Six digital marketing trends to watch out for in 2014

1. Six Digital Marketing Trends
to watch out for in 2014
As the curtains slowly come down on 2013, most companies are looking back and seeing what’s
worked for them and what’s not. One of the most critical changes in the marketing strategy over
the past few years has been in digital.
It is useful to look into some of the big trends slated for next year, to decide if it is worthwhile
incorporating them in the larger marketing plan.
1. Better targeted online content will drive better branding:
Statistics point that 92% of companies that blog multiple times a
day have gained customers through their blog. Companies have
been increasingly engaging with consumers, gaining their trust
and establishing their brands by generating valuable marketing
content and disseminating them through various forms of media.
This involves relevant industry information provided at regular
intervals, and content that is interesting and genuinely useful or
informative to the audience. This allows the company to build a
strong relationship with the consumer and also ensures loyalty to the brand.
Email is still very big in India, and email marketing is likely to dominate the online marketing mix.
Blogging, newsletters, case studies and educational videos are other very popular tools. On
developing consistent, positive content, the company is able to build a steady reputation and
perception within the industry. In addition, online content gives a better targeted reach to the
marketer compared to TV or radio, which are not only more expensive but are also less
effective.

2. 2. Better use of mobile marketing:
India has overtaken Japan as the third largest smart phone
market in the world. This is indicative of the weightage
mobile marketing should carry in the marketing mix Another
interesting statistic to consider is that 70% of the consumers
use their smart phone for social networking, and most of the
users are under the age of 35. With so much of information
readily available, it is essential to tap the market, especially
with mobile marketing being far more cost effective for the
advertiser than any other traditional form of media.
Companies should increasingly make their websites and all
other content platforms responsive, to enable easy reading
on smart phones. Besides, it pays to remember that mobile
consumer analytics is not limited to consumers who have high-end smart phones. A majority of
regular feature phones have GPS programmes that can transmit location data, today.
3. Increase in geo-targeting and location based consumer services:
Geo-targeting and location based consumer
services is another big component that will see
a rise in digital marketing in 2014. The simple
fact of a user being physically close to a
business, within a two mile radius gives a
significant rise to click-through rates on mobile
banner ads. Geo-targeting has gone beyond
consumer-facing apps like ‘checking-in’ through
Foursquare. Advertisers can now reach a much
larger audience with much more relevant
messaging. They can use location patterns with
existing customer data to deliver prospects
custom messages at the right time by serving unique, relevant, time-targeted offers based on
shopping patterns, consumer segmentations and travel patterns. Through tools like Google
AdWords the targeting data has become richer, layered and more nuanced. This is especially
true in stores, where higher footfalls can be achieved through simple location targeting.
Marketers can get actionable insights which help to make informed brand decisions.

3. 4. The dominance of image centric social media sites:
Companies will go beyond Facebook and Twitter and explore new
social media sites like Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Google+
has nearly 360 million monthly users already, and is the second
largest network after Facebook. There are video services too
beyond YouTube, like Vine and Instagram Video which are ideal
for short and crisp content and a very inexpensive way of sharing
data. Images engage better and with increasing mobile
bandwidth this will aid targeted communication better.
5. Hashtags will become a leading search tool:
Everybody knows what a hashtag is and how it has become a part of
contemporary culture; they are an efficient method to find content
related to specific topics. Just as searches are conducted on platforms
other than Google, Bing, and Yahoo, search also happens on social
platforms. People search every day on Pinterest, Twitter, Google+,
Instagram, YouTube, and other social platforms using words and hashtags
with success. As a sign of things to come, Google has increased the
visibility of hashtag searches on its search engine as well.
6. Data gets bigger, but less is more:
The amount of data brands collect today from various
channels including social media, email and mobile is
enormous. Companies can easily lose their way trying to
sift through this mind-boggling amount of information and
pay enormous sums to interpret it. Most of the time, they
use very little of what is deciphered in studying the
consumer habits.
While the debate about privacy invasion rages, big data is a reality and is here to stay, and even
though the devil lies in the detail; sometimes it pays to keep the devil at bay. Use what you need
and disregard the rest.
Less is always more.

4. Spatial Access, an audit & advisory company provides Digital Audit as part of its Media Audit
Services. This involves an assessment of the marketers’ digital media investment by measuring
the effectiveness of what was planned versus delivered and benchmarking costs against market
best.
Do get in touch with Nikhil [nikhil@spatialaccess.com] for further details.