The Internet has drastically altered the way in which information is shared, and has had a profound impact
on marketing. Over the past few years, there has been more of a shift toward inbound techniques, while
many outbound tactics have become antiquated. More businesses are finding success publishing original
content rather than embedding advertisements within external content, because of the additional benefits
these tactics offer, such as branding and audience growth.
With these trends in mind, let’s discuss my predictions for the top online marketing trends of 2014.
1. Content Marketing Will be Bigger Than Ever
One of the main ways that companies are establishing authority and gaining trust with consumers is by
consistently creating valuable content through a variety of channels. This typically involves relevant
industry information that provides insight or entertainment to an audience. Doing so allows a company to
steadily build rapport with its demographic and develop a loyal following. According to the Content
Marketing Institute, the top B2B content marketing strategies are social media, articles on a business’s
website, Testimonials, videos and articles on other websites.
By using one or more of these channels, businesses are able to build a positive reputation within their
industry. This trend suggests that marketing to the masses through techniques like television ads and radio
ads are becoming less effective. Instead, it’s better to concentrate on inbound marketing, by producing
valuable, engaging content designed for a specific audience. 
2. Social Media Marketing Will Require More Diversity
Just a few years ago, businesses were limited with regard to the social media networks they could
implement into their marketing campaigns, with the biggies including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Now, it seems like new social media sites are appearing all the time. While some never really get off the
ground, others like Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr and Instagram have surged in popularity and have provided
businesses with a plethora of new options that allow them to produce engaging content in a variety of
media forms and build their audiences across more channels than ever before.
Consequently, it has become common for businesses to branch out and experiment with multiple networks
with the aim of reaching the maximum amount of consumers. This diversification seems to prove fruitful
for many companies because it often builds brand equity by making it easier for consumers to recognize a
particular brand. For help figuring out which social media networks are right for your business, Contact us
At OnTopBiz.com 602-714-1287
3. Image-Centric Content Will Rule
As consumers are hit with an increasing number of advertisements, it’s becoming more important to make
content easily and quickly digestible. If you look at the social media sites I mentioned previously that are
on the rise, three of the four have a common characteristic…they place an emphasis on images. The rapid
rise to success of Buzzfeed and Pintrest are testaments to the power and viral potential of image-based
content.
Successful blog posts that receive the most social shares also usually have a common characteristic: they
pepper in some well-placed pictures to break content up and emphasize certain points. Another example is
infographics, which combine images with a minimal amount of text to explain a topic and provide
statistical information or data from research studies.
While I doubt that traditional text-based content will ever completely go out of style, it’s pretty clear that
incorporating images is beneficial to a marketing campaign.
4. Less Will be More
One notable trend is the apparent shift in consumer preference regarding simplistic marketing messages
instead of in-depth messages. When you think about some of the top brands in the world like Apple and
Google, they clearly value simplicity. A large part of Pinterest’s appeal is its clean, uncluttered, and
minimalist aesthetic.
With many consumers feeling burned out by a constant barrage of information and advertisements that
scream “look at me”, some of the most innovative marketers are going the opposite direction. The’re now
making efforts to tone-down their campaign messages and not overwhelm consumers with hype.
Perhaps an article by Forbes said it best: “there is a sense that from the hyper-connectivity of our highly-
digitized lives to the bright, flashy, complicated sensory input we’re fed everyday, there is no way to
continue at this pace. As a result, 2015 is likely to be a year where the most successful marketing strategies
will be ones that are not only simple in nature, but promote goods and services that serve to simplify the
consumer’s life, or even just their customer experience.”
5. Mobile-Friendly Content Will Be Necessary
Due to the widespread (and quickly growing) use of smartphones and tablets, it’s necessary for companies
to create content that’s accessible to mobile users. According to Forbes, “87% of connected devices sales
by 2018 will be tablets and smartphones.” Whether it’s creating an alternate mobile version of a website or
utilizing responsive web design, it’s important to provide a positive experience to users that are browsing
via a mobile device. OnTop BIz offers mobile friendly sites as well as custom Mobile Apps!
Otherwise, it’s easy to lose customers to competitors who have adapted to this trend. As the shift from
traditional PCs and laptops to mobile devices continues, businesses that aren’t onboard are likely to suffer.
6. Ad Retargeting Will Grow in Effectiveness
This is a marketing strategy that has really caught on recently. In a nutshell, it works by utilizing browser
cookies to track the websites that users visit. Once they leave a certain site, the products or services they
viewed will be shown to them again in advertisements across different websites.
It’s fairly obvious as to why this technique can be so effective. With only two percent of web traffic
converting on the first visit, ad retargeting works to increase the overall conversion rate by reminding
consumers of the product or service they viewed. This keeps the brand and the product at the top of the
consumer’s mind. There are even psychological studies that have shown that simple exposure to brand
names and logos creates familiarity, which builds trust and makes consumers more likely to make a
purchase.
Even if there’s no immediate purchase, this can really pay off in the long run. Due to the success that many
marketers have had with ad retargeting, there’s a good chance that it will become more mainstream in
2015
7. SEO and Social Signals Will Become Even More Intertwined
Although social signals still don’t typically carry the same weight as traditional inbound links, it’s pretty
undeniable that they play a role in organic search rankings these days. After all, they’re one of the three
pillars of SEO. Since the goal of Google and other search engines is to provide users with the most relevant
and highest quality content possible, it makes sense why they would factor in the number of social shares
that a blog post, article or product page receives.
The more people that are sharing a piece of content, the higher quality it’s likely to be, and therefore its
position should increase within the search engine results pages. It’s no coincidence that the top-ranking
search results tends to have lots of social shares, while those ranked lower have fewer.
Besides this, social shares can serve as a stamp of approval (ie, a trust signal) for visitors landing on a page.
If they see that it has hundreds or thousands of shares, it’s likely that there’s something of value. That’s a
big reason why so many businesses are installing social share plugins and encouraging consumers to share
as much as possible.
While it’s difficult to predict algorithms, it will evolve in the future, there’s a reasonable chance that social
shares will match or even outweigh traditional inbound links by the end of 2014.
Conclusion
There you have it, my predictions for the top seven online marketing trends of Content Marketing Tips Mesa Arizona Business 2015.
