2014 Digital Predictions

The Digital Marketing/Digital Advertising Field is constantly changing and evolving, especially lately. Earlier last year I decided to take a look at all 2014 trends that seemed to be emerging, as it's become apparent for certain industries that the marketing game is changing (if you hadn't already noticed) and everyone needs to shape up or ship out.

Social Media used to be quite the joke, and now it's finally emerged as a a revenue-generating channel, as well as one that's great at conversion assists. Content marketing has also become the latest revenue-generating fad over traditional online advertising, as it's much more helpful with conversions.

Mobile and tablets haven't come out of nowhere, but it seems that mobile and tablet conversions will skyrocket this year, as consumers have all felt comfortable enough to begin researching and purchasing on their devices, thanks to enhanced websites that are mobile-friendly, and reward programs such as Starbucks that allows them to pay through phones.

Take a look at the other predictions below, do you agree? 

2012 Tech Predictions.

With the start of the new year, everyone's been coming out with lists, resolutions, "Best ofs", and 2012 predictions... so why not jump on that band wagon! I think 2012 is going to be another great year for social media, e-commerce, tablets, smart devices and... hopefully... mobile! Technology keeps evolving and it's only helping consumers experiences become better and better all the time. I honestly cannot wait for the day that I ENJOY watching commercials, reading e-mails from businesses and clicking ads on various websites I visit because they all take into account things I am genuinely interested in.


Obviously, popular social media channels will continue to stay on the rise, and any companies who have yet to jump on this band wagon will probably realize it's all here to stay. Something that I think people need to begin sorting out are the rules and laws that individuals, clients and companies need to follow and are supposed to be aware of. It seems like many people are running into issues with who owns which fans and things of that nature, and it doesn't seem like it's going to be easy to sort that out.

I am also one of the biggest fans of mobile advertising because it just makes sense to me. People are always ON their phone or NEAR their phone, you can't tell me that's not the perfect place to try and advertise to your customers.  Many people also use them for multitude of things, and use them while watching TV, while driving, while walking, etc. so why not try and reach them there as well? 


I know that tablet advertising is also something that's relatively new, especially because the percentage of tablet owners is very small... but still. The demographic is perfect for many large companies, and not too many are fully embracing it so why not jump on it when it's cheap and you can? I'd be willing to bet the click through ratios are higher on ads here than many other venues.


The last techy trend I'm hoping for this year is personalization... Companies seem to be obtaining various types of information about consumers, especially somebody such as Facebook and Google so please, if you're going to take and sell my information I've given you anyways, let's make it enjoyable for me and others. Personalize my ads and I will be more willing to watch and even click on something. 


Hopefully next year I will remember to look back on my yearly rantings and see what, if anything, came true in any sort of way. Happy New Year! 

Smart Phones Are Here To Stay

I don't know if you've noticed yet, but mobile phones are transforming the world. At first it was little by little with the ability to e-mail, browse the internet and talk on the phone at the same time, and download entertaining apps, but recently mobile phones and tablets of all sorts have begun to integrate into every aspect of our lives, from entertainment to healthcare.

Mobile has become global if you haven't yet noticed. Thanks to social networking and factors like the accessibility of smart phones people are connecting ALL THE TIME. Brands have begun creating apps they know consumers will love, price them affordably, reward customers for various (real-time) behaviors and have begun engaging WITH them thanks so various social media sites. If you haven't yet embraced different mobile marketing tactics, you will soon be left in the dust by your key customers.

The market is also going to move towards mCommerce, mobile gaming/entertainment and the purchasing of virtual goods, so if you haven't started thinking about what you're going to do to stay on top, you'd better add mobile into your business strategy.

The most exciting key mobile trend for me has to be tracking where mobile health is going. Mobile health makes it easier for monitoring, diagnosis, wellness and with the adoption of tablets,  electronic health records and medical information will only get easier to track. Mobile health is going to be the biggest global  trend there is, especially thanks to easy solutions such as sending text messages to new mothers, drug addicts or patients with certain diseases.

Moral of the story? Jump on the mobile band wagon before it takes off without you...