Marketing Trends for 2015

At the beginning of the year, I was asked to contribute to a couple of articles on marketing trends for 2015.

I always like how these articles come out. It’s very interesting to read the 9 to 27 social media experts opinions and how close or different they are from my own. It’s also a privilege for me that I get asked to contribute to these global sites alongside some really top experts in online marketing and social media!

The experts from the first article “28 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2015 From the Pros” have some great insights that I’d like to share with you:

Heidi Cohen of Riverside Marketing Strategies thinks that in 2015 video will become the content of choice. Mike Stelzner of SocialMediaExaminer.com says that YouTube will die off as native video on Facebook and Twitter gain in popularity. I tend to agree, as I’ve tested and learned that native Facebook has a much, much better reach then YouTube videos posted to Facebook. Check out my article about Facebook video.

Single channel social media marketing will become obsolete in 2015. Rebekah Radice of ImagineWOW says that companies will begin to create conversations and humanize their brands. I totally agree with Rebekah, and I take it one step further. Gone are the days of “just a Facebook page”. In 2015, you’ll need a larger Online “footprint” to gather the same results you achieved in the past. You’ll need to incorporate an all-encompassing strategy with your website/blog, social media accounts, and email marketing. These 3, with proper strategy and planning, will become your trifecta of lead generation.

What’s interesting about these 2 articles is that, even though, the experts may be different and come from different disciplines they come to some similar conclusions.

2015 is the year of paid social. Both Neal Schafer of MaximizeSocialBusiness.com and Andrea Vahl of Facebook Marketing for Dummies agree you’ll need to fork over some dough this year for ads if you want to stay competitive. And that’s ok! The value is there!

Facebook marketing is some of the very best targeted and retargeted marketing there is. Why? Because Facebook knows everything about you; your age and where you live, if you’re married and have kids, the restaurants you eat at, the movies you see, etc. And they know all this information about each one of your friends.

You can build a very targeted ad that, because of all this demographic information, will only get served to people who have an interest in your product or products like yours. By getting your ads in front of people that are actively engaged and looking for products and services like yours, you’ll get more engaged views and more legitimate leads.

Donna Moritz of SociallySorted.com.au tells us that Facebook communities will grow in popularity in 2015. Communities have more one on one conversations because there are more individuals involved in the conversations. Communities are usually centered around a topic or service and not so much around a brand.

Content libraries are the wave of the future in 2015 suggests John Jantsch of DuctTapeMarketing.com. These “content repositories” will hold lots of educational articles on a subject like Facebook or WordPress. The site will charge a membership fee to access the premium educational content.

What are your thoughts on top trends? What are you doing to evolve your marketing?

Got questions on what to do? Let me know in the comments below.