A lot has changed in online marketing in the past 10 years. Gone are the days when you could rely on TV ads to gain online traction. Today, social media is the key to gaining brand awareness and generating leads.
In this article, we will briefly highlight some of the key changes that have occurred, as well as how you can use these changes to your advantage.
Changes to TV Advertising
Back in the day, when Google was just a twinkle in Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s eye, TV advertisements were all the rage. Back in 2009, the average American watched about 32 hours of TV each week, and about 95% of all TV advertising was spent on informative programs like news and documentaries. Advertising on entertainment programs like sitcoms and dramas fell flat, contributing to the decline of traditional TV advertising.
Nowadays, with the rise of digital platforms like Google and YouTube, TV advertising continues to evolve. In 2018, about 78% of all TV ad revenue came from digital platforms like YouTube and Google AdWords, rather than traditional terrestrial TV stations. In 2021, this figure is expected to rise to 82%.
While TV advertising might still have its place, it is no longer the be-all-end-all of internet marketing. With TV advertising, you can only target people who are physically in front of a screen. Today, your audience might be halfway around the world, or they could be hidden behind a firewall, using a VPN to conceal their location. Or perhaps they are on a phone app and you can’t reach them with a TV ad.
Changes to Search Engine Optimization
The rules of SEO have also changed. In the past, you might have managed to rank a few pages on an affiliate marketing website without much effort. You might have even gotten lucky and had a few viral blog posts go viral and generate a surge of organic traffic. But these days, with the rise of mobile search and personalized results, SEO is a whole different ballgame. It is all about getting your content to stand out among a sea of sponsored results and heavily-optimized content. In 2020, Google is now recommending that content should be unique and of high quality, rather than just trying to pack as much content as you can into your website in order to trick the search engine into thinking your site is more important.
SEO is a lot more complex than just throwing a few tricks up your website and hoping for the best. You now have to consider the platform your content is being published on, how you are going to promote your content and what results you are likely to see from your efforts. As the world turns into a digital playground and businesses struggle to keep up, SEO analysis is more important than ever before.
Changes to Email Marketing
Email marketing has changed, too. While most businesses still use email to stay in touch with their customers, they are now also using automated email campaigns and scheduling emails to be sent out at regular intervals, all without the need for a human administrator.
This was especially beneficial for e-commerce businesses, where customer engagement is of paramount importance and sending out regular emails to your database is key to keeping them interested in your products. While you might have had to manually engage with customers on social media, by adding them to a newsletter or sending them a one-off email with your special offers, automated email marketing takes care of all of that. You can even set autoresponders to send out regular emails, prompting potential customers to get in touch.
If you are wondering what the biggest trend in online marketing is right now, you can’t go wrong with the above. Not only have the rules and the platforms on which you play changed, but consumers have changed, too.