While outbound marketing strategies are still popular, they are losing the spotlight to the inbound marketing which has proven to be more effective. In fact, if you use inbound marketing properly, it can be even 10 times more effective in generating leads than the classic outbound techniques. Inbound marketing strategies develop rapidly and it’s important to keep up with the newest trends out there. You sneeze, you lose – so here are the top 5 most important trends you should keep your eyes on.
1.Be Mobile Friendly
More than 50% of search queries globally are taking place on mobile devices. And the number is increasing drastically every. This means that all your content, home and landing pages must have a mobile-friendly design and interface. As a matter of fact, this also plays an important role in the case of SEO, since the algorithms of search engines like Google rank mobile-friendly sites more favorably.
2. Use Presentations, Infographics, Videos and Interactive Content
Quality content is crucial because no one will want to spend time reading pointless articles created only for SEO purposes. Moreover, also the way you provide the valuable content is important. Nowadays, it’s all about stunning visual content and interaction. Of course, blog posts and white papers are still important, however, customers are increasingly looking for more visually engaging content like infographics or embedded presentations.
3. Don’t Leave The Email Marketing Behind
Although many new interactive inbound marketing channels are emerging, email marketing is still a highly lucrative strategy. In fact, 2 out of every 3 marketers consider that email marketing leads to excellent or at least good ROI. So don’t leave the email marketing behind but instead focus on increasingly visual, interactive and engaging content that will be helpful to innovate the way we have seen emails until now.
4. Narrow The Gap Between Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing shouldn’t be seen as two opposite poles in businesses, instead, they should be working tightly together. Smarketing – an integration between the sales and marketing processes – is a must for those who want to keep up with the inbound marketing movement. Why? Companies with effective smarketing strategies generate over 208% more revenues from marketing effortsm.
5. Take Advantage Of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Data Analytics
This is one of the most interesting new trends that is revolutionizing the way marketing is done. AI solutions can automate most marketing processes and give you useful recommendations grounded in machine learning. One example you should be exploring is chatbots. Since Facebook Messenger allowed the creation of chatbots, at least 34,000 chatbots have been developed to improve customer relations.
Time doesn’t stand still and neither does marketing. So if you want to be a successful marketer, you should adapt your strategy to the upcoming trends and always have keep a second eye on the future.
