There is no two thoughts about the fact that digital media has had an indelible effect on the marketing industry, morphing it entirely from what it was even a decade back. Social media, content curation, search engine optimization and native advertising are the new buzzwords, about which every marketer worth his salt should know.
An Adobe survey of marketers reveals 76% feel the industry has undergone more changes in the past 2 years than in the previous 50. This transformation has been so sudden and quick, that most marketers are still grappling with the changes, trying to adopt, with most still not comfortable with the powerful innovations and even fewer being proficient in digital. 2014 will be no different. With hordes of data at their disposal, this will be the year of data analytics in the marketing department. A survey of ExactTarget, conducted across a sample of 2,561 marketers globally reveals that a whopping majority of them (i.e 98%) will either carve the same budget or plan to increase their digital marketing budgets. So there is a lot that we can expect from the digital marketing industry in the coming year.
2014 The State of Digital Marketing
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| infographic source : stanventures |
Data Analytics going to take the front seat
Marketers are increasingly adopting sophisticated tools in order to gauge the market sentiments and consumer behavior. While 2013 was the year when most commentaries were about the potential of data analytics, in 2014 it will be actually interesting to see marketers making it work and making big gains by doing so. The marketers will be asking data specific questions for the insights in order to make time-sensitive business decisions.Time-sensitive marketing will gain in strength as marketers will be able to use real-time, granular multichannel data in order to make timely decisions. In other words, right-time marketing will become more common than ever before.
How you can use digital marketing analytics to gain big strides in 2014?
Harvard Business Review has already discussed that data scientist is one of the best jobs for professionals in 2014. According to the research firm Gartner there will be more than 4 million big data jobs in the next couple of years. But how does that relates to marketing?
Any professional who works for the web, on the web, right from content marketer to a search engine analyst can give himself an edge by improving the data capabilities. Besides, digital marketing and advertising agencies will require better data analysis to manage successful campaigns. This process includes different steps such as defining metrics, collecting data, developing reports and using constant analysis and implementation.
However, while measuring data, it’s easy to get caught with metrics that can actually make you feel good but wouldn’t matter when it comes to predicting accurately as to what is happening to your business. While statistics like page visits, number of social media likes, and bounce rate should serve as a good introduction on to how well your online business is performing, its only until you study data like who is coming to your audience, how much of them are converting, what are the conversion rates, and who is buying multiple times that you will have the right statistics for your business.
In addition to engagement, consumers want simplicity
Marketers are constantly involved in the tussle for consumer attention, trying to impact their purchase decisions and brand loyalty. While earlier it was considered that the more engaging the online presence of brands is the better are their chances of selling products, this phenomenon is actually a bit complicated. In an effort to try and engage with consumers through social media, marketers generally push out more information than actually required. The over-consumption of information causes people to over-think their purchasing decision, with some even reconsidering their choices, switching loyalties.Instead marketers should try and make the decision-making process for the consumers as simple as possible. Marketers can do that by providing recommendations based on consumer advice, ratings and reviews and simplifying the research process for consumers by providing data which is brand specific and targeted for every decision stage.
About author:
This article is contributed by Saurabh Tyagi. He is a passionate blogger. Currently he is working for Naukri.com that cover latest trends related to jobs and work related issues in the world and India.
Image credit: semdrive