Top trends of digital marketing

Digital marketing is the engine that drives today’s business, big or small. Effective digital marketing is the marketing that bridges electronic technology with psychology in the marketplace. As we enter the New Year, it’s time to reflect on the year gone by and plan for the next twelve months. Traditional marketing channels such as print, radio, TV and billboards aren’t forms of digital marketing.These channels have been mighty successful over a long period of time but they aren’t as effective in today’s modern age. I believe that traditional marketing channels suffer from 2 major limitations – one-way communication and no real time feedback.

Digital Marketing Channels:

In a broader sense, the Internet is the heart of digital marketing. The Internet offers several applications such as web, email, IM, RSS, video which can be leveraged by marketers to launch campaigns. The explosive growth of smartphones and tablets has meant that mobile has emerged as a widely accepted digital marketing channel in recent times.

And last but not the least; social media has been a great ambassador to the cause of digital marketing. While the primary motivation for social networks was in-person interaction, leading social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have transformed into valuable digital marketing tools.

1. Mobile Marketing

Now a days, People mostly use the Smart phones, Tablets etc.. for Business purpose. So, we need to take care of that our website is Mobile-friendly.

Tips to Make Website Mobile- Friendly

• Mobile devices have much smaller screens than computers. Flashy emails with multiple columns and elaborate fonts might be eye-catching on a computer monitor, but confusing and muddled on a small screen.
• Also, mobile devices are used in a broad range of lighting conditions,from an entirely dark room to bright sunshine. Choose contrasting colours and simple fonts that reproduce well under varying conditions. Also, set the text large enough that it is still readable if the user shrinks the document for better viewing.
• While computer users click via a mouse or touchpad, mobile device users tap and swipe the screen itself. Although it sounds minor, find another way to tell users to “click” on interactive elements.
• Lay out your email design in such a way that links, buttons, and other interactive features are well separated from each other. Also make these elements large enough that they are easy to tap.
• Tables are another unusual problem for mobile devices. They are difficult to read on small mobile device screens and do not always render well. If you must use a table, set it to resize based on percentages rather than pixels, make it as large as possible, and minimize the amount of data it contains.

To streamline the user experience across multiple devices, incorporate responsive design technology. This type of web design uses fluid grids, flexible images, and dynamic responses to automatically resize an email or web page based on the device in use at the time. In that way, users of smartphones, tablets, and computers all see exactly the same thing, scaled to its best appearance and functionality for their particular device.

2. Web marketing

Web marketing refers to a broad category of advertising that takes many different forms, but generally involves any marketing activity conducted online.

Marketers have shifted their efforts online because it tends to be significantly less expensive. Many online advertising spaces are free to use. Companies can upload videos to You tube or start a blog for no cost at all. Other outlets like official websites or paid search marketing cost a fraction of what a major television advertising campaign would. Web marketing combines a wide range of marketing strategies, requiring traditional marketing comprehension and an understanding of emerging technologies. Marketers must understand the strengths and weaknesses of various online marketing efforts as they develop their marketing strategy, analysing these aspects by creating a marketing plan.

The marketers must understand what they are selling and who their target customer. Once the company has determined their target audience and general strategy, they should start developing their online presence. This can involve everything from producing videos to creating entire websites. The technological infrastructure behind web marketing is just as important as its message and aesthetic.Companies must ensure that their marketing messages are accessible to everyone regardless of the technology they are using.

3. Social Media Marketing

Facebook post or YouTube video might play a part in a sale at some point, but a phone call, filling out a form and other steps typically get the credit for moving potential consumers down the funnel. These steps are closer to the conversion. This difficulty giving social presence any sales credit prompted marketers to switch their social metrics from direct sales to the more amorphous metrics of brand awareness and buzz.

A positive trend in social selling has been echoed by other reputable studies. According to leading statistics provider Statists, by the end of 2015, social selling will amount to $30 billion worldwide, a 50% increase over 2014’s $20 billion. (Keep in mind that the Internet Retailer study above gauged only 500 selected retailers, not the entire market, hence the difference between $3 billion and $30 billion.)

Podcasting Is Gaining Ground

With 44% of Americans now listening to streaming audio (Pandora,Spotify, etc.), similarly structured, on-demand podcast episodes are also gaining ground. The popularity of weekly NPR true-crime podcast Serial has won marketers’ attention. Podcasting blurs the line between content marketing and social. It’s content because of the useful information or entertainment it provides;it’s social because it provides personal interaction with one of the voices of a brand.Listeners can call in and/or podcasters can answer questions sent via email or social. Podcast landing pages are typically enabled with social buttons for easy sharing, liking and commenting. Podcasters also entice their audiences to follow and friend them on social media.

Online radio has become mainstream; podcasts are enjoyed by a significant portion of the population.… It’s vital for marketers and advertisers to understand and plan for these shifts.

4. RSS Marketing

RSS — “Really Simple Syndication” — is a mechanism to keep track of new content on a website without actually visiting that site. To do this, subscribe to an RSS “feed,” which would then be read by your RSS “reader.” Most web browsers and email clients have built in RSS readers. You can see a listing of other RSS readers here. An RSS feed is formatted in XML. You can subscribe to many different RSS feeds from sites that interest you, and then you can simply read the feeds from those sites. It saves time and effort, versus visiting each site.

Web Marketing Today offers many different RSS feeds. The major ones are listed below. You can also subscribe to feeds from specific authors and comments from specific articles.These are the few trends for digital marketing by using this techniques we can gain traffic to our website.