Let's be smart marketers. Smart marketers evaluate what works and where others are seeing success, so we did some digging to review 2014 and what's coming up in 2015. Here's what we found:
Putting dollars behind digital content and distribution is becoming increasingly important as a more technologically competent generation becomes the target consumer demographic.
- 68% of organizations have a separate digital marketing budget which averages about a quarter of their total marketing budget.
- 98% of companies said they intended to increase or maintain spending on digital in 2015.
- Digital advertising leads digital marketing spending in 2014, and is tied with mobile marketing for largest 2015 increase.
- 69% of companies are creating more content now than they did one year ago.
So where should you focus? Two major facets of digital strategy that are expected to be integral in 2015 digital marketing strategies are social and email.
Why Social in 2015?
Unbeatable Targeting: The targeting opportunities are vast in social with 73% of online adults actively using multiple social networking sites. With social, you can advertise to increasingly precise demographics and audiences making sure you're generating qualified leads. For those B2B nay-sayers, just remember that Linkedin is a major social network with over 300 million users. If you're not using social in your marketing strategy, it's time to start.
Mobile Access: 66% of time on social is spent on mobile, which is becoming extremely important to digital marketing. As mobile media consumption increases, marketers will continue to increase their mobile efforts. eMarketer says, "by 2018, mobile will account for more than 70% of digital ad spending."
Real-World ROI: 34% of marketers have experienced real ROI from their social efforts, and 88% are seeking ways to measure ROI. Having a socially competent marketing team or hiring an agency are two viable ways to get started. To produce more ROI from social, you need a strong strategy in place to drive measurable results. Starting with some key objectives and one or two social channels based on your target audience. Firming up a strategy even on a small scale can help maximize social resources.
- Marketers are using, on average, 7 social media platforms this year, compared with 6 last year
- 63% of marketers saw more of their budget being devoted to Social Media for the next year
Why Email in 2015?
It is Your Digital Core: Email is far from dead. In fact, 68% of marketers believe that email is core to their business and 66% of companies believe it to be the most effective tactic in their B2C strategy. Email serves as a critical enabler of products and services that your business provides.
Generate and Nurture Leads: Remember that email isn't used to just drive sales - it's important to inform recipients of ways their lives can be made easier. HubSpot reported that email marketing produced an above average rate of lead conversions for 27% of marketers in 2014. Many digital strategies, such as Inbound, are contingent upon email marketing and are proven to be effective.
Software Makes it Easy: Software that consolidates and streamlines the process of email marketing is a must. Key capabilities include great segmentation, A/B testing and automation.
Our favorite for basic email is MailChimp and HubSpot for those interested in lead capture and automation. Both of these scale well with the proper setup and management, but I always recommend evaluating which tools will best support your long-term marketing objectives.
Where to go from here.
Trendcasting for 2015 is relatively straightforward. Many of the challenges faced by companies can be solved by correctly utilizing and optimizing their digital strategies. Such challenges include growing profitable revenue, connecting with customers, and effectively measuring the success of initiatives.
Spend More in Social: 63% of marketers foresee more of their budget being devoted to social efforts in 2015. A major trend that is expected to emerge in 2015 is innovating the customer experience, with an average of 18% of companies' marketing expense budget spent to support this initiative already in 2014. Another challenge that 38% of marketers plan to address in 2015 is marketing automation.
Tighten Your Objectives and Connect Dots with Measurement: Many powerful marketing tools are available to us today. Maximize those with analysis and measurement. Proper system integration can draw a straight line from your activity to revenue, so that you can focus efforts on high ROI activity. Set up google analytics goals, always using tagged links, and let the tool do the analysis for you.
What Worked in 2014
Content marketing: Look at the interest in content marketing starting 2013.
We know that good content marketing will drive lead generation. Google users began to discover that in 2013 as success grew. Content marketing will create a strong backbone for social media, email and marketing automation efforts.
Social Presence and Activity: 93% of companies say social is the number one most used tactic in their content marketing initiative and 58% have received the most positive results from Facebook. Social media marketing has proven itself as a successful means of marketing for B2B and B2C companies alike.
Blogging: HubSpot found that marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI. Blogging as part of a content marketing strategy has been proven to be highly valuable for SEO optimization as well as engagement and many other facets of any strategy. 54% of companies believe blogs to be in the top five most effective digital marketing tactics.
Ebooks & Downloadable Content: Like blogging, Ebooks, Whitepapers, and Downloadable Content are surefire ways to increase content value and capture leads. These are a great way to optimize for SEO and also create calls-to-action that convert leads into potential sales. Gathering site visitor information by incentivizing your downloadable content creates real opportunity for lead conversion.
Data from late 2013 also mentioned marketers investing in email, social and marketing automation.
It's time to invest in digital marketing. Whether you're a small eCommerce business or a Fortune 500 conglomerate, regardless of whether you're B2B or B2C, digital is where it's at. Think you could use some help crafting and executing a digital strategy for 2015? Social Factor can be your sherpas. Have more questions? Let's talk today.