If you’ve been watching trends from the last decade or so, then you know that success in the world of marketing can be fickle at best. Increasingly, these trends are being shaped and guided by the latest technology that’s available to the public. Here are 5 trends in marketing for 2013 that will help promote your business.
1. The Mobile Screen Value
Image via Flickr by okalkavan
Simply put, the marketing world is on fire with the seemingly limitless prospects of mobile technology. It’s estimated that 75 percent of the globe has access to a mobile device. Subsequently, marketers must not underestimate how important it is to reach these new devices with their brands and for their clients.
Last year saw a huge push in making websites mobile-friendly. This year, the next step is to offer value in a customized mobile app format. Last year was about ease of use and searching options, but this year the value must come in the form of new information, consumables, and use of resources.
2. Attribution Tracking
Analytics have allowed us to measure success in a variety of ways. These packages and solutions will undoubtedly evolve even as they continue to focus on how marketing is measured and modified. Assigning a value to various marketing actions and identifying how leads become conversions is critical, but we’ve also identified a myopic acceptance of valuing the last click.
Realizing that there’s more complexity has led to improved attribution modeling. The analytics providers will continue to innovate what they are offering, and make them more available to marketers in the future. For additional assistance, visit the official MediaWhiz page.
3. Playing the Game
Having grown up with Nintendos, Playstations and XBoxes, gaming is now second nature to a significant portion of society. There’s an ease-of-use and an engaging component to what game-makers offer. The trend is to take these elements of gaming and integrate them into non-game applications.
This leads to easy-to-use platforms, which consumers appreciate and are drawn to. It even makes the process more “fun” which has affected the direction many products are taking. The value of an engaged user can’t be second guessed, making this a marketing strategy that must be implemented.
4. Inbound Marketing
Social marketing has grown to the point where it plays a central role in most marketing strategies. The trend now is toward investing in a new kind of value. This is the “inbound marketing” strategy.
It requires more spend dollars on creating content, discussions and valuable resources that catch the interest of customers and luring them to your website without using paid marketing. Spend more on beautiful web designs, phenomenal content and gauge its success using inbound analytics. New software is bound to follow that will aid in your efforts.
5. Accessible Data
Complex data sets will need to be designed in easy to understand formats. This will make them more worth sharing. Big data took off last year, but it needs to be easier to follow. Marketers will have to employ new visualization software to feed the current hunger for data.
Trends don’t always last, of course. In the case of marketing, however, if you don’t pick up to them quickly, you’ll be behind when the next trend hits.
Marketing will keep evolving as we progress more and more in the digital age and as we keep scanning the limits and beyond of the digital horizon. As a marketer, it is not only important to follow basic and simple commonsense rules, and keep the frills out of the way, it is also important that a marketer stays updated with all the developments happening in the digital world to stay ahead of the competition. In the end, what a marketer knows, acquires and implements will decide the success of his marketing efforts.
To get ahead of the competition and stay there requires a lot of hard work, persistence, willingness to learn new things, and to try them out with diligence and dedication. 2013 may soon be over, but if a marketer keeps following these simple rules and applies them in his campaigns, there is no reason for him to fear 2014 and beyond.
About the Author
Shaun Chatman is a well published author on many authority sites. He lives in Dunedin, FL, and spends his free time playing with his kids or advising friends on tech, gadgets, finance and travel.