Marketers are shifting their digital priorities to social and mobile channels in 2015. They are focusing more on measuring the success of various mediums and then exploring the best option available. Revenue growth is the most important metric to measure success, followed by metrics that focus and highlights consumer satisfaction. The marketing scenario has drastically changed from what it was last year.
In context of market trends that are catching up fast, here are the 4 keynotes that will help you improve your digital status in 2015 and beyond:
Create an amazing consumer journey: Every individual has a distinct personality which influences how they interact with your brand messages and how they perceive your brand on the basis of your actions and preferences. A study revealed that 86% marketers believe that it is critical to create a consistent consumer journey to win brand loyalists. This can be done by finding answers to questions like: What are the best channels to reach your audience? What are the factors – positive and negative – that have influenced your consumers? What metrics should you use to measure this information?
Examining brand communication keeping in mind a consumer’s perspective will help you create a smoother consumer journey. You can equip your strategy with mobile applications, marketing automation and CRM tools to track as well as optimize engagement to enhance the consumer journey.
Mobile Marketing is an essential: Mobile marketing is on the up and up because it provides an unprecedented opportunity to marketers to reach their consumers. It is predicted that mobile phone penetration will rise from 61.1% to 69.4% of the global population this year, you cannot ignore mobile as a potential marketing platform. Further, 58% of marketers have a dedicated mobile marketing team, 68% have integrated mobile marketing into their overall strategy and 61% say the integration is very effective.
Not having visibility on mobile or a mobile strategy can pose a challenge in creating a personalised cross-channel experience, bringing you into a minority-marketer segment. Integrating mobile with other channels and technologies has brought higher rates of success to both B2B and B2C businesses. Hence, optimizing your content for mobile by updating landing pages, website, apps, social media and EDMs is a good idea to start with, followed by adapting mobile-friendly layouts.
Engage your audience via online social communities: Social media has been listed as a key revenue source by marketers. The medium has been promoted as a ‘critical enabler for product and services’ by 64% of marketers as compared to 25% in 2014. These figures are growth indicators for social media marketing and how successful it has been for brands.
The current times don’t need you to invest in all social media platforms. You can be choosy and select platforms that can bring you better ROI. For this, you need to know your audience and where they are actively involved. Various social media analytics tools can help you know your consumers and their habits better. Also, a lot of data is available on how consumers behave online, for example, weekends are a great option to announce something new on social media platforms since most consumers are online then. Analysing how your business and consumer engagement aligns with each other can help you a great deal in driving better engagements.
Think out-of-the-box about your outbox: Email marketing is also changing as mobile marketing is catching up fast. As a marketer you need to step into the consumer’s shoes to figure out how you can make the most of your email marketing strategy to win more customers. As of now, newsletters are given a considerable preference in a marketing plan, while they fall short on fulfilling expectations. On the other hand, mobile opt-in campaigns are used by only 26% marketers, in spite of it being the most effective and potent tool. Therefore, rethinking your email strategy is highly recommended.
Improvising the design aspect of your EDMs will also be a great step. Optimize them to be responsive so that they work on tablets and phones. Further, ensure that you don’t use your outbox too much to spam your audiences’ inbox. While you think like your consumer, try and determine how you would like to be engaged with your favourite brand before creating the content. Following these little tips can help you stay ahead of the curve in an evolving industry.
Change is the only constant, which also holds true for digital marketing. New trends and practices will evolve every year, just like new business development continues to be the most important business challenge. Knowing, understanding and implementing these trends in your marketing strategy can strengthen focus on the result oriented initiatives and prepare you for the changes waiting around the corner.
What are your key notes for 2015 and beyond? Share with us in the comments section.
