2015 Mid-Year Digital Strategy For Your Business (Read It Now)

To ensure optimal results for your business marketing efforts you need to consistently evaluate your marketing performance and calibrate your marketing strategies accordingly. 

We are half way through 2015 which is a great time to review the tactics and strategies you’ve implemented to date, and be sure they are in line with current consumer and industry digital marketing trends.

This article will focus on the recent comScore report, “U.S. Digital Future in Focus 2015” to help you gain insight into the major shifts in consumer digital access, engagement and purchasing behaviors.

The greatest shifts in digital consumer behavior right now are the explosion of mobile devices and the growing demand for video content. Aligning your digital marketing efforts with these two huge increases will help keep your business from falling behind online.

Multi-Platform Usage

Graph 01 (Source: comScore’s “2015 U.S. Digital Future in Focus”)

In a four year period, digital media consumption on smartphones has increased 394% and digital media consumption on tablets has increased 1,721% while desktop device consumption has remained steady, growing 37% during this mobile explosion.

What these reports indicate is that consumption of digital media is expanding on ALL devices. Consumers have officially fallen in love with digital media and are using multiple size screens searching for content and information throughout each day.

Graph 02 (Source: comScore’s "2015 U.S. Digital Future in Focus")

The standout in the comScore report is the, “substantially higher percentage of multi-platform and mobile-only Internet users than the previous year” found in every age category. These multi-platform and mobile-only users will continue to increase in numbers as more people enjoy the on-the-go convenience and as more businesses focus on mobile-friendly website designs.

Mobile Website Warning:

Multi-platform and mobile-only users will dismiss your business if your website in not mobile-friendly. In fact, Google already knows this and on April 22nd, 2015 they began implementing their mobile-friendly agenda designed to diminish the search results of websites that do not provide a pleasant mobile user experience. This can be devastating to your business.

Top Digital Media Properties

Graph 03 (SOURCE: COMSCORE'S "2015 U.S. DIGITAL FUTURE IN FOCUS")

The top US digital media property most visited is by far Google properties including their social platforms Google+ and YouTube. Yahoo properties are second including their Tumblr micro-blog platform and Flickr their image and video hosting platform. The social media platform giant Facebook is third.

GRAPH 04 (SOURCE: COMSCORE'S "2015 U.S. DIGITAL FUTURE IN FOCUS")

The comScore report also tracked the performance of digital platforms growth between 2013 and 2014 for emerging platforms. Here we find LinkedIn with an impressive 68% growth rate which suggests that businesses are finding LinkedIn to be an important business tool.

The benefits of a LinkedIn account for your business include up-to-date industry information and cross business communications capabilities. Industry experts and authorities are creating powerful B2B connections on LinkedIn. It has become the ‘go-to’ social platform for business professionals of all types and should not be overlooked as a source of partnerships and sales leads.

QUICK LINKEDIN TIPS:

• Grow your business using of the vast industry leader connection opportunities available on LinkedIn. Learn more from the LinkedIn Help pages and from additional LinkedIn how-to tutorials.
• Be sure to optimize your LinkedIn profile and create a LinkedIn business page for your company.

Social Media Engagement

RAPH 05 (SOURCE: COMSCORE’S “2015 U.S. DIGITAL FUTURE IN FOCUS”)

With a reach of 81% of the total digital population (and boasting almost 230 billion minutes of engagement time), Facebook is the undisputed king of social network audience engagement. Behind Facebook is Twitter at 36%, Instagram at 34%, Pinterest at 29% and Tumblr at 25%.

Businesses have changed their marketing strategies to include social media platforms as an important audience engagement tool. With their interesting features and unique eye-catching content, social media channels offer businesses an unparalleled opportunity to reach the 2.1 billion social media account holders.

It is now time that all businesses embrace social media by securing and establishing their brand across multiple social media networks for their amazing lead generation and customer engagement growth opportunities.

Social Media Brand Warning

People are buying and selling brand names for Facebook and Twitter account ‘handles’. This practice violates both Facebook and Twitter terms of service, but that hasn’t stopped people from claiming the brand names of businesses they do not own.

A recent study found that nearly 50% of people looking for specific brands on Facebook and Twitter initially reach the wrong account because “online squatters” have claimed the official brand’s handle.

This can be a nightmare for your brand, so don’t allow it to happen.

QUICK SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS:

• Claim your brand and establish your business on various social media platforms.
• Create professional profiles and business pages for optimum brand engagement.
• Protect your brand with a strategy against online squatters.Include local directories and various blog platforms to optimize your brand online.