Digital marketing, the "umbrella term for all of your online marketing efforts,” as Hubspot affectionately refers to it, is a top priority for businesses who are serious about growth. Since the early 2000s, it's become a mainstream tool in the marketing toolkit. It can work for any type of business, in any industry.
So what's the current buzz in the world of digital marketing? Keep reading: we're going to break it down for you.
Marketing Automation
Defined by our friends over at Wikipedia as:“a reference to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks”…marketing automation software is starting to gain traction in the business world. Companies are realizing that their marketing teams need the right tools to be successful. The latest systems provide a myriad of marketing tools all in a single package: analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), key word analysis, nurture sequences, social media integration and robust reporting. Now, a single person can do what it used to take entire teams to accomplish.
Coupled with the right strategy, marketing automation can help companies generate both better qualified, and significantly more leads. The smart use of software can drive down a company’s cost of sale in a significant way, and expand market reach much faster than some older methods of client acquisition.
The Rise of Mobile
The growing popularity of mobile internet browsing has opened an entirely new avenue of access to clients for smart companies. Smartphones like the iPhone and Android have made it simpler than ever to find and buy new products and services. Google recently published a staggering statistic that more searches occur on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries, including the US and Japan, the two most technologically advanced countries in the world.
It’s also easier than ever now to get through to consumers via mobile. Much of the desktop-user population uses Ad Blocker and never even see the advertisements that, three or four years ago, seemed to penetrate every nook and cranny of the Internet. Ads on mobile are now smarter than ever, and thanks to impressive analytics, we only see what big conglomerates like Google think we want to see (and most of the time, they’re right). Think about it this way: if a company doesn’t have a mobile marketing strategy in place in this digital marketing day and age, they are being left behind by their competitors and likely losing money.
Content is King
Content is still King, said Bill Gates twenty years ago. And he is still right. There is no debate. Human beings are content driven creatures—we feed off of stories, or anything with which we can cultivate a connection. And the digital world has only made the story telling process easier. After all, you're reading this on our blog right now, aren’t you?
There is one thing that computers can't do quite yet, and that is content creation. Google’s Deep Mind Project has the goal of creating an program that is able to learn and will eventually augment and replace human creativity and intelligence, but it is purportedly, years away. In a world where big data and content rules, that's something to consider (read: we're still relevant for the time being).
Content curation hasn’t slowed down and seems as if it will only continue growing. The rise of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, coupled with self publishing platforms such as Wordpress and video sharing platforms like YouTube are driving the proliferation of content in a chaotic manner. Publishing has become so easy, that everyone with a thought has started to publish. Breaking through the noise of junk content can only happen by developing a unique and insightful voice across channels. The axiom is changing to quality content is king.
Content drives purchases. Most purchasing decisions start online—e.g. do we like this? Do we like that? And shareable content is even more important today than ever before. It is the digital version of word of mouth that used to sell products in the golden days before the internet. It is incredibly easy to share a piece of content that we like and shared content drives sales like never before.
The current state of digital marketing has a lot of defining factors, but marketing automation, increased digital use, and the understanding that content remains King are all important pieces of the puzzle if you want to continue on the path to marketing success. For the foreseeable future, the influence of digital marketing will only continue to increase and businesses that want to remain competitive will have to work towards optimizing their digital strategies.
Can-Do Ideas is a Digital Marketing agency specializing in Inbound Marketing and Inbound Sales. We are located in New York City and Connecticut.
