In 2013, Patrick Spenner wrote about the top ten marketing trends for 2014. How have they changed in the last year? His buzz words included “big data. Cloud. Mobile. Trust. Direct delivery. Quantified Self. Crowdfunding.”
Kissmetrics.com wrote an article titled “The Future of Content Marketing: Trends and Predictions for 2014,” which discusses how marketers may have gone overboard with “content is king.” “According to a 2012 study by AOL and Nielsen, 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared every day.” Wow! The article talks about how more is not necessarily better and that quality should be the ultimate driving force. When it comes to content marketing, social media, newsletters, and blogs are the leaders; however, the focus may change to not just producing as much content as possible, but insuring that the content is relevant to the intended target — the consumer.
NFIB.com discusses 2014 marketing trends with ideas to boost sales such as reviews, visual appeal, and social scale-back. Marketing is shifting back to basics and just like all politics is local, so is marketing.
In Entrepreneur’s article, “The Hottest Marketing Trends for 2008: Learn about the hottest new marketing trends plus the best ways to increase sales in 2008,” Kim T. Gordon discusses how marketers must embrace new technologies to keep up with the changing trends. She discusses the shift from traditional to “alternative” media (or new media), which includes online and mobile advertising. Interactive marketing is also growing. Gordon writes that “interactive encompasses new marketing channels such as e-mail and search marketing, online video ads and social media. Mobile marketing, also a form of interactive media, is getting hotter as consumers become increasingly comfortable using personal computing handsets. Other emerging channels, including game marketing, podcasts and RSS feeds.”
To read the article on the Web, click here.
MarketingProfs and Forrester Research conducted an interesting study about “B-to-B Marketing in 2008: Trends in Strategies and Spending.” Marketers face a variety of issues from year to year and must address last year’s issues because the same issues can impact their marketing efforts in 2008. New media is gaining traction because of the continued advancement of Internet technology. The report shows that “new media serve multiple purposes within the marketing structure — primarily in product marketing, corporate communications and field marketing — while traditional tactics have, for the most part, continued to serve more traditional branding and advertising needs.”
As marketing professionals we must realize that the future lies in the world wide web and advancing technologies. Can we rise to the everchanging challenge of the marketplace? In the research study, they asked about “the tactics they use to impact several areas within marketing–including lead generation, communication of key messages, and brand awareness.”
Click here to access the report on the Web.
Resources:
Executiveboard.com – “10 Marketing Trends for 2013 You Haven’t Heard”
Forbes.com – “2014 Marketing Trends You Probably Haven’t Heard”
Kissmetrics.com – The Future of Content Marketing: Trends and Predictions for 2014″
NFIB.com – “Top Marketing Trends for 2014: 11 hot ideas to boost your sales in the coming year”