By Upendra Mishra
WALTHAM, MA—In the beginning of each year, marketing and research pundits come up with their forecasts about what is going to happen during the rest of year. Some are right, some are wrong and some so-so. But numbers and research data they provide become a guiding post for savvy marketers. Here are a few numbers we should keep in mind as we plan for 2016 and beyond.
CONTENT MARKETING: Content marketing is the king of online marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 88 percent of Business-to-Business and 76 percent of Business-to-Consumer organizations are using content marketing.
EMAIL MARKETING: Do not underestimate the power of email marketing. Despite powerful spam filters, unsubscribe options and people getting annoyed by too many emails, email marketing is effective. In fact, email marketing holds the second place after search (SEO) marketing. According to an article in Forbes magazine, email marketing is responsible for 16 percent of customers acquired, compared with the less than 1 percent acquisition rate from Facebook.
SEARCH ENGINE (SEO) MARKETING: Search engine optimization, popularly known as SEO, is one of the most effective marketing tools for increasing online visibility. Yet, 50 percent of businesses doing digital marketing had no form of digital marketing plan or strategy, according to a 2015 study by Smart Insights. In a recent survey by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive, 89 percent of consumers reported using search engines to inform their purchase decisions, according to Search Engine Land.
VIDEO MARKETING: As the watching habits of people (especially the younger generation) shift to computer screens and mobile devices from traditional television, you should not ignore video marketing. By video marketing, I mean both video advertising and your own video production that you can host on your website and social media channels as well as email to your target audience.
Marketing pundits are predicting that video will account for 69 percent of consumer internet traffic by next year; 7 in 10 people view brands more positively after watching their video content; and 64 percent of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies, according to Audience Bloom.
(Mr. Mishra is founder and president of the Waltham, MA-based The Mishra Group, an integrated full-service marketing and public relations firm. Since 1997, the Mishra Group has provided comprehensive, results-oriented solutions for the fast-paced new age of online and traditional marketing through the area’s best writers and editors and most talented graphic and Web designers and digital media strategists. For more information, visit: www.MishraGroup.com.)
