Marketing efforts pivot to accommodate future trends

z131One thing has become clear in a year where the marketing waters have been rather murky at best. The one major revelation seems to be that potential customers don’t want to be found by you. Shoppers, it seems, are at the controls of the entire buying cycle and online marketing strategies have begun to scramble to accommodate the current trend. Marketing stats, recently gathered from various sources, are telling a tale that is spelling that you had best pivot and best pivot fast.

  •  Nearly 90% of people surveyed opt out of a company’s email program shortly after they had agreed to join and that same number never watches commercials on television. Oh, and nearly half of all direct mail efforts are tossed in the trash unopened.
  • What many marketing experts, over 70% of them, are finding is that branded content and event marketing are, perhaps, the most effective ways that potential customers can find them.
  • Around half of people (46%) polled in various research declared that the design of a website is directly linked to credibility in their minds. Content, especially visual content, is the most effective way to generate leads and conversions as well as establish company credibility, name recognition, and brand loyalty.
  • One fairly amazing marketing stat has revealed that in test after test, there was an increase of nearly 90% in conversions if the landing page had a video presentation.
  • The Millennial Gen Y demographic (born 1981-2000) are, now nearly 30% of the American population and are making a huge impact in both the workplace and the marketplace. Tapping in to them is where many businesses see their future as going. They are hugely connected to social media and reviews, comments, and opinions of peers are extremely influential to them with regard to their buying.
  • Content continues, and will continue, to be the backbone of online marketing efforts. Nearly 70% of all American businesses outsource their content marketing and that 70% of customers consider a company’s content extremely important with regard to purchasing decisions and taking the measure of a company.
  • Companies that maintain a blog at their site will see nearly 70% more leads and conversions than those businesses that don’t have one at all. One other rather distressing stat is, even in this day in age, over half of all American small businesses don’t even have a website much less a content strategy.
  • In addition, adding fresh and engaging content on a regular basis, drives over five times the traffic than at company sites that have no content at all.

There will be so much you will need to pay attention to with regard to your online marketing strategies for the upcoming year. Get your site in shape, generate content, and lay out a long term strategy for your business to be found.

You can bet your rivals are.