With 2014 finally in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to look to the year ahead and discuss some must-have online marketing strategies that we believe will rule the roost in 2015.
As we’ve previously mentioned, the marketing world moves at a breakneck pace; especially in the internet-age, where changes and advancements arrive on an almost daily basis. For every exciting new innovation that rears its head, ten more disappear overnight, which makes keeping ahead of the curve a daunting task.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
With social media on the decline, it’s time to think about expanding your marketing strategies to include search engines and search engine advertising. By now, we hope, everyone is familiar with the ins and outs of SEO. If not, it’s high-time you jumped on the bandwagon and started stocking your site with high quality, keyword rich content. However, remember that the focus is on quality not quantity: over-stuffing your site with keywords will only dilute your focus.
Social media
Although social media has become less useful to small and medium-sized businesses since Facebook and Twitter made sweeping changes to the way they handle advertising, they are still important tools in the online marketer’s arsenal. As a result of these changes, it’s more difficult than ever to make yourself heard on social media sites. With that in mind, rein in your efforts, concentrating on two, maybe three, platforms at most. Make sure you’re marketing to the right audience by researching each platform thoroughly; just because Facebook and Twitter are popular doesn’t necessarily mean they are the right fit for your brand.
Meme marketing
The meme machine has been churning out eminently shareable content for years now. Recently, marketers have started taking advantage of this unique online phenomenon, harnessing the power of the meme (pronounced meem) to produce cheap, effective viral marketing material that uses humour to entertain and inform an audience. Memes are easy to create, and one of the best ways to engage users through social media. Just remember to keep it clean; offensive or otherwise inappropriate material will draw plenty of attention, just not the kind of attention you want.
