enhancing the most effective part of your overall digital marketing strategy or drill on the lagging parts of your digital ecosystem.
Overall, data provides a way to effectively deliver relevant quality content, making it a crucial trend no digital marketer should ever ignore.
Facebook May Eclipse Google
There’s no question Facebook remains the leader in the world of social networking sites.
Lately, the social networking giant has been landing jabs at Google by hitting the latter’s bread and butter: Search engine.
Even Mark Zuckerberg is openly challenging Google, stating that Facebook has a bigger data index than any search engine and that its artificial intelligence unit is making the data available to mobile device users through its search engine, Graph Search.
There’s weight behind these claims and digital marketers are certainly not keen on being the last one to jump onboard when Facebook eventually eclipses Google.
It would be a wise move to anticipate developments by digging more into Facebook’s developments, match it to your digital marketing strategy, and see how you can easily migrate huge portions of your activities seamlessly.
Spending more time improving your social media ads and ramping up the budget are some of the proactive solutions digital marketers should focus on.
Social eCommerce is Right Here
Apparently, Facebook is not done sprucing up its already brilliant features when it decided to bring out the guns by adding the “buy” button to Shopify.
Twitter is onboard too when it unrolled its product pages.
These huge online shopping developments will surely revolutionize the way people shop online.
Now there’s no reason to leave the comfort of their social networking sites to buy.
A legitimate win-win scenario for both Facebook and Twitter.
These critical developments are something every digital marketer should consider.
Bringing online purchasing inside social media, where customers hang out, is a huge game-changer.
Shifting the bulk of your digital marketing efforts to social media may be necessary for your brand’s survival.
Digital marketers should plan for the move now or else risk being caught off-guard with lightning-fast developments.
Mobile or Tap Out
Google leveled the playing field for digital marketers earlier this year when it updated its search algorithm, once again, in favor of mobile devices.
Dubbed as the “mobilegeddon,” this change forces digital marketers to make the necessary measures to keep their brand’s digital assets mobile-friendly.
Failure to do so will drop you off the mobile Google search rankings, which reduces brand exposure, brand awareness, and sales conversion.
While this won’t necessarily affect the desktop Google search rankings, the fact that most people are using their mobile devices and prefer them as their content viewing platform makes it a critical digital marketing move.
Turning all your digital assets mobile-friendly is not enough especially if your brand offers eCommerce.
In a bid to be mobile-friendly, most companies rushed off with mobile eCommerce stores that have bug issues or aren’t seamlessly integrated with the overall system.
Make sure to keep your desktop eCommerce quality is aligned with mobile to retain your loyal customers and attract more visitors in the mobile realm.
You’re Helpless Without a Marketing Automation Tool
Let’s face it: Digital marketing, banking on human efforts alone, is too much to handle.
Putting in account all the data, platforms, channels, and niches a digital marketer should consider daily in order to execute quality content is already a feat on its own.
However, to avoid confusion and sudden drops in content quality, a digital marketer should readily accept his or her limitations and seek the assistance of marketing automation tools.
Marketing automation allows you to schedule content delivery, an overall view of your digital marketing progress, and more time to focus on content that sells, adhering to the relevance of lean thinking in the digital marketing space.
That’s why every marketer should avail themselves of this tool and make every moment count.
Here Comes Disappearing Content
Snapchat is one of the few apps that are currently making the rounds in the world of digital marketing.
It allows brands to deliver “disappearing content,” which whips up the attention of its audiences due to the fact that the content won’t be recovered unless the audiences are quick to save it on their phones.
This kind of quality attention allows a lot of leeway for brands to play with: Promos, contests, behind-the-scenes reveal, and moment marketing.
Considering that even the White House and some NBA teams are using Snapchat in their digital marketing activities says a lot.
This trend allows digital marketers to craft content designed to tease and thrill audiences to action, a critical advantage, especially if it serves as the digital arm of a physical store.
Snapchat is one of the few trends that, when wielded correctly, can result to massive success.
Go Visual For Survival
Text-based digital content is starting to bore people.
It’s understandable because online users are used to consuming and digesting content as they scroll and swipe on their mobile screens.
This tendency led to an unprecedented increase of users and activity in visual-centric sites such as Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest.
This is a critical digital marketing trend to ride on, considering that everything happens in a snap in the online world.
It’s time to accompany text content with visuals that bring your content to life or dish out beautiful and understandable infographics most users can appreciate.
Successfully executing visual content integration into your digital marketing activities is a great way to keep your brand alive and relevant in the coming years.
Digital Marketing Trends
A dedicated digital marketer won’t ignore or scoff at these seven trends, for they show what the future holds.
Make sure you’re on top of things, aware of the truths about digital marketing, and ready for changes by giving credence to these trends and preparing accordingly.
Which of these seven are you going to implement?
image credits: StockSnap via Pixabay, FirmBee via Pixabay, splitshire.com via Pexels, Foundry via Pixabay, StartupStockPhotos via Pixabay, via Maurizio Pesce Flickr Creative Commons, and FirmBee via Pixabay
