Entrepreneurs have fared well with 2014’s online marketing trends. With an emphasis on image-centric content, social media expansion, and mobile-friendly websites, the labor to create online marketing ads and their content has become more streamlined.
2014 was expected to be the year of content marketing as a strategy. Although many companies employed it, content marketing hasn’t been as wildly successful as many observers had predicted.
Measuring the outcome of these marketing strategies — which is to say, the ROI (return on investment) — has also been difficult. It’s difficult to discern a direct, positive correlation between content that gets clicked on and consumer investments in a company’s products or services.
Focusing content marketing
Although content marketing is still big, the smaller snippets used for ads and content have become more focused. These micro-ads can generate a substantial impact for a relatively small amount of time. The reduced attention span of many users on the Internet tends to call for faster, simpler content.
Other marketing platforms are returning to the playing field as ways to deliver digestible content that seems to be effective in producing measurable results. Marketing through the Internet is a multibillion-dollar industry and is continuing to increase.
The first thing to evaluate if you’re a company hoping to implement or alter its current online marketing strategy is your web host. A good web host will automatically create value for a campaign by increasing website speed and uptime.
Consider some of the changes that have occurred in online marketing over the course of the year and what seems to be working versus what is clearly not working.
- Email. Email runs the gamut when it comes to trends in online marketing strategy. A successful email marketing campaign is contingent upon relevant content directed at users and a working opt-out function. Companies get caught if they have opt-out functionality that doesn’t tie into email marketing platforms, or data that gets dropped accidentally. Enough complaints about unwanted emails that users can’t get rid of will lead to a firm getting blacklisted, and could even result in legal action.
Email campaigns that serve a purpose and are released only sparingly can still be highly successful. Click-through rates are still positive, and emails are a great way to connect individually with the client. According to Brittany Warnock of Bluehost.com, “Email marketing presents a unique opportunity to engage and impress customers in ways that social media simply can’t mimic.”
- Social media. Social media will continue to grow and evolve, however. The interesting thing about it is that a variety of strategies can work in this sector. How a company chooses to play the social media game will depend on the target market, the industry, and the message the firm wants to send. It also depends on the person who uses it. Employing the platform that makes sense for the company will make or break a social media strategy. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the powerhouses when it comes to social media campaigns.However, effective marketing through these sites rarely involves a straight line to increased revenue. Instead, they work to increase overall exposure, drive traffic, and furnish information about target markets.
- Visual Marketing. Visual marketing will likely take its place as a powerful and popular tool as 2015 draws near. Snippets of information received through video have the potential to reach millions of viewers in a matter of hours. Funny, poignant, and relatable content has the ability to embed itself in users’ minds in a way that textual information can’t. Often, promoting a brand involves trying to relate feelings that are hard to describe in words, but an expression or a sequence of visual cues will take root in the minds of the audience and make an impact. Think about the ASPCA commercials. They are not pleasant to watch. In fact, they are quiet sad and heart breaking.However, they are familiar to almost anyone who watches network television. There’s no need to qualify some visual information, because it is so prevalent in society. That’s powerful psychology for brand promotion.
Image marketing, including infographics, is also a powerful and compact way to send a marketing message. Sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr are wildly popular because of the appeal of image marketing. The ability to choose content to explore based on a visually appealing image is easy and natural for web users at every level of experience.
- Blogging. The impact of blogging as an online marketing strategy is measurable. Blogs have an undeniable ability to sway purchasing decisions. The inclusion of infographics and multimedia in a blog creates an opportunity to convey a significant amount of information to consumers in a casual and relevant forum. A blog can display the personality of your company; or it can provide information so consumers feel they are able to make educated purchasing decisions.
Blogging also builds your company’s reputation. Having expertise available on a blog provides peace of mind for consumers looking for quality and a firm they can trust.
