Five marketing trends to capitalise on in 2015

We are halfway into the first month of the year and I bet most of you are in the thick of planning your marketing strategies for 2015.

Are you going to stick to a new plan? Will you completely change your marketing strategy?  With so many channels and methods to choose from, developing a marketing strategy is never easy.

To help you define and develop a better marketing strategy, let’s take a look at last year’s trends and what’s going to shape things in marketing this year.

Here are five trends that can help shape your marketing strategy:

1. Social media-based advertising

Too scared to try this last year? Well, you need to start doing it now.

A new report from the analyst firm Frost & Sullivan found that more Australian organisations are seeing positive return on investment (ROI) from social media-based advertising. Based on the report, 72% of those who advertised in social media have seen an increase in ROI, compared with 63% in 2013.

2. The big data game

Marketing decisions based on gut feel alone are no longer safe. You must learn to interpret the numbers.

Big data and data-driven marketing has been around for a while now, and they will continue to flourish in 2015. In fact, it is predicted to grow to a $50 billion market this year. 

Big data gives you important insight into your customers and the new ways to reach them. And as the adoption of advanced marketing analytics tools (e.g. Apache Hadoop, SAS, Google’s BigQuery) will continue to spread, interpreting what big data means will soon become easier.

3. Mobile-first marketing

Target your mobile customers. If you aren’t optimised for mobile, you are losing sales.

Based on the recent data from Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), nearly 7 in 10 Australians are using three or more different devices to connect to the internet. The most popular are mobile phones (76%), followed by laptop computers (74%), desktop computers (67%) and tablet computers (54%).

For 2015, make your website look great on mobile devices, with the mobile experience in mind. Create a fast, user-friendly and simpler version of your site for your mobile visitors. Mobile-friendly content is also necessary as more people now consume content on their mobile devices. If they can’t access your content easily on their mobile, you will most likely lose them.

Lastly, as your mobile traffic grows, increase your mobile advertising spending to reach a broader audience whilst mobile shopping activities are on the rise.

4. Visual storytelling

Video content is statistically shown to boost business dramatically, start making your own.

Brands like GoPro, Red Bull, Samsung, and Dove have shown us that consumers crave for original videos. That’s why we are likely to see more brands create more videos this year.

In Frost & Sullivan’s new report, Australian Online General and Mobile Advertising Market 2014, online video now accounts for 17% of all online advertising expenditure. It’s now the fastest growing type of online advertising.

It’s time to master the art of capturing shrinking attention spans with original video content.

5. Ad re-targeting

It worked before, it will work again.

This marketing strategy has caught on recently due to its effectiveness in influencing conversion.

In a nutshell, it works by utilising browser cookies to track a website’s visitors. Once they leave your site, retargeting ads are shown to them as they visit other sites. The purpose of the ads is to get those previous visitors back to your site. Retargeting can be done via display ads, search, email, and even in social media.

These are just some of the exciting new marketing strategies brands and marketers can exploit this year.

For those who haven’t started making plans yet, it isn’t too late for you. There’s still enough time to gather information, review and think about your next move for the whole year.

Since starting her outsourced national marketing consultancy Marketing Angels in 2000, Michelle Gamble has helped hundreds of SMEs get smarter marketing. Michelle helps businesses find more effective ways to grow their brands and businesses.