The days of kids donning their early morning smiles on front door steps for first-day-of-school pictures are here. It’s personally one of my favorite times of year on social media. Watching everyone’s families grow and sharing moments we all have in common always makes me smile in return.
The fashion trends that I see also make me giggle a bit. The “new” torn jeans, flannel shirts, and re-emergence of corduroy and, god forbid, mullets are all too familiar to me and that makes me smile too.
Back to school naturally gets me thinking about what’s trendy. And while they might not be as flashy as back-to-school clothes, there are trends in the digital marketing world right now that I think might be helpful to bring light to.
Here’s the top five trends we’re seeing in the digital world and among our clients this back to school season.
1-Privacy
If you’re reading the headlines, you’ve likely noticed that major players like Apple and Google are making what seem like bold moves with new privacy controls nowadays. Our response? Good! We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, it’s a necessary part of the evolution of the digital world. A question we get from our clients is, “Will this affect my digital marketing?”. The answer is, absolutely, but change and evolution have always been a part of digital marketing. So, how we play the game continues to evolve and we like that challenge!
2-Simplicity
Good websites contain lots of useful information, but it’s no secret that the best performing sites make sure that content is digestible and mobile friendly. When our clients simplify, they get better results, and we’re seeing more clients wanting to go that route. One example we saw recently was a client who greatly simplified their online applications and made them easy to fill out on mobile. They saw a meaningful increase in engagement and you will too, if you put yourself in the user’s shoes and make their web experience simple and straightforward.
3-Price shopping
Prospective clients often aren’t afraid to tell us up front that they’re shopping around. We think that’s a smart thing to do! Our tip for shopping around: make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. Having a responsive partner matters and little things like free quarterly ad updates and meaningful monthly results matter. In other words, make sure you know what value you’re getting for your marketing investment.
4-Viewing digital as essential
A line we hear a lot is, “We know we need to be there (in digital), we’re just not sure where to start”.
So if this is you, you’re not alone! It’s become very clear in recent years that what used to be a “nice to have” has now become a necessity in marketing plans – and that component is digital marketing. Just note that not all digital marketing is created equal. A great digital partner will help you find the solutions that are in line with your specific goals instead of a cookie-cutter approach.
5-Using data to make decisions
So, if I were to geek out about something, it would probably be this. I have long said that one of the most powerful parts of digital marketing is the ability to learn from and apply it in real time. Beyond just delivering impressions and clicks, we can actually see who is clicking, when they’re clicking, what they’re clicking on, what they’re not clicking on, what taglines and photos resonate the most with them… and use that information to direct your marketing efforts! We see more and more clients using their top performing headlines in their newsletters, sharing content related to their most clicked on ads on social media, and using the data we gather through digital marketing to inform better marketing strategies. I mean, it’s direct audience feedback! It’s valuable insight that they’re not getting from traditional marketing.
While that rounds out of the top five, it’s just the beginning of a long list of advances we’re seeing in the world of digital marketing. I’ll close by saying that it’s fun to finally see digital marketing not just as a trend, but as an institution that has its own trends. Hopefully you’ve found a few here that were meaningful. If you’d like to talk more, Sarah is a great person to chat with. She is a good listener, and I would encourage you to email or reach out if you have questions!