What does your 2015 marketing strategy look like?
You may plan to measure the options that have been effective for your business in the past. Ideally, you should have set aside time and a portion of your budget to explore the cutting-edge trends. After all, taking risks and leading the charge into unexplored areas will keep you one step ahead of your competitors in the longer term. In today’s post, we put together a list of top three digital trends that we think social media marketers should pay attention to as they launch their strategy for 2015.
1. Social Shopping Will Become A Fundamental Element of e-Commerce
Research found that most people spend the majority of their day browsing social media, which leads to the booming of online shopping. Thus, it’s natural to expect that major social media channels will introduce the ability to buy items directly within their application in the near future.
In fact, both Twitter and Facebook have announced that they are testing out a “Buy” button, and people should expect to see this feature made available to the public in 2015. Twitter explains that its “Buy” button is intended to make shopping from mobile devices more convenient, as purchases can be completed with just a few taps.
In the near future, it’s easy to expect how social shopping could be enhanced with recommendations from your social community or influencers you follow. Twitter could also include the number of people in your network who bought a product you’re considering along with a list of reviews next to the “Buy” button.
Also, the “Buy” button can be integrated to boost the ad’s reaching capabilities, so brands can pay to get their products in front of more eyeballs.
2. A Customer Experience Management Strategy Is A Must
Simply put, your brand is the sum of customers’ complete experiences with you across all touch points. It is defined by how customers experience your products, employees and content each time they interact with your brand.
Brands must be swift enough to create holistic experiences for the consumer that cover customer service, social channels, web properties, paid advertising and in-store environments. Organisations that break free of the traditional approach to running a business in favor of integrated technology and processes will be successful at building a strong connection with consumers.
A good business is about crafting a solid relationship capital through smart experience management. Social media (being all about relationships) is one of the best places to nurture this type of capital. So, as companies prioritise managing customer experiences across all touchpoints, social media will increasingly be considered an important way that collaborates with all other elements to deliver relevant, delightful experiences.
3. Customer Experience Management Will Get A Boost from Location-Based Advertising
Customer experience management goes in tandem with delivering more personalised experiences to the consumer, which marketers have been tinkering with for a while. The rise of proximity technology that allows companies to deliver timely messaging to consumers based on their location at any given time is a huge step towards more sophisticated personalised marketing. Apple’s iBeacon is a good example.
Sooner or later, social media platforms will find a lot of ways of using proximity technology to deliver highly-targeted, relevant promotions or content based on a consumer’s location or activity. For example, when a female prospect who browses the rack at a department store on a cold winter day checks her Facebook feed, she’ll see an ad for an article on ways to stylish winter trench coat. There are numerous possibilities for this feature, waiting to be explored.