What's been the biggest impact in digital marketing?
The current state of digital marketing solely relies on unique quality content and targeting mobile devices. It’s becoming harder for companies to not only produce quality content but also maintain a significant amount that’s consistent with trending topics in their industry. New businesses and start-ups don’t really stand a chance at growing unless they have a dedicated writer on their team to not only publish quality static content but also shareable blog content as well.
A few years back, Google released an algorithm update that would basically lower the rankings of websites that were not optimized for mobile devices. It was considered the mobilgeddon update and it affected thousands of companies. Today, most companies and big name retailers have adjusted their websites and are up-to par with the 'ol update. However, the spotlight on mobile isn't ending any time soon. Users continue to research and share content through mobile devices in 2016 now more than ever.
Changes in the marketing industry
The marketing industry has grown significantly over the past couple of years. Before it shifted to the digital world, companies would heavily rely on traditional marketing to bring in more business. Things likeprint advertisements, T.V commercials, radio broadcasts, direct mail and cold calling were pretty much the only marketing tactics that existed. The problem with these strategies is they weren't quite as measurable as online data.
As technology evolved, digital marketing started to appeal to businesses a whole lot more. Thanks to Google Analytics and social media, marketers could finally get a grip on analyzing customer data. Going digitalallowed them to increase their budget in areas that were working and save money in areas that weren't. Businesses were able to scale their marketing efforts more efficiently and reach more consumers at the same time.
Biggest improvement
In 2012, Google released an algorithm update called Penguin where they devalued an entire website with unnatural back links. A few months ago, Google released an update in addition to Penguin which devalues links based on spam signals instead of penalizing the whole website.The update was good for some businesses and not so good for others. Websites who have a natural link profile most likely saw an increase in rankings while sites without trustworthy links probably saw a decrease. However, now that Penguin is in real-time, any changes that a web-master makes will be visible much faster. So, this is giving businesses with a lot of bad back links the opportunity to improve their rankings as soon as they begin to see them drop.
Challenges for businesses and digital marketers
As for businesses, the increase in mobile users is still on the rise.According to this article, the number of mobile users has already bypassed the number of desktop users. This means consumers are still searching for companies, purchasing products and engaging in social media on their phones. As they continue to grow, companies will have to consider shifting most of their marketing efforts towards the mobile community.
One of the challenges for digital marketers is trying to keep up with digital change and current trends. Not only do they have to stay on top of what's trending in their own industry but they also have to know whats going on in their clients world. It's a never-ending cycle of research and retaining as much information as your brain can possibly hold. With products being invented, algorithms changing, and the world news never ending, there's just no question - the struggle is real for marketers.