What new trends in Marketing for 2015 can we expect?
Many people are excited for what 2015 will bring them with regards to online marketing and the new features that will be available for business, especially with regards to social media. I have spoken to a few people within the industry of social media at events in London I have attended recently and between us we’ve come up with the following points that we think will become big in the new year ahead.
- Mobile phone payments will increase. For varied reasons during 2014, the usage of mobile for payments as been slow due mainly to privacy concerns. Options such as NFC, QR codes etc are out there to facilitate scan / contactless payments, but the weak surge in usage has also been put down to many people waiting on Apple and if their iPhone 6 would allow to them engage with such technology. Thankfully for many, this is now a reality with the new iPhone 6 and their Apple Pay ecosystem. This advancement alone will see an increase in mobile phone usage for instant payments, expect to see an increase in contactless payment options from contactless card machines to stickers on restuarant tables allowing you to pay / order your food and drinks etc.
- Google+ could very well disappear. I am sure many readers will agree, they have not really understood the benefits of Google+ and really only get involved in fear that if you are not on it, then you could damage your Google ranking. Lots of recent changes from Google+ gives us the sign that things aren’t going as they expect, ie they no longer force you to create a Google+ account when creating a GMail or YouTube account (I have a few Google+ accounts myself which is very confusing, as everytime I used Google they seemed to be demanding me to create a new Google+ account)! Hangouts, once exclusive to Google+, can now be used as a stand alone tool. If we take that many of the accounts created on Google+ were out of ‘having to‘ then it is likely many people will have duplicate accounts, making Google+’s overall subscription figures wrong and if like we see, not much activity is happening on it’s platform, then it is likely people will start to drop away from it and divert attention to other platforms.
- Swapping your Casio for a Smartwatch! Myabe when I was at school, having that chunky Casio watch with calculator on your wrist was the ‘in thing’ – I can multiple 999 x 999 on my wrist or I can spell SHELL.OIL was seen as being cool! From cool we have now progressed to having the world on your wrist with the likes of Samsung, Apple and Sony providing us with samrt watches that allow us to take calls, access the internet and update our Facebook status etc. For businesses looking to target consumers, smart wacthes are another device they can target for ‘people on the move’. Let’s not forget Google Glasses are soon to be available and priced for consumers sometime in the near future!
- Social Media, but more precisely, advertising on these platforms. The likes of Twitter and LinkedIn have spent time to provide advertising opportunities to rival that of Facebook and we see this trend increasing and indeed improving. You’ll soon be able to sell your products and services directly on Twitter and if you are a user, then you’ll be able to make purchasers directly from these Tweets! Facebook have indeed mastered, or their style of platform allows for easier ‘selling to consumer’ advertisements, but we’ll soon see others not only being a social media platform, but also a sales channel. Pinterest with sponsored Pins and even allowing certain themed photos to sell products, ie crafts / arts. Instagram wanting to get in on things and allowing for targeted sponsored photos and mini videos. All this shows that the average overall spend of businesses will increase on social media as the opportunity they present to sell directly to active target audiences will improve.
The above are the main points we discussed that we were all in agreement on we’d see happen in 2015. Overall it is social media that really jumps out at you as being really not even in it’s infancy with regards how it can help businesses online – There is so much more to come with Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and other big portal names that it makes for a very exciting 2015!