Welcome to 2015! A fresh year means opportunities, which means there is no better time to mix up your marketing strategy. While New Year’s resolutions are usually better associated with a steadfast determination to go to the gym more or eat less biscuits per day, it shouldn’t stop there.
As our good deed for the month, we have put together some key marketing resolutions that ought to feature in your plans for a successful 2015.
Go mobile
Mobile devices are increasingly becoming the consumer’s screen of choice, and if you haven’t already adapted to this change, 2015 is the year to do it.
Mobile is a driving force in both consumer search and decision and hence it is essential to integrate mobile with your other media outlets. We are now at a point where consumer experiences begin on the go and can be continued on any other device. According to current growth, mobile traffic to websites is set to overtake desktop by 2017 and so connectivity across different devices is essential.
Be experimental
With the world of marketing technology, social and mobile channels, and consumer behaviour changing at light speed, it has never been more important to try and stay one step ahead of your competitors by experimenting with fresh ideas.
Experimenting requires flexibility. Absolutely set your road map, but allow for certain amount of experimentation in your budget; try new marketing tactics without a set expectation of ROI. You may win some and lose some, but an experimental attitude will drive valuable learnings and shape your marketing plans in new ways for the future. Once you have set a plan, remember to make time to come back and review, reflect and change if necessary.
Boost your content marketing
According to the Content Marketing 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends surveys, creating engaging content is one of the top challenges facing B2B and B2C marketers. B2B marketers (54%) ranked that their number-one challenge and B2C marketers (50%) placed it second.
Creating engaging content that is both relevant and valuable is not easy, but it is absolutely worth putting in the effort and resources. Good content marketing can be enough to make a person stop, read, think and behave differently.
Look at the questions your target market is asking online: in search engines, in forums, on social networks.
Answer those questions with informative and resourceful pieces of content. Another tip – Make sure your content gets to the point; the Internet runs on shorter content.
Personalise your brand
Incorporate human-speak into your marketing, ensure your tone is always professional, yet friendly and approachable. People do business with people they like. Push out the personality behind your brand; engage across social media channels, share thoughtful and relevant content, interact on recommendation sites and last but not least, blog! Blogging will allow you to get your personal touch and style out there. It also has the benefit of being a free opportunity to drive more traffic to your website, every time you publish a post you add another indexed page to your website.
Do more with video
If your business hasn’t started making and sharing videos online yet, now is the time to change that; YouTube isn’t the second most visited website in the world for no reason.
Video is naturally engaging. And the good news is that apps such as Twitter’s Vine, with its six-second maximum clip length, have dramatically increased the opportunity for businesses on a limited budget to get stuck in.
When it comes to social video, the name of the game is creativity. Social channels are not the place for a traditional advertisement. Try to think outside of the box, and once you’re done, be sure to share and promote across multiple channels. Make it easy for users to find and share it.
Whether you eat a biscuit on day five or skip the gym altogether after ten, we hope you find these resolutions useful and somewhat easier to keep. We wish you all the greatest success and a Happy New Year!
