10 Awesome Digital Marketing Trends for 2014

What is going to change in the Digital Marketing universe in 2014? Which trends should you watch out for? Here’s a list of 10 digital marketing trends of 2014, which will impact your marketing processes in the coming months.

1. Lead Generation

2014 will be a game changer for digital marketers. It’s time to move on from traditional lead generation channels and explore targeted ones to ensure more incoming leads. As per Marketing Profs, lead generation sources like events, webinars, conferences, company website are becoming as important as inside sales, telemarketing, sponsorships etc. Marketers are searching answers to questions on buying patterns; triggers in buying decision; size, type, size of business; job title and other data points to help their demand generation efforts. Contrary to many expert opinions, social is not effective for B2B leads lead generation but can be significant for lead enrichment. Find out more

2. Mobile Marketing

91% of all US citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7. The five priorities for mobile marketing in 2014 for B2B companies are:

• Go beyond responsive (RWD), create adaptive website design (ADW), a mobile optimized site detecting the device of the user. Mobile Friendly Email Campaigns
• Clean UX for mobile users with adapted CTA’s for smart phones
• Leverage mobile features like Click-to-call, mobile coupons, store locator, barcode scanner Optimize SEO for mobile-specific keywords
• Explore paid mobile advertising campaigns on mobile apps and browsers.See More

3. Mobile Apps

Don’t club Mobile apps with mobile marketing. B2B apps are being adopted by companies for engaging customers as well as increasing efficiency of reps. Mobile apps are an efficient and effective way for customers to connect with you. According to ORM’s survey, 41% of respondents amongst B2B employers said apps could be used as tools to increase sales. For improving customer support, Caterpillar has developed an app that meets on- the-go needs. With a clean interface and smart categorizing, Caterpillar helps its customers reach out to required data even when they are working in field. Explore Apps

4. Interactive Content

91% of marketers are using content marketing. To stand out, you need to start creating unique, quality content to establish deep relationships with your audience. Rich media content, created in HTML5 or other formats, attracts and engages your user with a combination of text, audio, animation and video content. While typical Ad campaigns get a CTR of average 1.5%, rich media content can get CTR from 4% to 15%. Ceilume grew sales by an average of 15% per year with informational videos. Going beyond traditional blogs, your rich media content strategy should include videos, ROI calculators, quizzes, digital magazines, PowerPoint presentations, virtual events, info graphics, mobile apps, and more.

5. Content

48% of marketers plan to increase their budgets for content marketing in 2014. Moreover, 78% CEOs believe personalised content marketing is the future for user engagement. Every time your users are reading your content, they are spending time. With companies focusing on creating more and more content, you need to produce content that resonates with your target audience. The increase in spending on content needs to be leveraged by marketers by producing content that audiences love to read and engage with. Discover Content

6. Marketing Automation

46% of B2B organizations automate their marketing campaigns today, it is expected that 81% will adopt the practice by 2014. Marketing automation will move from being just automated email platforms and evolve to include running and tracking campaigns that view user activity from a 360 perspective and involves process, people, platform, content and data management. To gain the most from you marketing automation strategy focus on improving Marketing Automation skills, have accurate and quality data, and better content to support lead nurturing. Marketing automation will include integration with CRM, social and mobile, better analytics and reporting. Learn More

7. Social – Twitter, LinkedIn

91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content, followed by Twitter at 85%. Social is about converged media to connect buyers to brand across entire sales cycle. According to an Investis IQ Research Study, 64% of all the visits to corporate website came from LinkedIn. In 2014, ramp up your social media presence with consistent and quality updates on LinkedIn and Twitter. Incorporate rich media, micro-videos, device ready content and messaging. Get Social

8. Online Communities

More than 80% of B2B decision makers say they visit communities of their vendors at least once a month to stay updated. Communities offer platforms where you can connect customers, partners, employees and fans and use it to influence business decisions and distribute content. Discussions, regular updates, reviews, WOM, expert opinions all help. Content creation and distribution on these networks affect buying decisions and B2B marketers use webinars/webcasts, e-books, white papers, and published articles to be effective in achieving better customer engagement. Explore Communities

9. Real-time Engagement

As a B2B Marketer, you need to start responding to events as they happen to engage the users and encourage activity. Using Instagram to drive real time engagement, GE has been uploading photos of its various jet engines on a 747 in various stages of construction. The campaign worked wonders for connecting GE to its audiences and showcased its culture and values to a broader audience. It’s time you think beyond B2B marketing facts and figures and get creative. Banking on high usage of smart phones and Internet of Things, you can start building marketing campaigns for products and services to rediscover the art of conversation with your customers in real-time.

10. Data Enrichment

Your sales team is spending only 37% of their time actually selling. Rest of the time is spent on researching and figuring out priorities for leads. Rapportive, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012 has more than 65 million users and growing. Many marketers are using simple tools like Rapportive and Data.com to know their prospects in detail and engage them better. Lead enrichment leveraging data management will be the buzzword in 2014. Companies who do not jump onto the “streamline data management wagon” will risk falling sales and revenues.