A multifaceted approach focused on attracting customers through the dissemination of helpful, relevant content and thoughtful interaction, inbound marketing allows potential customers to find you through various channels, including blogs, social media, and search engines. While traditional outbound marketing aims to push products, inbound marketing allows potential clients to become aware of a company organically.
But technological innovations and general shifts in the B2B landscape are drastically changing the way inbound marketing campaigns are structured and implemented. Chances are, you’re no longer reading emails on a Blackberry or browsing the internet using a dial-up connection; with today’s technology, content can be accessed in countless ways, whether in the office or on the go.
Below are four major technology trends shaping the face of inbound marketing today and what they mean for your company’s marketing campaigns.
1. Mobile Marketing Is On The Rise
As technologies continue to evolve, allowing people to access content in virtually any place at any time, inbound marketing strategies must keep be able to keep pace. In 2015, the number of searches performed on mobile devices — such as mobile phones and tablets — surpassed the number of desktop searches for the first time ever, and this number continues to rise.
All inbound marketing efforts should be mobile-friendly and easily accessible for users on the go. Websites should be mobile-optimized, emails should look great on phones and desktops alike, and digital ads should be targeting users on sites where they spend the most time.
2. Videos Are Everywhere
While content like blogs, whitepapers, and infographics are still the central component of inbound marketing strategies, videos are now emerging as a powerful new tool. In fact, they now account for about 74% of all online traffic.
Largely due to the rapid rise of mobile devices and the emergence of high-speed mobile networks, this uptick is also being driven by the simple fact that videos can be highly engaging — without taking up too much of users’ time. And because video production equipment is no longer prohibitively expensive, even smaller companies can easily integrate videos into their content offerings. All you need is a smartphone and some video editing software to get started.
3. Spam Filters Are Becoming More Sophisticated
To ensure your content is reaching the right people and attracting valuable leads, it’s important to take steps to prevent your emails being marked as spam in users’ inboxes. As email filtering technology becomes more sophisticated and aggressive, even the most professional, informational emails may be relegated to spam folders. This trend is expected to continue as individuals and corporations alike become stricter about cracking down on phishing emails and even run-of-the-mill solicitations.
To avoid your emails being marked as spam, you should be offering your audience valuable, educational, and directly useful content. And to ensure your emails are reaching the right people at the right time, make use of list segmentation and marketing automation tools. A study by MailChimp showed that segmented email campaigns are 14.31% more likely to be opened than non-segmented campaigns, and are 4.65% less likely bounce.
4. Data is Becoming More Accessible — and Actionable — Than Ever
Over the last few years, every major corporate department — from finance and accounting to operations — has been embracing big data and analytics. The same holds true for marketing departments.
Forward-thinking, innovative marketers and companies are no longer relying on intuition and “instinct” to form their marketing strategies; instead, they’re now using data to drive decisions while working toward continuous improvement. Through growth-driven design (GDD), for instance, websites are continually revised and upgraded based on testing and analysis of users’ behavior on the site.
Final Thoughts
As marketing technologies continue to advance, inbound best practices and strategies must evolve as well. We have years of experience crafting inbound marketing campaigns specifically tailored to clients’ needs; for help staying ahead of the curve in today’s shifting landscape, reach out to our team of industrial marketing experts today.
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