Social media is, as ever, a fickle beast; trends come, they go, and keeping on top of it all can have even the savviest online specialist tearing at their roots. To help you out, we’ve been hard at work poring over our crystal ball and plucking out the top marketing trends we predict will dominate the online marketing space in the year ahead. So, get a leg-up on the competition and join us as we dissect what we believe will be the biggest online marketing trends in 2015.
1. Dedicated mobile apps will become more important than ever
Throughout 2014, businesses have been scrambling to squeeze their sites onto mobile devices. As a result, we’ve seen an explosion in the number of responsive sites hitting the web. As we move towards 2015, however, simply shoehorning your site on to mobile devices is no longer going to cut it: businesses need to start investing in bespoke mobile apps, as well as unique mobile-optimized content. Why? Well, for one, Google has begun to emphasise sites that go the extra mile on mobile, shuffling them up their web rankings based on how mobile-friendly they are.
2. Email marketing will make a comeback
With Facebook making it harder than ever for companies to make themselves heard, and search engines befuddling business owners and marketers with their increasingly complex ranking algorithms, we predict many companies will renew their focus on email marketing in 2015. Used alongside content marketing, streamlined email messaging is a great way to re-purpose older content and draw in new business. Getting consumers to buy your goods off the back of an email is difficult, but businesses that use email to build a rapport and relationship with clients, as opposed to squeezing them for a quick buck, are already showing great results.
3. Content marketing is key
Hailed by many an online marketer as the “new SEO”, content marketing is quickly becoming a go-to strategy, already overtaking PPC, SEO and social media. Studying how your audience consumes content is key, so make sure you’re tailoring content to fit your chosen platform and not alienating your audience. So exhaustive, in-depth articles for desktop sites, and short-form, visually striking ones for mobile.
