Top five current digital marketing trends

The field of digital marketing is one which is in constant flux. As technology and social trends evolve, brands too must alter their strategies in order to adapt to digital environments and platforms. Although marketers will never be able to predict the future, it is vital to keep abreast of trends in order to maintain the connection with their ever-changing trend-savvy consumers.

Location based marketing

Location based marketing has emerged as one of the biggest trends in digital marketing today. But, despite its many advantages, some obstacles have made this a rather tricky medium for brands to leverage. Most of the concerns with location based marketing pertain to privacy issues - in order to utilise location based marketing, marketers need to know where consumers are. Consumers use social media or applications such as Foursquare and their own initiative to check into locations, and marketers are only just beginning to understand the value inherent in this interaction. One of the proponents of this medium has been mobile location based marketing, a triggered system that detects when consumers enter a certain location such as a store or shopping mall and then automatically sends marketing messages or special deals to their mobiles. While marketers are still finding the best way to connect with customers using this technique, it seems fairly certain that this form of marketing will gain popularity as smart devices and social networks become even more prominent.

Mobile email

Despite the ever-increasing popularity of social media, marketers are still seeing the best results from email marketing. However, as with all forms of digital media, email too is undergoing somewhat of a transformation - not in the way it is constructed, but in the way it is consumed. More and more people are now receiving and reading email on their smart phones or tablet devices instead of their desktop computers. In a society that is constantly connected, people are drawn to the idea of taking their email with them everywhere rather merely logging in a couple of times [per day. Marketers need to understand the gravity of this trend and how it will affect their email marketing g campaigns. Issues regarding image display, formatting and deliverability need to be considered and taken into account in order to make sure that subscribers are receiving brands' content via mobile email. 

Integrated marketing

When it comes to digital marketing, brands are increasingly moving away from single-focus campaigns, choosing to implement integrated marketing. Studies have shown that customer recall is greatly improved when brands strategy carried across TV, mobile and online. This allows all aspects of a digital campaign to work together while also helping each other. Brands can expect to see social media boosting SEO and email sign ups, while email and mobile campaigns improve the success of social media and the overall campaign.

User generated curation 

The popularity of apps such as Flipboard and the stellar rise of social networks and blogging platforms such as Pinterest and Tumblr respectively has emphasised the importance of user generated curation. In the information-saturated online world, users are seeking ways in to organise content in order to consume it in a way that suits their needs. This trend is almost certain to continue as the web and online content continually expands, which means brands will have to understand what kind of content to produce, share and how to share it with their followers. 

Adapting advertising to different formats

These are exciting times - new trends and technologies are opening the door to fresh potential projects for marketers, provided that they take the time to understand and make the most of these new mediums. Here smart phones and tablets represent the new frontier for digital marketing as interactive, connected, personal digital spaces where users expect to see cool things. Brands who venture into marketing specifically for these platforms need to think about how campaigns can be altered to cater to its features and strengths specifically. Simply re-hashing the same ads used for display and hoping that consumers will interact with it is not going to cut it. Think about creative ways to utilise the medium in order to appeal to users who are aware of the device's potential.