Life moves fast, but life in the internet age moves at warp speed! It can be difficult to keep up with all of the new tools and innovations available to help market your brand, especially while managing your current efforts. Although it may be a daunting task, it’s important to stay abreast of what’s current in digital marketing. So, here are a few new tools that may be a dynamic addition to your marketing strategy.
Social Commerce. The concept of social commerce seems almost as natural as breathing. Social media and e-commerce have finally effectively combined to give customers user driven, online buying options that go hand in hand with normal social media activity. As social media audiences continue to grow and the amount of time we spend on social media platforms increases, providing an opportunity for users to make purchases on their preferred network is like a win-win.
With 2 million products for sale on their platform via buyable pins, the folks over at Pinterest surely can be considered one of the pioneers of this exciting marketing tactic. Early reports of social commerce attempts revealed many unmet expectations but don’t discount social commerce just yet. The first wave of social commerce efforts assumed that increased time on advanced mobile devices would automatically equate to sales, but most increased social media use only resulted in pedestrian browsing with no real motivation to purchase. Now that intent, or lack thereof, has been added to the formula, stronger social commerce efforts are being made and the outlook seems promising. The new wave of social commerce has an integral puzzle piece which just happens to be the next item on the hot list; the rising popularity of commerce driven apps.
Improving app experiences. Most retailers have hopped on the app train and are reaching customers on their mobile devices as effectively as on a desktop. With so many apps to choose from these days, it seems the only thing standing in the way of consumers and this marketing avenue is the storage capacities on their smartphones. Google’s efforts to be more mobile friendly has everyone rethinking and reorganizing to create an end-user experience compatible with tablets and phones but how do we harness this momentum to our advantage?
Google is on the case with their Web of Apps that will not only offer a smooth app-to-app transition experience but will also make social commerce easier by capitalizing on consumers’ active intent to download an application to their device. Google App Indexing gives users the ability to click links on the SERPs and navigate to downloaded apps on the user’s smartphone. Apple App Search and Bing App Linking aren’t far behind Google’s innovative app indexing efforts so expect to see a resurgence of social commerce combined with app utilization in the near future.
The next big thing in video marketing. Content marketing is the name of the game and as more businesses move to using content to generate conversions, new social media developments give rise to fresh ways to provide content to your target audience. Platforms like Periscope, SnapChat, and Facebook with live video feeds have gone the extra mile to offer marketers the opportunity to have a personal connection with their audience. We know that videos have a higher potential to engage users than text or photos, but live videos are widening the gap because users are more likely to watch live video three times longer than pre-recorded content. Live video gives users the chance to interact with businesses in real-time and raises your potential to reach a wider engaged audience organically.
