Top 3 Areas of Focus for This Year’s Marketing Strategy
When it comes to digital marketing, it is a constant and ever changing phenomenon. It’s kind of like that saying about weather in the Midwest; if you don’t like it, stick around, it’s bound to change! And we saw plenty of change this past year. We thought it would be fun to recap some of the greatest and most significant changes and innovations that impacted our world of digital marketing in 2015.
Content Is Still King: Perhaps this isn’t really a change or innovation, but it merits a mention. Relevant, original content continues to be an important factor in a business’s digital presence. Unfortunately, the smaller to mid-size business owner tends to let content fall off the back of the proverbial truck. Google’s algorithm updates keep proving to us how important content really is (see below). If you want to be found in search results or populate better in social media, you better have original, relevant content. Think: white papers, blogs, infographics, etc.
Facebook Beacons: This was an interesting move by Facebook. Provide free hardware to local businesses, to help marketers better measure their campaign results. In other words, Facebook will be able to tell if someone shows up at a location after seeing the ad. The implications are incredible, when it comes to data collection. The value of this data far outweighs the cost of the free hardware. Now we just need businesses need to get on board and start using them!
Instagram Marketing: You could almost hear the collective cheers from the digital marketing world when Instagram announced they would be offering marketing solutions for businesses. This is a fast growing social platform, and the ability to market to its users is really exciting. According to an article from Social Media Examiner, 44% of 18-29-year-old Internet users access Instagram, so if this is an audience that has eluded you in the past, Instagram could be your answer. As a bonus, Facebook made it easy by allowing you to add Instagram to the placements when running an ad. It will be exciting to see the metrics as this social media marketing platform develops.
Google “Mobile-geddon” Update (and that other update we didn’t see coming): Oh Google, you certainly keep us on our toes! In April, Google sent a clear message: if you aren’t mobile, specifically, “responsive” when it comes to your website, fuhgettaboutit, your site will be left in the dust when it comes to search results. So while businesses and their agencies were scrambling to get their sites updated, less than a month later the “phantom” update hit. Informational type websites like Wikepedia, HubPages and a slew of smaller sites with similar content got whacked! The data came back that sites that had “thin” content, or irrelevant content got hit the hardest. Some saw a decrease in Google traffic of up to 22%! Meanwhile, the April update had little to no effect for most websites. Thanks, Google.
We are looking forward to an exciting 2016 and all that the digital marketing world will be serving up! Happy Holidays! If you want to learn more about any of the above items and the best way to integrate it into your business, contact g2 media pros, and let’s make 2016 your best year yet.
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