After 2013, digital marketing in 2014 will be an interesting and fascinating year in the industry. Digital marketing isn’t brand new anymore, we’ve had time to process and analyze what works and what doesn’t. From this year’s real-time marketing with Oreo to the expansion of native advertising, 2014 is sure to be full of innovation in the digital marketing community. Here is what you can expect to see more of in the coming year:
Diversified social media
Social isn’t brand new anymore. Every brand has a social strategy and most companies have established their social media marketing plans, but now it has to be elevated. It’s not just about followers and retweets but about engaging with your followers in new ways that keep them interested in your social content in new ways. Whether this means branching out to new social networks or focusing more on real-time marketing, it will be fun to watch how brands and organizations stay relevant in social for 2014.
Remarketing will expand
We’ve slowly seen retargeted ads appearing over the past few years, especially in 2013. Remarketing has proven to be a valuable tool, especially for digital retailers. Having the ability to reintroduce your consumer to your product or service repeatedly is an incredible way to increase sales and business and in 2014 these remarketing efforts will become more effective and widespread.
Central focus on content marketing
Content marketing allows brands to build and establish a reputation in their industry. If your organization is able to produce valuable content that your audience actually engages with and cares about, you’re on the right track. For 2014, inbound marketing via content is going to become a central focus. In the past year, content marketing spend rose 9% and will continue to rise through 2014. Users are quickly catching on to which content matters and what doesn’t, so brands will have to elevate their content strategy across multiple channels to keep users engaged.
Digital personalities
Going along with diversified social media, brands have recently started to develop personalities, especially for consumer brands. For example check out one of our local favorites, Hamburger Helper’s Twitter account. Using a unique voice and theme throughout each post, actually responding to their audience-it all helps increase brand affinity. Although this may not work with B2B as well, it will certainly start to increase in consumer brands.
Mobile, mobile, mobile
It’s been on the rise over the past 5 years, but 2014 is turning out to be the year for mobile marketers. If your site isn’t mobile optimized, you can throw mobile business out the window. Everyone has a smart phone and this will only increase throughout 2014. According to Search Engine Watch, 46% of users use mobile exclusively as a primary research tool and this will also increase as the year goes on and organizations improve their mobile abilities.
What do you see as an emerging trend in 2014? Ready to take on these responsibilities in a new digital marketing role? Check out our openings and apply today!
Are you looking to add the right people to keep up with these trends? We can help!
