Yeah I know what you’re thinking. It’s May. Aren’t you little late with your 2015 predictions? Well maybe but…
1) we like to be different and thought we’d avoid the flood of posts at the new year and…
2) we thought we’d be more accurate this way.
So again this year, back in January, we gathered four passionate internet marketing consultants at our favourite hangout across from the Marketing Garage so that we could present you our 10 top internet marketing trends for 2015.
Around the table were:
- Bob Nunn, Internet Marketing Consultant and co-founder of The Marketing Garage
- Matt Colangelo, Digital Marketing Consultant and owner of his local search firm
- Mike Granger, Pay-per-click Marketing Consultant
- Skylar Burns, Website Mechanic
Brand & Craft Will Gain Greater Value.
The early days of SEO are over and as every major internet marketer achieves roughly equal proficiency in getting their site found online, Google will put more emphasis on ranking the content that gets clicked on, read and shared. So having the same standard boring content as everyone else won’t work as well. In a world increasingly flooded by the same content all trying to be king, human beings will read and react to content that’s well crafted, well-written and well-designed by brands they trust. And so will Google. – Bob Nunn
Mobile Will Get It’s Own Focus In AdWords
Smartphone’s and tablets are increasingly being used to browse websites and make purchases with many of our client’s seeing 30-40% of all their website traffic between the two. Several market research companies have estimated that revenue from mobile advertising has more than doubled in 2013 and then again in 2014, and will again increase significantly in 2015.
While Google is currently by far the market leader in desktop search (text) ads worldwide, they’re lacking a bit on the mobile front and dealing with significant competition from Yahoo and other mobile focused companies. To compete, Google will need to create a separate and unique strategy to thrive in the mobile ad market. (Funny enough, we just got an email yesterday from our Google rep to discuss brand new mobile features. Hmmm…) – Mike Granger (You can read one of Mike’s recent posts on pay-per-click advertising here.)
There Will Be More Value In Continuously Improving Your Site
In today’s fast moving digital-first world, companies can no longer build a website and then leave it in it’s original state for 5-10 years. Today, many companies are making a conscious effort to improve their website on a monthly basis. Investment into continuous website improvement can help companies stay ahead of the competition, take advantage of digital trends, and improve site performance. The practice of continuous site improvement can be as simple as adding a series of content rich service pages to help improve authority with Google, or as complex as a complete revamp of the home page to help improve conversions. For those companies that practice continuous website improvement, they can look back every 6-12 months and find measurable progress. For example, adding 3-5 content pages every month can have a website go from 10 pages deep to 50 pages deep in 12 months leading to an increase in organic rankings and traffic. Or, improvement of the home page design could see conversion rates jump from 2% to 3.5% leading to an increase in excess of 50% more customers. – Matt Colangelo
Site Design Will Become More About Storytelling
We’ve already seen a general move online towards more visual content not only with the social networks (Instagram, Pinterest and now Facebook) but also with site design with the increasingly popular full screen width design. More marketing companies will adopt this look in 2015 but we’ll also see the vertical flow of a page develop with more emphasis on visuals and shorter content bursts to tell a more compelling, higher-converting story of a product or brand. Here’s a great example from Fitbit.com. Note how the background images add to the story versus distracting you. – Skylar Burns
SEO Tricks Are For Kids
“Hi! Want to be on the first page of Google? We guarantee it!” Amazingly I’m still getting these emails (and I’m an internet marketer myself!). The SEO market is reaching maturity and Google continues to raise the bar on getting found. The “quick-fix” SEO shops are reaching the bottom of the market and aren’t long for this world. True SEO professionals who know how to work with marketing strategists, researchers, writers and other professionals and can think long-term are the future. – Bob Nunn
E-Commerce Will Rocket In Canada
More and more Canadians are making purchases online. In 2010, 3.4% of all retail purchases were made online. In 2016, this number is projected to reach 5.3%. In comparison, the U.S. made 5.0% of all retail purchases online in 2010 and is projected to reach 7.1% in 2016.
Canadian consumer’s have historically been more hesitant in embracing e-commerce than their American counterparts but I predict that this gap will significantly narrow. As more money is invested in US retail e-commerce, their sites, prices, and sales will improve which will spill over to Canadians and shift their buying habits. – Mike Granger
Legit Reviews Will Become More Important
We all know the expression “fake it, until you make it”. I would advise you not to do this with reviews. The review sites that matter have algorithms in place to pick up on “fake” or ‘fraudulent” reviews; and new laws are being introduced that can get companies in legal trouble should it be discovered their reviews were fabricated. Why put your business at risk with fake reviews when you have real happy customers that can leave real reviews? While it may make take a little bit more effort to chase customers around for real reviews, they are still possible to acquire. Set a goal with your business this year, make it a point to get 1 new Google + review and 1 new industry-specific authority site review each month for the next 12 months. Be persistent with your happy customers to leave reviews and you should have no problem acquiring 2-3 real reviews per month. – Matt Colangelo
There Will Be Lots Of Work In Fixing SEO
As an internet marketing consultant, I frequently see clients who used to have good keyword rankings that have since fallen off. One of the main reason this happens is that over the years the Google algorithm has gotten more sophisticated at detecting people who are trying to cheat their way to the top.
I still see competitors that game the system, but I believe that Google will continue to adapt and penalize these businesses in the near future. To avoid a Google penalty, I recommend listening closer to Google’s slogan “Don’t be evil” and only engage in practices that make your site better for your visitors. – Mike Granger
Display ‘Goldrush’ Will Make Fraud A Bigger Issue
There’s a gold rush in online advertising as marketers rush to catch up with the change in consumer’s media habits. You could argue that anyone buying on an impressions basis vs. pay-per-click basis is already getting taken as some sites count an impression even it’s below the fold what the site visitor sees but, worse than that, the frantic need to buy ad inventory anywhere and everywhere online is enticing less scrupulous site owners and other motivated parties to engage in click fraud. A recent internet marketing study found that 11% of all display ad clicks were fraudulent – 19% for sexy-sounding ‘programmatic’ advertising. Advertisers will become more aware of the issue and the smart ones will put more focus on buying on the basis of clicks and conversions. (Here’s a short case study on what focusing on pay-per-click conversion can do for you.) – Bob Nunn
GIFs Will Go Beyond The Meme
We’ve become familiar with GIFs – short, animated images – by seeing them as social media memes on sites like Reddit and Imgur. But in 2015 we’ll see them go beyond that turf and onto mainstream websites replacing static images to make a more interesting presentation. We’ve seen it used well in About Us sections of a site where the traditional mug shot of the staff (like mine on the left) is replaced by a moving image not unlike the newspapers in Harry Potter. We’ve even see Google pull these right into a search engine result page with a huge visual impact as it’s the only thing moving on the page. – Skylar Burns
So how’d we do? Let us know and give us any predictions you might have for the rest of 2015.
More Digital Marketing Agency Insight:
An Internet Marketer’s View On 3 Over-Hyped Website Trends.
2 Points On The Impact Of Internet Marketing On Elections
The Marketing Garage is an award-winning Toronto digital marketing agency that has extensive experience in cultivating effective digital marketing strategies. We help businesses in many different sectors across North America fix their marketing. Our data-driven mix of SEO and digital marketing process is like no other.
