Digital marketing trends are quickly evolving every day. In fact as far as the business world is concern, the only constant thing is change. From technological trends, to the ever changing business models to evolving customer preferences, there are a lot of things to consider in order for business marketers to actually have a glimpse on what is important about the next step in marketing. The old digital tactics and mastering channels are quickly being overcome by the need to design a mutual brand experience across the digital experience both on and offline. Users have to have access to information across all platforms, devices and apps in order for the brand to be the best solution. Whenever users are looking for information, they will want to figure out what is next and where to focus. Digital marketing is cost effective, but for it to be really efficient, businesses have to consider the top 4 digital marketing trends that dominated 2014. They have to take advantage of these trends if they want to earn more profit and create more useful leads.

Top 4 Digital Marketing Trends of 2014

1. Social Media Diversification Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are not the only ones that command the social media platform today. Although, they are still the most popular social media networks, social media networks like Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest are also surging forward. In 2013, while ninety three percent of marketers claimed that social media was an integral part in their marketing strategy, the number has significantly continued to grow this year, which means more marketers will continue to focus and capitalize on these huge figures come next year. Because of this, social media diversification has become one of the top marketing trends of 2014. It is projected that come 2015, business marketers will seek to establish a significant presence in the social media in the above mentioned networks and other so as to connect with the potential customers while building their brands. Paid advertising is also expected to increase especially on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. Social media have also proved to be very useful for building reputation and searching for rankings so it is only a matter of time before marketers think of not only using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube but also consider Pinterest, Instagram and other small networks. 2. Ad Re-targeting or Re-marketing Business marketers who are looking to convert their web traffic to useful leads are now using re-marketing strategy. First time website visitors most of the time do not become real business customers on their first visit but most of them end up becoming loyal customers if follow up are made. It is estimated that only two percent of first time visitors are converted to successful customers at their first visit, a figure that is very small. Therefore, businesses are now employing Re-targeting as an essential element in digital marketing trend to lure more leads to their businesses. Basically, re-targeting helps business marketers target potential customers who have previously visited the organization website but fail to convert. It helps business display what they offer on websites that its potential customer might visit. AdRoll is an example of re-targeting service which has a huge popularity. It has received accolade of being among the fastest growing businesses in the entire world in 2014. Business marketers are also considering the use of Google digital remarketing to target potential customers that are using goggle services all over the world. Visitors who visit a site and they don’t necessarily end up buying are not suppose to be forgotten, but re-targeted in future if the business wants to grow. 3. Location based Marketing Location based marketing boost of being the most popular digital marketing trend of 2014. This trend makes use of GPS technology to deliver marketing content that are tailored according to the geographical location of the customer. Location based marketing make use of users’ Smartphone GPS services to help cater for their specific needs. This ensures that only relevant marketing content are only relayed to correct consumes, making is very simple for both the consumer and marketer to conduct their business. The following are example of location based apps; Path, Foursquare and Ban.jo. These apps retrieve vital location data of the customer which marketers use to deliver information to customers. According to statistics, 91 percent of adult phone have this app in their devices and marketers can exploit this massive market opportunity. In addition, these applications are further being advanced to enable users to directly buy things from their phones using their credit cards. This near field communication- NFC that allows customers to make online secure payment directly through their mobile phone has greatly revolutionizes digital marketing. Businesses are now taking advantage of this trend to win more and more customer. 4. Content Curation There are many content curation apps available such as Pulse, Fancy, Flipboard and Food spotting that help users to tweak feeds by businesses and merchants according to their context and individual interests. The data is filtered and customized platforms are curated by the user according to his or her needs. This marketing strategy has become an important trend in 2014 because it provides customers with greater engagement option with the business. Business marketer can easily increase relevancy in marketing because customers can specifically arrange content which is posted according to what they consider relevant to them. Pinterest is one of these websites because of its intriguing curation possibilities. Users can also use Quora and other websites to help arrange the posted content according to their suit. These are the top marketing trends that have dominated 2014. Although, the business world keeps changing everyday, marketers have to put a lot of emphasis on these trends alongside other emerging trends. The business world is a dynamic field and digital marketing keep on developing every single day, therefore marketer have to keep a close watch on these trends. In summary, marketing messages conveyed by these marketing trends have to be very simple and brief because consumers are constantly being overloaded with information everyday. Also, for digital marketing trends to be successful, they have to freely accommodate new approaches, technologies and most of all, put high priority on the user needs.