Late last year, I made some predictions for online marketing in 2014. If you missed that post, you can read it here. Given the clear shift toward inbound marketing methods, I considered how trends in SEO, social media, and content marketing were likely to impact businesses over the coming year.
As we’re around the mid-way point of 2014, I thought it would be useful to evaluate how my predictions fared: what I got right, and what I got….well, wrong.
Following are the seven online marketing predictions I made, and how they compare with what we’re seeing so far this year.
Prediction #1: Content Marketing Will Be Bigger Than Ever
In my original article, I predicted that content marketing – using valuable content to attract customers and clients, and to gain authority and trust – was the way forward for businesses in 2014. Using blog posts, newsletters, social media, videos and other inbound marketing techniques, businesses can build relationships, authority and trust with their audience; and ultimately, increase sales.
Midway through 2014, we’re still seeing budgets shifted away from traditional marketing methods like TV and magazine ads, and towards inbound marketing strategies. However, according to a study by Forrester Research, businesses are struggling with achieving business results through their content marketing strategy. In fact, only 14% of businesses reported that their strategy was ‘very effective’.
Businesses also continue to struggle with measuring the ROI of their content marketing campaigns, making company-wide support for the strategy a particular pain point for online marketers in 2014. Businesses need to continue to find ways to tie their content marketing in with their overall business goals, in order to measure and prove its effectiveness within the wider goals of the organization.
Finally, a lack of education may be at least partly to blame for content marketing not reaching its potential in some organizations. According to Aaron Kahlow, founder of the Online Marketing Institute, lack of trained personnel is a significant roadblock: “There simply aren’t enough trained content marketers to do the leg work. But the imperative for education is here and seen across the board, from entry level to CMO.”
Prediction #2: Social Media Marketing Will Require More Diversity
In my previous article, I suggested that businesses would increasingly use a variety of social networking platforms – not just Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. With new platforms coming out of the woodwork every few months, businesses are constantly needing to evaluate which ones are the best use of their time and budget.
When deciding which platforms to invest in, it’s important to determine where your target market is active, and also which ones your competitors are using successfully. According to Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, the usual culprits still lead the pack in terms of popularity among businesses: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are still the most commonly used platforms among marketers.
Keep in mind that while you should have a presence on at least one of these three networks, using a smaller network – if it’s well-suited to your audience or business – can potentially result in a greater ROI. Continue to test and measure your company’s effectiveness on each platform to determine which ones will help you best achieve your goals.
Prediction #3: Image-Centric Content Will Rule
With 70% of marketers recently reporting that they planned on increasing their use of images in 2014, image-centric content is becoming a central part of most marketing plans. Using attractive and well-placed images within your blog and social media posts, as well as using infographics to drive traffic and build inbound links, are both now common practices among businesses who understand the importance of images.
Businesses looking to reach certain demographics – such as women and teens – will need to continue to expand their presence on visually based social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
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