7 Marketing Changes to Expect this Year

Marketing changes are coming. For this year, digital marketing changes are sure to be a continuation of the recent trends toward mobile and location-centric technologies. The consumer is increasingly on-the-go and marketing strategists are set to continue to keep pace with shoppers as the year unfolds.

While there are certain marketing principles that never change, here’s a look at our top seven predictions for the changing landscape of marketing for this year:

Marketing Changes in Mobile

Mobile mania is reaching fever pitch, with the past Christmas season certain to put even more smartphones and tablets in the hands of consumers heading into the New Year.  Marketing changes this year will reflect the growing number of mobile devices accessing websites, stores, and other online content.

As a result, the continual need for those assets to smoothly translate to the small screen will continue to influence web design methodology. That means increased site simplicity, lighter text content, and action-oriented page elements will be the new standard.

The Convergence of Social, Local, and Mobile

SoLoMo is a funny little catchphrase with deep implications for the world of marketing in the last two years that will get renewed level of attention and meaning this year. The term is an amalgam for “social, local, mobile,” and it’s a phrase that the savvy marketer will need to keep in mind for the coming year even more. Brands take note: consumers are looking for convenience, engagement, and local interests, and that requires SoLoMo success.

Expected marketing changes for this year are likely to address these consumer demands – especially when it comes to the “local” part. Online and “local” are beginning to make nice; a fact that will reveal itself this year, more than ever.

Marketing Changes in Targeted Discovery

Content and engagement are the name of the marketing game these days. Search engine companies will begin to change their algorithms even further to better address the behavior of consumers as they use mobile devices and apps to seek out information on the products that specifically interest them. The contextual value of the search algorithms will begin to shift from being SEO-based to being behaviour-based in the coming year, with certainty.

Bolder Consumers

Although consumers have historically been hesitant to click on mobile ads, this phenomenon is tapering off, thankfully. Consumers are increasingly more willing to click-through and make purchases from in-app ads and other mobile content. This is the result of better, less obtrusive, and more trustworthy ads being used – marketing changes that are definitely paying off and will continue to do so throughout this year and beyond.

Big Data for the Small Business

Big Data is becoming a huge commodity that is obviously attractive to small and medium enterprises. Marketing changes should allow this year to be the year of the sharing of Big Data information across integrated platforms for location-specific, targeted, and predictive marketing. The next year will most likely usher in lower costs involving the sharing of Big Data, putting more information in the hands of ever smaller businesses.

More Mobile Marketers

Get ready for a slightly more crowded ad space in the comparatively vast world of mobile marketing. Recent data is projecting that around 78% of all businesses plan to increase their mobile marketing budgets this year.

As with other digital marketing mediums, the mobile ad will need to stand out from the crowd to be noticed in the populous sea of advertisements. Fear not, though, as the case has for several years now been that there is beauty in simplicity when it comes to mobile marketing; a trend that is sure to continue into the next year and beyond.

Marketing Changes and New Payment Methods

The near field communication (NFC) chip has been long speculated as one of the most ambitious marketing changes to come, and as more and more devices include the NFC, the likelihood that this year will be the year that mobile payments take off and greatly improves. NFC technology is very promising for marketers who can not only integrate online product discovery with in-store purchases, but can incorporate NFC-based coupons and promo codes as well.

As more devices that support the technology come to market, more apps and stores will begin to embrace the NFC. The resulting challenge for digital marketers will be to find interesting ways to use the technology initially to drum up consumer interest in using it. The demand for creative approaches to the NFC should spawn some interesting new advertising methods aimed at making it easier than ever to collect revenue through local-mobile convergence.

We have an interesting year ahead. You should be preparing your business for the above marketing changes if you are yet to do so. What do you think about these expected changes?

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