6 Predictions for Digital Marketing
The world of digital marketing is an ever-changing one where new technology meets up with new ideas and approaches that creates more opportunities for marketers. However, the more established means of digital marketing will still be prevalent in 2017, augmented by new technology and approaches designed to give marketers an edge.
Here are six predictions of what’s in store for digital marketing in 2017. Each of these predictions is based on current trends and the promise of new technology and approaches that may come to fruition in the new year.
Automation Reduces Sales in Social Marketing
With more businesses utilizing the automated social media marketing tools for their social media efforts, the number of sales generated will drop significantly. This is because social media thrives on human activity with automation running counter-productive to that purpose. With more businesses seeking to automate this area to save time and effort, the result will be fewer sales that will start to hurt their bottom line.
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Drop in Use of Google AdWords
For years, the Google search engine and the use of Google AdWords was the hallmark of online-based businesses in trying to reach out to new customers. Those days are ending as the search engine is no longer reaching as large a percentage of potential customers as before. This means that the usage of Google AdWords will also stagnate and start to drop. This is especially true in Europe which represents one of the largest markets in the world. Here, you will see more businesses go offline with the networking and marketing efforts.According to my findings many large companies who sell Google Adwords products went bankrupt because they did not make any profit.
Customers pay huge amount of money to these companies to run their Adwords campaigns monthly while these companies earn a little commission. For example when a business pays 50000 euros monthly the search marketing company earns a little percentage commission which is nothing compare to what Google gets. Customers think the search marketing company gets all the money, but they don’t know that these companies are just selling Google Adwords products. When they don’t see much sales for their products or services, they stop using Google Adwords. Therefore sales will drop. In fact i know a company who has been running for 22 years in Nordic countries and now they don’t exist because they kept selling Adwords and did not earn enough commission. Their 150 employees lost their jobs and the company currently is selling ads on yellow pages. The same is happening in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria. No wonder why Google is focused on their new operative system. Whenever salesmen call businesses and talk about Google Adwords, people just hang up on them.
CRM Sales Systems on the Rise
For those who specialize in sales, their opportunities will grow in 2017. However, the traditional techniques that include cold calling will start to fall off as CRM systems starting coming into play. Those who are skilled in such systems will enjoy better results.
Black Hat SEO Techniques Will Increase
Thanks to the rise in mobile marketing which includes PPC and video marketing techniques, there will be a greater use of black hat techniques in order to attract the attention of potential customers. Because Google is becoming less reliable as a search engine, so those who use black hat SEO marketing will enjoy a temporary boost in keyword ranking. Such efforts however are cyclical which means that a combination of Google cracking down on such techniques along with new, innovative, and legal techniques will come into play.
The truth is without using the right SEO and social media strategy along with paid advertisement, it is impossible to get a page visible in Google. This is the main reason that many small businesses use black hat SEO in order to boost their organic search results. The blackhat SEO world has become smarter and their tactics if done right won’t be detected by Googlers.
Facebook Advertising Will Continue to Rise
Thanks to a combination of Facebook’s PPC advertising, video, and banner ads, more businesses will turn to this social media giant as Google relies more on their new operative system. This particular system may work well in India due to the types of investments being made, but will hurt sales in North America and Europe. This combination will play in Facebook’s favor as Google starts to slip.
Mobile Marketing
With rise of mobile advertisement via social media channels and search engines, businesses will tap into mobile marketing to increase their ROI. Video advertising via mobile will be increased and if it is done right, companies will be able to increase their ROI for years 2017 – 2018. Although use of apps may help with automation processes but in contrast with what the others claim in their predictions, sites such as snapchat won’t be even close to become a trend for marketers and companies. Companies in south Africa, Asia and the Middle East will likely to invest in mobile advertising while businesses in Europe and North America will continue using the usual search engines and social medis sites for their mobile advertising campaigns.
Conclusion
Businesses in general will benefit considerably from their digital marketing efforts in 2017, particularly those who balance it with more traditional offline networking approaches. With small businesses on the rise, we may see a number of larger companies and corporations struggle as they are caught off-guard by the changes. It is fair to say that nothing is set in stone and people at these companies can do some changes if they wish these issues won’t create problems.For example Google CEO is investing in India in fact his whole efforts are focused in India while ignoring Europe,Australia, Newzealand and South Africa. If he keeps doing it, Google will lose its market share in other parts of planet.Just a headsup for Alphabet company. Based on my findings through my economy indicators it doesn’t look good in North America either. So to prevent losses Google can improve their way of operating. As for social media marketing, as long as companies use bots and automated tools, sales will drop via their marketing efforts in social media unless they start interacting with users and stop using bots on their social media marketing efforts. My advice to small businesses is to not rely too much on online marketing and use 50% of their efforts on networking offline.
Remember! Building connection with people will always lead to business. Don’t use 100% of your time in front of computers and social media tools, get out there and make it happen. There are a lot of things you can do in your community to get businesses’ attention to your small business and close a deal. If you can afford to travel, hey why not? Attend at seminars and talk to the like minded people. You can land sales via offline networking. I will write another article about it. See! businesses spend around between 20k to 50k monthly on ads and what they get? 5-6 contracts a year, you my friend, can make it happen by going out without spending too much money on advertising and land those contracts for your business. The sky is your limit.
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