1. Voice Search’s Impact on SEO
According to those clever bastards over at Moz, more users are using voice search to find information. Voice assistants like Siri, Alexa and Cortana are getting more usage than ever. What’s interesting is how voice search will affect pay-per-click advertising and search campaigns. It was found that queries using voice search were far longer than traditional text queries. Queries were also conversational in nature. This means that marketers that are running pay-per-click or SEO campaigns need to optimize for the behaviors of users that use voice search.
2. Advanced Tracking and Testing for Content Marketing
Content marketing has established itself as an essential strategy over the last few years. ShutterStock predicts that companies will soon apply advanced testing and tracking measures to identify the content that was responsible for enabling sales. This means that analyzing and managing a CRM system will become more sophisticated and challenging. But with this level of tracking, companies could go as far as tracking the content that leads to a personal sales meeting. If your digital marketing team is not heavily invested in advanced tracking and remarketing, you should ask them why, or show them the door. That’s harsh, definitely ask them why first. Don’t be mean.
3. Increased Spending on Social Media Advertising
While social media advertising channels like Facebook has proven to perform for many digital marketers, it is still poised for more growth. Marketers are still trying to figure out how to advertise on sites like LinkedIN and Twitter, and many social platforms are still yet to offer advertising programs. To top it all off, Facebook has launched remarketing not too long ago (remember that thing we just said about remarketing? It was like one second ago, how did you forget? Ugh). Marketers will figure out how to make social media advertising effective and may even shift their budgets to social channels from search channels.
4. Search Will Heavily Favor Mobile Results
Google is starting to shift their results more towards mobile friendly websites and listings. This only reflects the increasing usage of mobile devices. While desktop search engine usage has only dropped marginally in the last two years, it seems that it will continue to drop off year after year. This means that businesses need to adapt and make sure their websites are mobile friendly and are putting more emphasis on mobile marketing. If your site isn’t mobile friendly by now, you’re losing money. Straight up get that fixed yesterday. Go right now and fix it and then come back for prediction #5. It will still be here, but the business you’re losing might not be. Go!
5. The Rise of Influencer Marketing
Influencers have a strong impact on consumers. They are the ones that consumers trust for product and service recommendations, reviews and comparisons. Brands are starting to recognize this and are figuring out how to work with influencers and use their credibility and authority to support the brand’s growth. While a big opportunity is there, it will pose to be challenging as consumers are wary of fake reviews and corporate sponsorships. Influencer marketing is a grind. You reach out to influencers, you get rejected or ignored a lot, but you have to keep trying. One good relationship can make a huge impact on your business. In the end, success will always be about relationships. Someone famous has probably already said that. I’m not looking it up. Let’s just assume I thought of it.
