Future Trends in Digital Marketing

Virtual Reality

According to TechTarget, virtual reality relates is a software created to make the user accept the environment shown on the technology device. It is a technique becoming more popular in digital marketing with many companies such as IKEA and Samsung. Samsung have created a VR (Virtual Reality) headset. It shows you a completely different setting and location, making you feel like it’s real.

 

An example of a company who use Virtual Reality is Samsung. The video above shows exactly how it works and why it was so successful. Customers experience something they never do in real life, and that’s what makes it stands out above other headsets in the market.

According to the insider, there are many future trends to come in the new year. ‘In digital, the key to success is knowing which platforms and technologies present the best opportunities for your business and audience.’ This statement shows how important digital marketing can be for business when it comes to engaging with customers in the right way in order to gain success. There are many examples of future trends in digital marketing.

Video Advertising

This method of advertising is becoming more popular and is used by many companies world wide. According to the insider, 43% of customers said they would prefer to see more video content in marketing. There is an increase in the younger population who view more video content on their mobile devices than ever before. Video advertising in this case would prove to be very helpful for companies. It would steer the company in the right direction in terms of connecting with the customers in the most effective way.

Social Media Advertising

Today, there is also a higher usage in social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Companies can take great advantage of this and gain the attention of their consumers on these platforms. Several makeup brands & artists advertise their products & service over snapchat e.g. Inglot (popular makeup brand in Ireland). They would always announce their new updates on Facebook to increase interaction on their snapchat. Other companies that may use Snapchat for advertising would be fitness/gymnastics. They may post content in relation to healthy foods, different work outs etc. This type of advertising is a great way to target the correct segment of the target audience.

 

 

Brands using Pinterest

Companies on Pinterest

Pinterest is a free website used by many companies, who post images of products and services their business provides. I will discuss three companies that use Pinterest on a daily basis. Two Irish brand that use Pinterest are Dunnes Stores & Aerlingus, and the finish brand I chose to research is Finnair.

Dunnes Stores

Above is a screenshot of the first thing you see when you click on their page. They have 2.252 followers and are following zero users. This indicates that they provide a Pinterest icon on their website which helps to spread word of mouth and boost interactions in various platforms. They didn’t have to follow others to receive a follow back.  When you click on a product, it directs you to their website on a new tab. This is a very good feature to have as it means less effort for the user having to go searching for the website themselves. Straight away it provides you with the price and how to purchase the product.

For Christmas their advertising was very relevant and inviting, using vibrant and appealing images. Their pictures drew people in and got them into the festive season. They contain pictures of people wearing winter clothing perfect for that time of year, making them look even more attractive in such attractive photos.

Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus is one of the most famous Irish airlines today. Their Pinterest account consists of many different types of imagery. They post different holiday posts during the summer, such as hotels & swimming pools in hot countries.

They sponsor the Irish rugby team, which they post about daily. This is a very good way of spreading brand awareness and helping customers perceive your brand in a positive way.

Finnair

This is a very popular Finish Airline. They include different travel destinations and travel inspiration quotes on their Pinterest platform. When you click on their images, it takes you to a new tab that provides information about that destination in that image. It also gives you the option to book flights with Finnair to that actual destination. Some of their images even bring you to a blog (‘Finnair Blog’) written about a particular city, where a lot of their customers book flights to.

 

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

 

What is SEO?

According to Red Authority, SEO is an activity that helps to improve the search engine rankings when browsing. When users search on google, websites that come up on the results page contain the key words in the content of that website. It also conducts a page ranking process, which refers to the most popular visited pages being at the top of the list. It also analyses the quality and number of links coming from other web pages. If web pages link to each other, search engines rank them higher. Examples of such search engines can be Google, Bing/Yahoo. High quality content encourages people to link to your site, this leads to search engines ranking your page higher.

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The video below includes information about what SEO is and what it is used for. Key factors such as on-page, off-page, page ranking, and key words are also discussed. It helps us understand the importance of SEO, especially for business’s who want to direct online browsers to their website.

On-Page SEO

According to the Moz blog, on-page seo mainly refers to the content of web pages. It ensures the optimization of web pages individually, resulting in more relevant content in search engines and higher ranking. Brian Dean states in his blog that there are a list of factors that search engines love, examples include:

• Start your title with key words

This is the most important factor, because the closer your key word is to the title, the better.

• Add modifiers to your title

Examples of modifiers: ‘2017’ ‘best of’ ‘reviews’ – ensure higher ranking of the website.

• Posting longer content 

Long content on certain pages tend to rank higher much higher thank others – ”length is strength”

• Optimization of Imagery

Always ensure that your target keyword is part of the image text in the content.

• Include keywords in the first 100 words

This helps the search engine identify the text of the content quicker.

•  Correct URL’s

URL’s should be SEO-friendly, short and include the main keyword.

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Off-Page SEO

According to search engine land, off-page factors are ones that publishers cannot control directly. These factors are also used by search engines, as they found that relying on publisher-controls didn’t always provide great results. Alex Chris states that off-page SEO mainly refers to actions performed outside of the boundaries of your page. Three most important consist of:

Off-page SEO refers to activities you can perform outside the boundaries of your website. The most important are:

• Link Building

This is the most popular and effective method. This helps compete with competitors           and rank higher within search engines

• Social Media Marketing

There should be a direct link to your website from all social media accounts.

• Social bookmarking

Not the most popular method, however still gains more ranking.