So far this year we saw a number of new and continuing marketing trends. A few of these marketing trends solidified themselves while others emerged and took the place of older trends that faded away due to being ineffective or outdated. Here are some of the biggest trends of so far in 2015 and what they did to the marketing industry.
Marketing Trends Halfway of 2015
Content is King
Thanks in part to Google and some of its updated algorithms, content is more important than ever. This past year saw more and more websites get on board with this idea. Instead of focusing on SEO tricks, people are now placing more value on what the website is actually conveying to people. Do visitors to the site find it helpful? Does the content answer any questions or give visitors the information they want? If it doesn’t, all the SEO in the world won’t get people to come back. Content that’s fresh, unique, and relevant is much more important now than keywords and meta tags are.
Location is Important
Using geotags and GPS, advertisers can now deliver content aimed at people who live in a specific location. This does two things. First, businesses in the area can now more efficiently target those who are more likely to visit their location. Putting ads online that are seen by people in Chicago does nothing to help a business in Florida, but with geotargeting, that’s no longer an issue. The second thing this does help the user. Now when people see ads online or on their smartphones, they’re for businesses that are actually relevant to them. People are much more likely to pay attention to ads for businesses in their area.
Combining Marketing Avenues
People love videos. People love social media. People love using mobile sites. These things were all true in 2014, so the trend of 2015 has been combining them. Nowhere is this more evident than in the creation of Vine, a website that allows users to create short, six-second videos and share them on social media. Facebook has jumped on board, too, with the addition of videos to their Instagram service. The days of tweeting a picture of that delicious pie are over—now people are making vines of taking the first bite.
Smaller and Smaller Tech
While not purely a marketing trend, the trend of wearing technology like Fitbits and Google Glass is about to explode. Marketing experts are already using geotargeting to send local ads to people’s smartphones, but soon they’ll be able to do much more. Google Glass will be able to tell when someone is indoors or outside, looking at products and more. Ads could be targeted to the specific street someone’s walking on. The trend this year may not be in producing those ads just yet, but many marketing companies are certainly preparing for it.
Ads for Each Industry
Industry-specific advertising has been around for several years, but it’s becoming more and more popular. Price Listing Ads are used by many retailers to provide more informative and helpful ads to customers. Google is working on new Hotel Price Ads for the travel and lodging industry. It’s very likely that more of these industry-specific ads will appear over the next several years.
Branding
Finally, branding has continued to be a major trend in marketing. Companies strive to have a specific brand that ties together all of their marketing. The company’s logo, name, color scheme, and more come together to create a cohesive, easily recognizable brand that can be used across campaigns. There’s nothing from the past year that shows branding is going to slow down anytime soon.
