2015 Digital Marketing Predictions from Andrew Goodman

Merry Almost Christmas! If you’re still in the office, as so many of us still are, and you’re anxiously planning for the coming year, here’s some inspiring info from search expert, Andrew Goodman.

2015 is just days away, and although you’re likely more interested in holidays than strategy planning, it needs to be done and it needs to be forward thinking to help your business stay ahead.

For so many brands, the issue of balancing paid search, content marketing and organic traffic is paramount. Here’s what you should know before next year about content and paid search from one of the leaders in the field:

“In 2015, online ads will drive more revenue than ever. A lot of the content that generates revenue comes from plain old regular people. 

Every day, hundreds of millions of us feed the digital information beast with our photos, shares, recommendations, and tweets. More content can support more ads, which leads to the growth of profitable platforms that help people connect with businesses and to find what they’re interested in. We’ve attained a pretty sweet equilibrium. 

Hearing of this exciting trend, companies will also want to add content strategies to their arsenals. And that’s where the wheels will come off. Many will do a poor job of turning into chatty publishers. Worse, focus may get diverted from core customer acquisition strategies.

In The Big Red Fez, a book about the online user experience, Seth Godin reminds you that your website is like a game of pachinko, where a user bounces around from peg to peg. If you’ve done well, they’ll find their way down to the “cha-ching” chute.

In my book on AdWords, I posed a related question: are we (PPC marketers) more like plumbers (logisticians, relevance cops) or persuaders (flowery prose, strategy people)? I argued we were mostly the former. PPC is maturing, but it isn’t a fossil like direct mail.

Today, we’re tackling mobile, learning new attribution models, understanding ad extensions, finding new segments to bid-modify, and remarketing to granular audiences.

We need to be implementing such PPC details week in, week out. Many companies will drop the ball there because, quite frankly, they take it for granted. And “content strategy” is more fun.

Think of the online experience as a delicious curry dish. Say, one incorporating organic cauliflower, spinach, and chick peas. Without the curry spices, it’s not a curry dish at all. It loses its “identity.” So if content is the “spice,” marketers feel their brand needs to bring life and identity to their offering, are the spices essential?
Well, sort of.

Companies aren’t worth caring about without the spice, but they can’t live without the calories. If you do go completely without the spices, you lose virtually none of the nutrients you need to sustain life – the cauliflower, chickpeas, and spinach.

The point isn’t that these elements are mutually exclusive; it’s an exploration of what’s essential, and what isn’t.

In 2015, marketers need to focus on what’s important to make sure the spice they’re using isn’t bland. Because if you’re going to do content, at least be interesting.”

To read more predictions for 2015, download the full ebook