4 Digital Marketing Trends that will Impact Local Businesses in 2015

by Guna Nadar - 3/2/2015 4828 Views

Digital Marketing trends that every local business must be updated with

Internet is perhaps the most powerful tool for local businesses and startups – something that they just can’t afford to ignore. While modern consumers are relying on mobile applications and social media for their purchases, the online presence of a brand is a perfect way to establish its reputation. Today, the digital marketing industry has growth to have a large scale effect, especially for local businesses. Based on the reports by BIA Kelsey, a local media research firm, by 2015, it is estimated that the industry will touch a figure of $42.5 billion. By 2013, the search engine marketing industry itself was valued at $22 billion and since then, it has been steadily growing at 19% per annum.

As most local businesses are realizing their need to invest in intensive digital marketing strategies and tools, several new trends have emerged in the market. By the end of 2015, local businesses are expected to have invested 33% of their marketing budgets in online marketing tools and networks. Here’s what you, as a business owner should be looking up to:

Smarter Email Marketing

Email marketing has always been a traditional approach but those who had been investing in this know the rising implications. Gone are the days when email newsletters were supposed to help build your leads and seek increased traffic and revenues. Today, the modern consumer is becoming more careful about sharing their email details. The ones that hope to succeed need to build smarter email marketing content and find better ways of promotion.

By the end of 2015, it is expected that white papers and free e-books will turn into marketing magnets. Today, these tools are used by only a few top brands, but local businesses will eventually use it to entice customers to join their database. The core idea is all about sending quality and relevant content wherein customers realize that the brand really ‘knows it’s stuff’. It’s not about MORE emails but BETTER ones.

Integrating the Human Touch

One of the acute disadvantages of online marketing has been the inability to make personal connection with clients and customers before, during and after the sales. However, it is social media that has been helping brands bridge this gap. Social presence of brands enables them to build one-to-one personal relationships with existing and potential customers. Local businesses are thus advised to invest in a more humane marketing experience using social media network. Direct interaction with brands also lifts up the authenticity of marketing campaigns.

Mobile-first Replacing Mobile-friendly

Mobile platforms will obviously be an integral part of digital marketing in 2015. However, the concept of mobile marketing is still in the realm of being mobile-friendly. Responsiveness of website, user-friendly application interfaces and security are all that mattered till now. However, we soon expect to experience a shift to a “mobile-first” world.

The idea behind mobile-first is making smart devices the first choice in delivering content including social media posts, blogs posts or emails. A majority of subscribers of both global and local brands will be accessing information through mobile devices and not their computers. Considering the shift in the “access-device”, businesses will certainly look to invest in mobile optimized landing pages from social media links. Experts are implementing higher use of graphics, images and optimized content to attract the attention of the mobile user.

Company-wide Integration of Content Marketing

Content marketing efforts in the past had been highly restricted to a few selected departments of a business – mostly the SEO and customer relations departments. However, by the end of 2015, we will land into an era where all departments of a business put in their inputs into content marketing. The sales team for example will add their insights into behavior analysis and customer feedback/questions. The logistics will put in its experience of deliveries and be answerable directly.

The transformation of business processes has been significant in the last couple of years. While small and local businesses are looking to find ways of entering into this global competitive platform, digital marketing is the only tool that can help them out. If you are a local business, it is high time that you revise your marketing concepts and enter the true realm of competition.

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SEO News

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Digital Marketing, Digital Marketing Trends 2015,

About Guna Nadar

Brief Info about Guna Nadar +

I mostly write technical aspects and not much into creative writing. For the past decade I worked along with top notch SEO & Internet Marketing professionals which naturally lured me into the world of Search Engines. When I am not writing I read from comics to philosophy.Antiques, Fishing, hunting are my passions. Currently I am working on Google Penalty protection and .... more info