2013 is drawing to a close, which means it’s high time to take stock of the online marketing strategies of most importance this year and those to keep an eye on going into 2014. Opinions of course differ as to what will be the number-one strategy to follow next year, but the general consensus reached between the world’s leading marketing experts point to the following examples as crucial for 2014:
Social is Everything
There are plenty of ways and means by which a marketer get a message out in the wild. However, organic growth has been singled out as the most important of all to follow over the coming years, which pretty much explains why social media focus is more important than ever before. In order for a site or service to grow organically, it needs to be shared between audience members to an extent social media is better suited to do that than any other marketing tool.
A well-target promotion can see the social media page of a business earn hundreds, maybe thousands of new followers practically overnight – all of whom are likely to refer others to join up. The power of social media for organic traffic is simply staggering – over the next few years alone, businesses are on average expected to spend around a quarter of their entire marketing budgets on social media – a clear illustration of its still-growing importance and power.
Focus on Sharing the Best Content
Every single shred of content you produce has its own level of value – it is this value that will determine its success or otherwise. This is precisely why the secret to a successful future doesn’t mean more content, but rather content that’s actually more relevant and likely to strike a chord with those reading it.
This is why it is so crucial going into 2014 to keep a constant watch over trends as they shift, events as they unfold and seasons as they change – your content needs to be as contemporary and relevant as possible to win anyone over. Chances are you won’t be making the news, which is what makes it important to focus on the content and news already out there that’s of most value to your niche and your readers.
What’s more, it’s also a very good idea to keep some content of a timeless nature to one side in order to fill the gaps here and there when there’s really nothing happening.
Mobile Madness
To say that the world is making a rapid transition to mobile technology would be the year’s biggest understatement. Taking America as an example of a Western nation – over 90% of the public has a mobile phone, well over half operate Smartphones and over a third have tablet PCs. What’s more, the overwhelming majority of those that own neither intend to buy one or both by the end of next year.
Technically therefore it isn’t easy to work out how crucial mobile is to your online marketing strategy going forward. Mobile isn’t a fad and nor is it a niche – it’s a full blown revolution you need to make sure you’re a part of.
This means getting on-board from the earliest possible stage with fully mobile compatible content, dedicated mobile apps, special offers and deals for mobile customers, notification services and more.
Better Formatted Emails
And to round off this introductory list, the time has very much come to rethink and rework your email marketing strategy. Tens of billions of marketing emails are sent every single year, of which most are pretty low in value. Why? Simple really – their respective senders haven’t optimised or formatted then in a way that converts. These days, over half of all emails are viewed by way of mobile devices and, of these, less than 11% are actually opened and read, compared to the 24% read on standard PCs and laptops.
What this shows is a the stark need for more mobile-friendly emails that are formatted to be as appealing as possible on all devices, as opposed to standard PCs that are declining in numbers at record-pace.
About The Author
Rocky John Tayaban is the managing director of iSolutions Media, a search engine marketing firm with headquarter in the Philippines. Follow Rocky on Twitter: @SmartOnlinePros to receive tips and updates on all the latest in search engine marketing.