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Doing Business Online - Current Trends
The world of technology evolves at an ever advancing rate and for companies who undertake business on the internet there has never been so important a time to stay abreast of change.For the savvy businesses who stay aware of emerging trends and technologies there are seemingly unprecedented opportunities; however, for the companies who are unaware of the latest trends their marketing campaigns could well become a proverbial money pit. The saying ‘knowledge is power’ exists for a reason.
Here, we provide an overview of the vital happenings that are and will continue to affect the way that companies do business on the internet.
Key Points For Online Businesses
Markets that may prove lucrative
The unstoppable growth of Smartphone users shows no sign of slowing down, however of particular note is the unprecedented uptake of Smartphone technology in underpenetrated markets. Over the past twelve months alone there has been a 20% jump in Smartphone users in such markets, which includes countries such as China, India, Brazil and Indonesia (Amazon 2014).
The uptake of tablets
It will come as no surprise that tablet use is now more common than ever, however what is worth noting is that growth seen over the past few years have proven the tablet to have grown more quickly than PCs ever did.
This not only serves to underline the importance of having a mobile friendly website presence, but may well point to the importance of specifically enhancing the user experience when browsing via tablet.
Mobile Marketing
The global amount that is spent annually on internet marketing continues its steady growth and is up by $16 billion dollars to $116 billion in total. What is most notably within this spend however is that mobile marketing is up by a staggering 47% over the past 12 months alone (Amazon 2014).
Key Trends For Savvy Businesses
Content will be a more powerful king than ever
Content marketing is looking set to become more important than ever, however the way in which businesses undertake content market is changing. The upcoming 12 months is promising a shift towards image and video based content marketing. This is easily verified by both YouTube and Pinterest growth, with YouTube providing 50% more viewing hours in 2013 than in 2012 and with Pinterest expanding from 10 million users to 50 million over the past 12 months (Jeff Bullas 2013). But having said that, you shouldn’t forsake all the other content marketing methods that have worked previously, an effective press release strategy can still have a significant impact.
Marketing messages made simple
Whilst there are no hard and fast statistics behind this forecasted trend, Marketing gurus are predicting an ongoing shift in what makes a marketing message effective. Experts say that messages will, and should, become simpler, and draw on the phenomenal successes of companies such as Apple and Google.
The importance of social media for SEO will continue to grow
Whilst Google will never reveal the secrets behind their ranking algorithm it’s pretty well known that social media interaction and the sharing of content has become increasingly important. This trend is forecasted to show no signs of slowing and businesses who are working this most effectively are the ones that thoroughly analyse their social media performance via Google Analytics.
This is just a quick look at some of the key points online businesses need to bear in mind, but the reality is that if your company is doing business online, it’s well worth trying to keep up to date with the latest trends, especially when it comes to how your competitors and your customers are using the Internet.
