The Truth About Your Brand's Truth

We all have experiences like this, but I distinctly remember being annoyed by the tagline a bank of mine once used, "Leading The Way.”  The suggestion, or at least my perception of the claim, was the bank wanted me to believe it was somehow leading me. I resented the claim and what I believed was the bank's arrogance and overblown sense of its role in my life.  I have an equal aversion to Christian Mingle’s “Find God's Match for You” tag line – but lets save that for another post.

We must remind ourselves that in the old (pre-social) marketing world there were a lot of bullshit promises that brands made. I was definitely a part of this at some point, so am equally guilty. But ultimately we did this in the old days because consumers did not have any choice. We paid to push messages in people’s faces.

Sure, the best marketers avoided ego-stroking brand claims in favour of target-centric, emotionally compelling messages, but the vast majority of ad messages in the old world trended heavily toward what could only be considered ‘arrogant’ claims. It was much easier back then because it took very little effort to say whatever we wanted to say.

What is clear however is that it takes a lot more work to understand what your target constituent truly is interested in, and what authentic role in a consumer conversation your brand can truly play today.  It's also kind of amazing to see how slowly we're all shifting our approach to the radically shifting consumer behaviour.  This despite the numerous examples and the new media reality we navigate today.

Consumers today must invite your message in. Yet most advertisers still continue to hammer on the proverbial front door to pitch their wares. Undoubtedly, a brand marketer has a much tougher job in today's invitation-only world – as a premium is now placed on true creativity, honesty, and authenticity.  

But the bottom line is that there is a real need to be true and authentic today. Yet many brands still think that they are either able to control their brand message or (at the very least) manage it through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and beyond.

Soda companies, for example, will spend millions trying to convince you that they care about youth obesity by sharing healthy factoids about humanity, while fried food companies will try to calm your nerves with recipe suggestions. It's not manipulation so much as it is their newfound ability to be a publisher and put out into their world thinly veiled content as an engine of positive brand perception.

In some instances, it works, connects and populates. In most instances though, it’s a complete waste of time because it was never authentic in the first place. Brands have to accept that they not only don't control their brands (not a new concept), but that even attempting to find the truth (for those who would be inclined to search, dig and better understand the discourse) may as well be all but lost in a world where the manipulation of content is as simple as touching a screen. 

Can brands protect themselves? They can. It will however be costly, time consuming and - ultimately - not worth the hassle and headache. As such, we are entering (kicking and screaming) the age of truth in branding.  A place where a brand is not a unique set of shared emotions through general consensus, but rather an ambiguous mix of content and emotions that are not as clear or easy to define as it once was.

The point is that your brand today should only seek to extend truth, authenticity, and credibility. Emotive brand strategies are built out of what is already true about your brand.  We are not talking about a list of features and benefits either. Your brand truth actually is what focuses consumers on the human, social, and environmental outcomes of those features and benefits, as well as the way in which your brand does its business.

Identifying your brand’s truth is truly an exploration of what lies behind what is already evident and understood about your brand. It is your way of identifying the meaning that lies now hidden in what your business does and how it does it. This analysis flows from the truth, yet illuminates that truth in a way that is more personally relevant and emotionally important to people.

Over time, these meaningful truths become more and more evident in what you do, and they will naturally become more appreciated and admired by your constituents.  As Churchill espoused, "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." 

Bottom line - the more genuine and authentic your brand truth – the closer to the hearts and minds of your customers you’ll be.  Your brands truth is your promise and it needs to ring true, be based on more than facts, and be deliberately aspirational in nature.  So, make certain your brand promise is authentic to what you really and truly do, and ensure credibility through an unwavering devotion to this truth. Godspeed.

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Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada. We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future - and believe the best way to predict it - is to create it.  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or if you have any questions contact Goodbuzz directly.

Understanding And Effectively Using A Hashtag #

Hashtags are like keywords that can be used to organize messages on a social network. A hashtag is only a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which makes it easier for users to find information. To understand hashtags you need to understand social search.  For example https://www.hashatit.com/ 

Just imagine that there are a number of people who are searching on specific topics (without knowing anyone on Twitter.) How do they find out who is tweeting about the things that they care about?  They use social search engines (as demonstrated above.) Google also incorporates hashtag search but the social search example above ONLY searches hashtags.

Therefore, when we employ the use of hashtags we are really only tagging things that people are (potentially) searching for. Adding a hashtag therefore facilitates the searching and grouping of messages with their given hashtags.  The real power of hashtags comes from other people using the same keyword(s) so that by clicking on a hashtag you can get a group of other messages on that topic. 


Hashtags should make your messages easier to organize and find. The trick is to hashtag keywords that you think other people would use when looking for the content contained in your message. You can do a quick search for keywords prior to posting your message to see which hashtags are popular (called “trending”). 

People typically use hashtags to: 

• Identify places, things, or brands or events: #Hawaii #Ferrari #CoolEvent  
• Connect with like-minded individuals: #CatLovers #TVaddicts

There are really only two reasons we employ hashtags: 

• Organize content 
• Increase exposure

These are obviously compelling reasons to use hashtags on your personal messages. They are even more compelling when it comes to using social media to promote your business. 

Three common mistakes to avoid: 

• Hashtagging every word (i.e. #I #am #so #excited #today)  
• Hashtagging the same word more than once (i.e. It is my #birthday. Here is a photo of my #birthday cake, my #birthday presents, and my awesome #birthday party!)  
• Separating keywords. If your keyword is “black cat” your hashtag should be #BlackCat. If you write it as #Black #Cat this will give you two different keywords: “black” and “cat”.

The most effective use of hashtagging is when you first search http://hashtagify.me/ and see what is trending.  If you can add a (relevant) trending hashtag to a post you’re effectively then entering a much larger conversation (and will naturally have much higher exposure.)

Anything you post with the word Canada in it (for example only) should be #Canada. Use the hashtag search and search for #Canada – and the social search engine will aggregate everyone's posts using the hashtag #Canada.  In a business environment, for example, if you worked as a marketer for Dyson, you may be reaching out to people using #vacuumcleaners (or whatever the most relevant hashtag was related to vacuums. 

Imagine in the Arab Spring when Egyptians were trying to overthrow their government.  If the people were limited to sharing information ONLY with those they know and follow on Twitter – very little information could be shared and little could be accomplished.  But if they searched for and followed the hashtag most relevant to the uprising (#arabsping for example,) and everyone was posting updates, news, and information using the hashtag #arabspring – you can start to see just how powerful hashtags are to aggregating and disseminating information.

Lastly, and you can of course experiment as you choose, but I was also lead to believe that there should never be more than three hashtags in any post. Keep it relevant and logical based upon what topics you think people are searching for.  

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Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada. We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.  Or contact us at info@Goodbuzz.ca and let us know how we may be of assistance to you.

PROTOTYPE THE FUTURE

The Internet’s dominant role in our lives means that it has become more than just an optional enhancement to the existing plans of effective marketing campaigns. Online branding and marketing strategies are now mandatory for the exposure and success of any organization (and it’s media-agnostic, multi-channel and rather complex.)  

It’s therefore more important than ever to understand the possibilities and limitations of digital media, and how to best employ sound marketing fundamentals in this rapidly changing technological landscape.

Consider the digital disruption that has transformed information economics—and are challenging traditional notions of economies of scale.  Digital disruption is not a new phenomenon. But the opportunities and risks it presents shift over time. Competitive advantage flows to the businesses that see and act on those shifts first.  

Imagine the considerable amount of data all linked by fixed and mobile communication networks and managed by layers of modular, interoperable software. Software is replacing hardware, rapidly accelerating the speed of innovation: the life cycle of many products and services (previously defined by physical obsolescence) is shrinking from decades to just days between software updates.

Information is also comprehended and applied through fundamentally new methods of artificial intelligence today that seek insights through algorithms using massive, noisy data sets.  Things are clearly getting more and more complicated and conventional business models may be simultaneously too big and too small.

So where to start?  At the highest level, company’s and brands both need a trusted, strategic partner who can assist in navigating these complex waters.  This is easily seen when looking at the multiple, potential paths that can be taken to achieve the same ends. Whether it’s mobile technology, interactive television, email campaigns, inbound, pay-per-click advertising, or social media at large - today’s businesses utilize a wide array of outlets in their marketing campaigns. 

What sets successful marketers apart however is the ability to create a cohesive and complementary strategy that utilizes this variety of complimentary elements effectively.  Goodbuzz can definitely help.

Beyond strategy, the data-driven nature of the Internet can instantly link your company with millions of potential consumers, and it can also provide an invaluable amount of information about the strength and success of your digital marketing campaigns. But in order to be able to draw such conclusions, you need to have a partner who understands how to interpret and respond to these results. Goodbuzz can definitely help.

One of the most primary and important aspects of marketing online today is making sure that your product, service, or brand message is easy for the public to find. The best way to achieve that on the web is through effective search engine optimization (SEO). It’s not only about maximizing the power of organic search methods, directory listings, and paid placement tactics, but also having an optimized website that’s both user and search-engine friendly. Goodbuzz can definitely help.  

Goodbuzz create compelling user experiences from concept through implementation, melding user needs, business objectives and technical constraints into a cohesive digital offering for numerous Fortune 500 brands. We fundamentally believe that the best way to predict the future is to prototype it.  Please let us know how we can help.   

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Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada.  We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future and believe the best way to predict it - is to create it.  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

BUDWEISER'S ‘LOST DOG’, GANGNAM STYLE, AND THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS

Don’t get us wrong - we certainly understand why agencies want brands to advertise – especially at the “Big Game.”  We also understand that a great Super Bowl spot can increase “brand favourability.” 

Budweiser's "Lost Dog" spot, for example, has accrued around 26 million YouTube views.  But so what?  Other then simply reinforcing existing brand loyalty, what are these brands really demonstrating?  That their agency knows how to craft a compelling story? 

You may recall PSY’s smash hit ‘Gangnam Style.’  It has been viewed so many times since it was uploaded in July 2012 that YouTube had to upgrade the way figures were shown (this as the original counter was based on a 32-integer system.)  But let us ask you a question.  Even though, like us, you were likely one of the more then 2 billion people to play a part in this zeitgeist – were you any more inclined to purchase a PSY album or song?  Any more then someone might be in purchasing a Budweiser? 

So unless the goal is to aggregate a new revenue stream as a YouTube publisher, how on earth does Budweiser's "Lost Dog" spot address the reality that, according to the brand’s parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev NV - 44% of 21 to 27-year-old drinkers today have never even tried Budweiser?  Moreover, what relevance is the “brand favourability” accrued from an adorable Super Bowl puppy spot related to addressing Budweiser's free-fall in sales? 

It begs the question – what is the role of advertising?  What is the role of a commercial if it does not ever translate into actual sales?  As agencies and brands move forwards - we definitely think this question will need to be more clearly answered,  especially by agencies urging brands to spend $4.5 million for a 30-second spot.

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Goodbuzz is your source for the ideas, trends and technology behind the world's most innovative digital marketing strategies.  Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada.  We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future and believe the best way to predict it - is to create it.  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Examining the Consumer Path to Purchase

Buyer decision processes are the decision-making processes undertaken by consumers in regard to a potential market transaction before, during, and after the purchase of a product or service.

More generally, decision-making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. Common examples include shopping and deciding what to eat. Decision-making is said to be a psychological construct. This means that although we can never "see" a decision, we can infer from observable behaviour that a decision has been made. Therefore we conclude that a psychological event that we call "decision making" has occurred. It is a construction that imputes commitment to action. That is, based on observable actions, we assume that people have made a commitment to effect the action.

In general there are three ways of analyzing consumer buying decisions. They are:

Economic models - These models are largely quantitative and are based on the assumptions of rationality and near perfect knowledge. The consumer is seen to maximize their utility. See consumer theory. Game theory can also be used in some circumstances.

Psychological models - These models concentrate on psychological and cognitive processes such as motivation and need recognition. They are qualitative rather than quantitative and build on sociological factors like cultural influences and family influences.

Consumer behaviour models - These are practical models used by marketers. They typically blend both economic and psychological models.

Neuroscience has become both a useful tool and a source of theory development and testing in buyer decision-making research, and using neuroimaging devices in order to investigate consumer behavior developed under the name of Neuromarketing. What is going on inside the head of the consumer as measured by various neuroimaging and biological correlates like genes and hormones can provide new insights and new ways to test theory, so this is a great opportunity for the decision-making researcher.[1]

There are 5 stages which a consumer often goes through when he/she around their Purchase. These stages also exist because of normal human psychology. These 5 stages are:

1. Problem/Need Recognition- This is in general the first stage in which the consumer recognizes that what essentially is the problem or need and hence accordingly a consumer can identify the product or kind of product, which would be required by the consumer. Page text.[2]  
2. Information Search- In information search, the consumer searches about the product, which would satisfy the need, which has been recognized by the consumer in the stage previous to this one.[2] 
3. Evaluation of Alternatives - In this stage, the consumer evaluates the different alternatives which the consumer comes across, when the consumer was searching for information. Generally in the information search the consumer comes across quite a few products and thus now the consumer has to evaluate and understand which product would be properly suited for the consumer.[2] 
4. Purchase- After the consumer has evaluated all the options and would be having the intention to buy any product, there could be now only two things which might just change the decision of the consumer of buying the product that is what the other peers of the consumer think of the product and any unforeseen circumstances. Unforeseen circumstances for example in this case could be financial losses, which led to not buying of the product.[2] 
5. Post Purchase Behavior- After the purchase the consumer might just go through post purchase dissonance in which the consumer feels that buying the other product would be better. But a company should really take care of it, taking care of post purchase dissonance doesn't only spread good words for the product but also increases the chance of frequent repurchase.[2]

Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon sees economic decision making as a vain attempt to be rational. He claims (in 1947 and 1957) that if a complete analysis is to be done, a decision will be immensely complex. He also says that peoples' information processing ability is very limited. The assumption of a perfectly rational economic actor is unrealistic. Often we are influenced by emotional and non-rational considerations. When we try to be rational we are at best only partially successful.

Models of Buyer Decision Making

In an early study of the buyer decision process literature, Frank Nicosia (Nicosia, F. 1966; pp 9–21) identified three types of buyer decision-making models. They are the univariate model (He called it the "simple scheme".) in which only one behavioural determinant was allowed in a stimulus-response type of relationship; the multi-variate model (He called it a "reduced form scheme".) in which numerous independent variables were assumed to determine buyer behaviour; and finally the "system of equations" model (He called it a "structural scheme" or "process scheme".) in which numerous functional relations (either univariate or multi-variate) interact in a complex system of equations.

He concluded that only this third type of model is capable of expressing the complexity of buyer decision processes. In chapter 7, Nicosia builds a comprehensive model involving five modules. The encoding module includes determinants like "attributes of the brand", "environmental factors", "consumer's attributes", "attributes of the organization", and "attributes of the message". Other modules in the system include, consumer decoding, search and evaluation, decision and consumption.

Some neuromarketing research papers examined how approach motivation as indexed by electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry over the prefrontal cortex predicts purchase decision when brand and price are varied. In a within-subjects design, the participants were presented purchase decision trials with 14 different grocery products (seven private label and seven national brand products) whose prices were increased and decreased while their EEG activity was recorded. The results showed that relatively greater left frontal activation (i.e., higher approach motivation) during the pre-decision period predicted an affirmative purchase decision. 

The relationship of frontal EEG asymmetry with purchase decision was stronger for national brand products compared with private label products and when the price of a product was below a normal price (i.e., implicit reference price) compared with when it was above a normal price. Higher perceived need for a product and higher perceived product quality were associated with greater relative left frontal activation.[3]

Cognitive and Personal Biases in Decision Making

It is generally agreed that biases can creep into our decision making processes, calling into question the correctness of a decision. Below is a list of some of the more common cognitive biases.

Selective search for evidence - We tend to be willing to gather facts that support certain conclusions but disregard other facts that support different conclusions. 

1. Selective perception - We actively screen out information that we do not think is salient.  
2. Premature termination of search for evidence - We tend to accept the first alternative that looks like it might work.  
3. Conservatism and inertia - Unwillingness to change thought patterns that we have used in the past in the face of new circumstances.  
4. Experiential limitations - Unwillingness or inability to look beyond the scope of our past experiences; rejection of the unfamiliar. 
5. Wishful thinking or optimism - We tend to want to see things in a positive light and this can distort our perception and thinking.
6.  Recency - We tend to place more attention on more recent information and either ignore or forget more distant information.   
7. Repetition bias - A willingness to believe what we have been told most often and by the greatest number of different of sources.  
8. Anchoring - Decisions are unduly influenced by initial information that shapes our view of subsequent information. 
9. Group think - Peer pressure to conform to the opinions held by the group.  
10. Source credibility bias - We reject something if we have a bias against the person, organization, or group to which the person belongs: We are inclined to accept a statement by someone we like.  
11. Incremental decision-making and escalating commitment - We look at a decision as a small step in a process and this tends to perpetuate a series of similar decisions. This can be contrasted with zero-based decision-making.  
12.  Inconsistency - The unwillingness to apply the same decision criteria in similar situations.
13.  Attribution asymmetry - We tend to attribute our success to our abilities and talents, but we attribute our failures to bad luck and external factors. We attribute other's success to good luck, and their failures to their mistakes.   
14. Role fulfillment - We conform to the decision-making expectations that others have of someone in our position.   
15. Underestimating uncertainty and the illusion of control - We tend to underestimate future uncertainty because we tend to believe we have more control over events than we really do.   
16. Faulty generalizations - In order to simplify an extremely complex world, we tend to group things and people. These simplifying generalizations can bias decision-making processes. 
17. Ascription of causality - We tend to ascribe causation even when the evidence only suggests correlation. Just because birds fly to the equatorial regions when the trees lose their leaves, does not mean that the birds migrate because the trees lose their leaves.   

Cognition

In science, cognition is the set of all mental abilities and processes related to knowledge: attention, memory & working memory, judgment & evaluation, reasoning & "computation", problem solving & decision making, comprehension & production of language, etc. Human cognition is conscious and unconscious, concrete or abstract, as well as intuitive (like knowledge of a language) and conceptual (like a model of a language). Cognitive processes use existing knowledge and generate new knowledge.

These processes are analyzed from different perspectives within different contexts, notably in the fields of linguistics, anesthesia, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, education, philosophy, anthropology, biology, systemics, and computer science.[1][page needed] These and other different approaches to the analysis of cognition are synthesized in the developing field of cognitive science, a progressively autonomous academic discipline. Within psychology and philosophy, the concept of cognition is closely related to abstract concepts such as mind and intelligence. It encompasses the mental functions, mental processes (thoughts), and states of intelligent entities (humans, collaborative groups, human organizations, highly autonomous machines, and artificial intelligences).[2]

Thus, the term's usage varies across disciplines; for example, in psychology and cognitive science, "cognition" usually refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological functions. It is also used in a branch of social psychology called social cognition to explain attitudes, attribution, and group dynamics.[3] In cognitive psychology and cognitive engineering, cognition is typically assumed to be information processing in a participant or operator’s mind or brain.[2] Cognition can in some specific and abstract sense also be artificial.[4]

Group Dynamics

Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (intragroup dynamics), or between social groups (intergroup dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behavior, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies.[1] Group dynamics are at the core of understanding racism, sexism, and other forms of social prejudice and discrimination. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, business, and communication studies.

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REFERENCES

1. Yoon, C.; Gonzalez, R.; Bechara, A.; Berns, G. S.; Dagher, A. A.; Dube, L.; Huettel, S. A.; Kable, J. W.; Liberzon, I.; Plassmann, H.; Smidts, A.; Spence, C. (2012). "Decision neuroscience and consumer decision making". Marketing letters (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012) 23: 473–485. doi:10.1007/s11002-012-9188-z. 
2. Kotler, Philip. "dl.ueb.edu.vn/bitstream/1247/2250/1/Marketing_Management_-_Millenium_Edition.pdf". Pearson Customer Publishing. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
3.  Niklas Ravaja, Outi Somervuori and Mikko Salminen (2012) Predicting purchase decision The role of hemispheric asymmetry over the frontal cortex, Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics 

• Carlyn, Marcia. “An Assessment of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.” Journal of Personality Assessment. 41.5 (1977): 461-73. 
• Cheng, Many M., Peter F. Luckett, and Axel K. Schulz. “The Effects of Cognitive Style Diversity on Decision-Making Dyads: An Empirical Analysis in the Context of a Complex Task.” Behavioral Research in Accounting. 15 (2003): 39-62. 
• Gardner, William L., and Mark J. Martinko. “Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to Study Managers: A Literature Review and Research Agenda.” Journal of Management. 22.1 (1996): 45-83. 
• Henderson, John C., and Paul C. Nutt. “Influence of Decision Style on Decision Making Behavior.” Management Science. 26.4 (1980): 371-386. 
• Kennedy, Bryan R., and Ashely D. Kennedy. “Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in Career Counseling.” Journal of Employment Counseling. 41.1 (2004): 38-44. 
• Bettman, James R. (1979). "An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice." Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers. 
• Yang, Haiyang and Ziv Carmon (2010), “Consumer Decision Making,” in Jagdeth Sheth & Naresh Malhotra (eds.), Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing, New York: Wiley. 
• Myers, I. (1962) Introduction to Type: A description of the theory and applications of the Myers-Briggs type indicator, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto Ca., 1962. 
• Nicosia, F. (1966) Consumer Decision Processes, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1966. 
• Pittenger, David J. “The Utility of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.” Review of Educational Research. 63:4 (1993): 467-488. 
• Simon, H. (1947) Administrative behaviour, Macmillan, New York, 1947, (also 2nd edition 1957). 
• Volkema, Roger J., and Ronald H. Gorman. "The Influence of Cognitive-Based Group Composition on Decision-Making Process and Outcome." Journal of Management Studies. 35.1 (1998): 105-121.

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Goodbuzz is your source for the ideas, trends and technology behind the world's most innovative digital marketing strategies.  Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada.  We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future and believe the best way to predict it - is to create it.  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

The State of Digital Marketing In 2015 - Trends and Analysis

It’s clear that we live in a fast moving, hyper-transparent and digitized age. On all levels. Rapid change is the key defining reality of our era. Companies either drive it, adapt to it, or succumb to it. Some may feel threatened by this trend, but we see it as an excellent opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves.  You just need to know where it’s all going.

It also helps to understand that there are no real boundaries today between digital marketing, design, content, advertising, retail design and other disciplines. The distinctions are artificial. In fact, for the consumer, almost every moment in their day-to-day life involves an interaction with a brand, and all are equally important. Every touch point must therefore be carefully created to provide a rich and consistent experience.

If, as Marshall McLuhan espoused, “the media is the message” then the consumer is the medium today.  Positive endorsement from other consumers is the most powerful media available to brands. This is especially true in today’s content- saturated world.  Audiences are no longer swayed by messaging - it takes coherent, immersive experiences that create conversational capital. Brands must earn consumer attention by providing value in the form of entertainment, information, and utility.

That said, to assist in navigating through this rapidly changing competitive environment here are our predictions for 2015.

Mobile-optimization

Optimizing for mobile has been a significant priority for businesses in 2014, but 2015 will be the year that mobile strategies move beyond simply having a responsive site or mobile app, and focus on mobile-optimized content and social media marketing as well.

We know that Google has been placing additional emphasis on how mobile-friendly sites are; in fact, they’ve stated that mobile usability is now “relevant for optimal search results.” This emphasis is apparent in the recent launch of a new feature in Google Webmaster Tools called Mobile Usability.

2015 will see businesses finally incorporating mobile into all areas of their digital marketing: a fully responsive website, mobile ads, and separate content specifically for mobile website users. Businesses will also begin to realize the necessity of having a mobile social media strategy that considers how mobile users consume and interact with social media posts.

Social media spend will increase significantly

Brands will finally realize the importance of social media marketing.  As organic post reach continues to fall, and as platforms like Facebook further restrict what types of posts can be shown in users’ feeds, paid advertising is only going to increase as businesses struggle to maintain traffic and sales from social media channels.

Some businesses are seeing positive results from their investment in social media (some are not), including increased exposure and traffic, and are seeing paid social ads as the way to scale these results.  Twitter’s new advertising options (beta) for example has transactional payment triggered by specific actions like website clicks, app downloads and email opt-ins.  This will mean small to medium-sized businesses will be far more likely to invest in these objective-based campaigns.  Note also that Micro-sites will also be used far more in 2015 for promotional activities as they help direct traffic to the main site and thus facilitate or bolster it’s popularity.

Inbound + Content marketing will be (even) bigger than ever

According to the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks report, 93% of B2B marketers said they used content marketing in 2014, and 42% said they considered their strategy effective (up from 36% last year).

As marketers continue to see the benefits of their content strategies, a portion of the money previously earmarked for search engine PPC, SEO and social media reach will be re-allocated to content marketing efforts.  A major struggle, however, will be finding ways to stand out amidst the throngs of other content vying for attention. Case studies, video content, research-intensive content, and authoritative content will be what give businesses an advantage over their competitors.

Businesses will also increasingly be willing to invest in mobile-specific content, including creating short-form content that’s easily readable on mobile devices, understanding their audience’s mobile habits and putting more emphasis on video and visual content that’s easily consumed via mobile.

Email marketing will receive a renewed focus

With social networks reducing the amount of visibility brands and businesses receive and with search engines intimidating business owners and marketers with ever-increasing complexity of their ranking algorithms, businesses will return to the one marketing asset that they can control entirely; their email list. This renewed focus on email marketing will intertwine with content marketing to blur the lines between e-mail and content marketing.

As brands realize the value of content marketing, they’ll begin to discover ways to streamline their email content in order to avoid redundancy.  One way in which they’ll do this is to repurpose existing content into downloadable PDF’s (such as whitepapers or value-added content), which can be offered as opt-in incentives to build an email list.

Brands will also begin to realize the necessity of differentiating themselves from their competitors when it comes to email marketing. In HubSpot’s 2014 Science of Email report, respondents reported a significant decline in how often they bought a product or service from email messages they had received (35% said “never” in 2014 compared to 25% in 2011). This finding underlines the importance of businesses employing creative, relationship-based strategies to their email marketing rather than just attempting to make a quick sale.  Think “less shotgun, more sniper rifle.”

The lines between SEO, content marketing and social media will become even more blurred

SEO and content marketing will continue to co-exist as two separate but intertwined disciplines that rely on each other for success. That said, content marketing is now the primary influencer of search visibility. Businesses that don’t invest in a solid content strategy will discover that their SEO campaigns are ineffective, at best, and damaging to their search visibility, at worst.

SEO will come to be seen more as a subset of online marketing, dealing with technical aspects such as meta-tags, indexing issues, penalty recovery, and keyword research. Social media, on the other hand, will come to be seen as a necessary amplifier of any content strategy. While businesses have been focused on creating high-quality content, less focus has been given to promoting and distributing that content.

Businesses will also increasingly realize the other important benefit of social media, including increased brand recognition and brand authority, improved customer insights and higher conversion rates.

Brands will scramble to humanize

With the rise of social media, brands will realize that their customers are on social media channels to interact with other people, not with brands and corporate-sounding lingo. Brands that are able to connect with their audience on a human-level will enjoy higher conversion rates, better brand loyalty, faster audience growth, and happier customers.

A company’s ability to humanize their brand (and find their unique brand voice) will be the single most important success factor using social media in 2015. Brands who engage and develop authentic relationships with their fans, followers and email subscribers will see tremendous benefits, all of which will ultimately increase their bottom line and ROI.

Marketers will find new ways of making native advertising more relevant (and less promotional)

With steadily decreasing click-through rates (CTR) over the past few years, businesses are realizing the ineffectiveness of banner advertising for driving sales. While increased visibility is still a benefit of banner ads, small to medium-sized business looking for results will be less inclined to invest in channels that don’t offer a calculable ROI.

With the increase in popularity of native ads, marketers and publishers will constantly be looking for new ways to mimic editorial content while remaining transparent to website visitors. 2015 will see collaborations between publishers and brands whereby sponsored content is specifically created to be shown alongside the primary content; in this way, native ads will not be promotional in nature, but instead will offer relevant and engaging supplementary content.

More and more, marketing and communications must widen their horizons and embrace the fact that, for brands, speaking to “consumers” is just not enough. Yes, we all are consumers and most of us accept this reality. But a more meaningful way of engaging people is to recognize that they are also, if not primarily, humans, fans, users, visitors, or guests (depending on the context). Your ability to develop rich experiences is rooted in this understanding.  Ultimately, focus less on crafting moments and more on creating movements. 

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