A Must Read For Digital Marketing Agencies
Marketing is a game of oneupmanship, innovation, and game changing. No longer are the traditional means of advertising or marketing working. It has been common knowledge that digital marketing agencies are struggling to keep track of the best digital marketing tools and the vast changes in the digital market landscape. Outlets like television commercials and magazine adverts do not necessarily achieve the promotion of a product like they used to. It used to be that there were three channels, then there were twelve and here we are in today’s age with thousands of channels and an extreme fracture of exposure for something that is being marketed.
Staying one step ahead of the game is a crucial tenet of marketing, especially with the tight competition between digital marketing agencies, it certainly may be the greatest cliche, however, coming up with that means of conveyance that no one has used before is the backbone of marketing.
The following are considered the five new and some old (but evolving) trends in marketing that are taking passengers and will leave the uninformed behind:
5) Do you Reddit?
Reddit is a profound example of where the future is going not just in marketing but in how people will share information. It is the ultimate platform for sharing of knowledge, news and pop culture. With nearly 400 million visitors last year, the potentiality of Reddit as an avenue for digital marketing agencies is clear.
Users of Reddit can subscribe to various subreddit, where the specialty of each one is very precise. From entrepreneurial advice, to quantum mechanics, the markets for all things exist on this platform. Users submit stories which are subject to public upvoting (which causes more views) or public downvoting (which denies the opportunity to be shared). It is entirely an organic operation in this sense, no one is necessarily paying for spots. So if a marketer, particularly one from digital marketing agencies, has a good idea with potential steam he or she can submit a story or link to Reddit and potentially get an innumerable amount of hits, which can result in the ‘SlashDot,’ effect.
This effect is the tendency for pages which are linked from Reddit (because of a story) to experience an overload of traffic, so much so the host site shuts down. This is the goal of every digital marketer, to have such a high demand for content your website shuts down.
4) Does your product have a YouTube Channel?
People are no longer going to brick and mortar stores to buy their products, nor is the well being of Consumer Reports as a viable source for information on various products. When the average millennial is considering buying a phone for instance he or she first asks friends, but they very likely will check out YouTube for a product review. Those reviews actually show the positives and negatives of the phone, and the viewer gets to see their potential purchases flaws and strong points.
Digital marketing agencies will need to adapt to this, but not by running a commercial prior to watching a video, but by making the video of the marketed product the destination. Apple for instance runs a big marketing campaign for each of their new products, but in addition there are countless videos, commentaries and opinions surrounding the products before, during and after its release. The best part about this operation is Apple does not pay a dime for this free press, people search for this out of their own free will and accord.
Marketing a product will need a video companion going forth, and a generous perpetuation of curiosity and hype surrounding a product through the video found online is the trend to look for in the future.
3) Reading Email Marketing, Voluntarily.
Email Marketing has been around since the turn of the century but its reputation for annoying, bland news announcements and sale deals are slowly coming to terms with a need for reinvention. Marketing a small business for instance is crucial and doing it digitally is to try to ride with the big firms. Creating an email for a product cannot necessarily come off as an advertisement, that is the difference between junk mail and priority email. Successful email marketing requires the recipient to see something in the subject line and immediately open it.
This necessity for adaptation in the world of digital marketing in terms of email has enabled companies like Express Pigeon to fill the gap smaller firms fit into in terms of email marketing. Using a framework and template that email marketing once was and giving it a makeover worthy of 2014 has reinvigorated and questioned how the marketed email is written, designed and who it is even sent to. So if there is a product that digital marketing agencies are trying to market and it is for instance for teenagers it can segment an email list to the best candidates who will likely open that email and read it, instead of a massive email less people read.
2) Instagram
Marketing on a digital frontier is taking on new forms. There will be two avenues to explore digital marketing on Instagram, one being by a firm itself conducting a campaign and the other will be through Instagram itself. The latter was met with intense criticism but the folks over at Instagram have actually made a beautiful and thoughtful attempt at advertising:
(A model of what Instagram is trying to go for)
(A Starbucks Ad)
What Instagram has attempted in its marketing for products is required a cool, insightful and interesting piece of content (in this case, a cool photo). It is something people can appreciate in a meaningful way (and already do when they use the service recreationally).
1) International Social Media is your Friend
Facebook may be the king at the moment of Social Media, but this does not mean it is the only avenue for digital marketing agencies to explore. There are other social media networks, — primarily international — which can be the outlet for marketing. Take for instance VK.com, which is a Russian social media site which has upwards of 228 million users. This is a huge, virtually untapped market that is waiting for digital marketing. Many users do not necessarily live in Russia either, VK is just like Facebook but for Russian speakers. Consider RenRen which is a social media site based in China, which has nearly 160 million users, and is growing. With China having a population of over a billion and an relatively untapped marketing structure on RenRen the opportunities are endless.
Event marketing over Twitter- it would be wise to consider its international status, in fact, Indonesia uses Twitter more than any other country.
