1) SEO, PR, and Social will all rollup into one group centered around content marketing
Types of content that typically form a content marketing strategy include:
- Blog posts
- Guest blog posts
- E-books
- Email newsletters
- PowerPoint presentations
- Podcasts
- Standard videos
- Micro-videos (ie, Vine)
- Social media posts
- Live presentations
- Webinars
- White papers
With close to 60% of business using some form of content generation and marketing we will see an increase in the focus of the types of content generated. The role and title of the individual will change from SEO Director to Director of Content helping define and model the most lucrative and sticky content. With the recent release of Hummingbird update from Google , mobile is more important than ever as is the content that fuels the use of mobile devices.
Trying to automate the content generation process will ultimately not work for now. For some areas like sports you are able to auto generate some aspects of content successfully however, machine generated NLP non sports topics look miserable and read even worse.
2) Display media and video will continue to rise dramatically
Interactive video and personalized display formats will embed themselves in various adverts, allowing the user to explore at will and value add on the buy side as CPA will be driven by CPI. Will the pipes be able to keep up with the demand of video consumption? Moving beyond youtube and preroll ads, brands will be looking for channels that deliver on user experience matching their demographics and interest categories.
3) Personalized marketing and messages will rise dramatically
Consumer behavior will increasingly be used to define and create the ads targeting the user as mentioned above. With new tools in the market like http://lisnr.com/ that determines popularity and trending both within the Lisnr network and outside of it by crunching open social datasets. “Lisnr gives artists a new way to connect with their fans. By installing Lisnr on your mobile device, you’ll unlock exclusive content created by the artists you love, just by listening to your favorite music. Lisnr works at live events too, dynamically responding to your environment, and giving you a secondary experience to share with your friends.”
4) Digital marketing optimization will become a necessity
Although Google has been working hard on it’s Analytics packages and looping in Google Webmaster Tools along with Google AdWords datasets and rolling out Google Tag Manager, there could be a distinct shift away from Google products. CRM’s will continue to enhance their offerings allowing for more realtime business intelligence based marketing. Think Radian 6 and SalesForce with a touch of Marketo 😉 There is a reason Oracle bought Eloqua!
5) Social “remarketing” via G+ actually gains market share
I really do dislike having to say this, however G+ is now part of every Google product making it hard to escape. I saw this discreetly as I watched my daughter reading her email and natively utilizing G+ much to my dislike, distaste, and distress! Between Gmail, search queries, cookies, and fingerprinting technologies, the ability to remain anonymous with Google will further deteriorate. 2014 could be the year of G+. </Oy>