I have only just mastered routinely writing “2014” on my reports but Father Time is about to screw all that up by bringing in a new year. With 2014 swiftly drawing to a close, Marketers will be scrambling to find the next big trends for 2015.
Well I have done some of the hard work work for you by tracking down the latest marketing trend predictions for 2015. Over the coming months, we’ll be seeing many many more lists like this packed with ideas from our industries ‘gurus’ & ‘prophets’. I will let you be the judge of their legitimacy, potential for application and credence.
So in no particular order here are a range of educated guesses for 2015:
1. Brands As Publishers
“We’re taking the notion of “”brands are publishers”” and pushing the boundaries of that further. 2015 really will be the year we create and curate content our customers will thank us for. ”
2. Paid Placements Are Here to Stay
“The days of free reach are over. If you don’t pay, your followers very likely won’t see anything you’re doing in the social realm. Build budgets and relationships around content placement, sponsorship opportunities, syndication services, and content recommendation platforms. ” Lizetta Staplefoote – Source
3. Mobile Will Dominate: Master It
“Forrester predicts that by 2020, 1 in 5 sales will result from data collected from wearable devices. Fine-tune your mobile strategy to encompass the totality of content execution: persona profiling, content theme, design and distribution.” Lizetta Staplefoote – Source
4. Skills Required : Psychology
“Marketers with a background in psychology will become more relevant than marketers with a background in almost anything else.” Carrie Tylawsky – Source
5. The Year of Paid Amplification
“2015 will be the year of paid amplification. With content marketing reaching near-ubiquity, the success pendulum will swing toward boosting consumption of content. That will put a new focus on math, testing and optimization.” Jay Baer – Source
6. Social Media Marketing Needs Diversity
“It seems like new social media sites are appearing all the time and have surged in popularity.This diversification seems to prove fruitful for many companies because it often builds brand equity by making it easier for consumers to recognize a particular brand.” Russells Group – Source
7. Wearable Technology Meets Marketing
“There is a vast change on our horizon that will be led by augmented reality and wearable technology. By the end of 2015, wearable technology should be gathering enough steam that we will begin to see some early marketing applications.” Mark Schaefer – Source
8. Micro-targeting: Get to Know Your Customers
“If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you won’t know what to say. Committing to buyer persona development lets you deep dive into needs, lifestyle, and motivations of your buyers.” Lizetta Staplefoote – Source
9. Authenticity Will Be Key To Success
“When companies prioritise promotional plugs over valuable content, nobody wins. Companies need to invest in marketing vehicles that allow them to establish a level of authenticity with their audience. Understand what’s valuable to your audience. Couple that with magnetic brand messaging.” John Hall – Source
10. The Age of Accessible Data
“People have always been sceptical about handing over their data to brands. Our openness with personal data will grow throughout 2015, granting more opportunities for brands to engage with their customers.” Lise Pinnell – Source
11. Learn From Differences
“We will see a more conscious effort to bring disparate groups to the table to learn how to collaborate across screens, channels, and moments of truth to deliver ONE experience to customers wherever they are in the lifecycle.”
12. Embracing Future-Facing Business Models
“Over the next 12 months, consumers will learn that they no longer have to accept the same trade-offs that they used to. In response, brands must go beyond fine-tuning and embrace new business models that deliver unreasonable propositions.”
13. Hiring: Chief Digital Officer
“Chief Digital Officers will help organizations lessen their focus on demand creation and heighten it on organizing an end to end customer journey through digital storytelling tactics.” John Jantsch – Source
14. Act Like Entrepreneurs
“Brands need to start thinking a bit like entrepreneurs, evaluating these ideas much like a savvy seed investor would do.”
15. ‘Digital’ as an Ecosystem
“In 2015 companies will stop treating digital marketing as a tactic and embrace it as an ecosystem. The ecosystem will enable a singular goal of attracting, engaging and retaining new and existing customers by providing needed information & content” Bill Hunt – Source
16. Media Aquisitions
“In 2015 we will see a large move among brands to buy media companies, flush with cash and short on patience to build loyal audiences.” Joe Pulizzi – Source
17. Automation Tools Change the Way We Play
“Existing marketing automation suites look to make real-time marketing real. According to research from The Aberdeen Group, using marketing automation can increase conversion rates by over 50 percent.”
18. Quantify Your Marketing
“An ever-expanding mix of devices and channels is creating even greater pressures for digital teams to quantify their efforts. The market demand for talented analysts & data-savvy marketers has been in place long enough that 2015 is the year digital measurement finally comes of age.” Adam Singer – Source
19. People Centric Marketing
“Employee Advocates will humanize digital marketing experiences on behalf of their brands, outperforming traditional media investments.”
20. Expect Their Expectactions
“A running theme throughout the above predictions is the heightened expectations of the modern tech-savvy consumer. If they actually come to be in 2015, the emphasis will be on brands taking their customer’s demands seriously and ensure their business is set up to deliver on them.
Those that achieve this this will benefit from superior brand awareness, improved conversion rates, better brand affinity and the ultimate customer loyalty.”
Col Skinner – Source: Me
I would love to hear your predictions for 2015 in the comments section below.