Ask a question, “What will be the future”, and you see many a hands raised, many a faces brooding. The digital realm is ever-evolving and making predictions on the trends that will follow. Therefore, any response may or may not be accompanied with agreeable justifications.However, a business must transcend the unpredictability factor and look ahead in 2013 with a fixed set of digital marketing strategies that leave enough room for flexibility:
Accelerated Inbound Marketing
Outbound marketing, for lack of a better word, is pushy. The marketing campaigns doing the round have followed the age old tactical strategies and set of activities which cease to work in a world where technology keeps upgrading every fortnight. 2013 will see inbound marketing as an alternative that is more reliable and can be integrated with strategies that are a departure from more derivative campaigns. They can enjoy more credence by incorporating real-time events that endow them with more vitality.
Contrary to the popular perception, inbound marketing will be more sought-after for generating revenues for a business by bringing in more traffic and promoting sales growth. Hence, higher budgets would be allocated to inbound marketing and to increase the responsiveness to customer needs, every interaction with the customer will be a part of the roadmap for the way ahead.
Stronger Alliance between Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs)
Technology is dictating terms in the marketing realms of enterprises. The campaigns for promoting the products of a brand are being infused with digital media tools that envelope old as well as the advanced marketing drives. The increased involvement of IT has thus necessitated the need of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to work in tandem towards achieving the business goal of their enterprise, collaborate in new ways and transform their organizations to drive business growth.
Responsive Website Design
Website designs don’t have to be all about the look and appeal. They must seamlessly support all browsers, platforms and most importantly, tablets and SmartPhones. Surveys over the past three years have revealed that more and more people access the Internet on their phones and this directly coincides with the boost in sales of tablets and SmartPhones. A SmartPhone user expects your website to give as good a response on his phone as on his desktop PC. If you are planning to redesign your website, keep all the parameters in the loop. The layout of the website should seamlessly alter to suit the device from which it is being accessed. 2013 will see decrease in the number of companies opting for separate websites for mobile users as it proves to be a hindrance from the SEO point of view.
Redefining SEO Techniques
Any online marketing or Internet guru would tell you how critical it is to keep elevating the SEO strategies that otherwise will cease to bring in the numbers. Companies, more or less, are playing it safe. There is no dearth of SEO techniques that have given astounding results to websites, thus skimping on complexity and increased costs associated with introducing advanced tools. In 2013, SEO will be used less as a guise to pull users and more investment would be witnessed in increasing its tangibility and value to the readers.
Bringing in clicks is one thing and turning them into customers is another. 2013 might finally see companies draw a fine line between the two (for most business, efforts thus far have been futile).