For 2015, Many Marketers Plan to Spend More on Social Media Marketing

The software giant, Salesforce, did a survey with 5,000 marketers at the end of 2014 and asked them about their budget plans for 2015 and there was a common answer for almost all of them.

70 percent of the marketers that were surveyed planned to increase their social media marketing, their advertising, and even their digital advertising with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and other platforms as well. Of the 70 percent of marketers that planned on increasing their digital budgets know to increase their efforts for both organic social as well as their paid social.

One fear some marketers had was that as the budgets for social media advertising grew larger, they would forget about their needs to increase their efforts for the organic side of things. This was indeed a concern for some members of our Chicago marketing company.

Why does this matter? Well, if you spend more on advertising, which attracts consumers, and then they visit your underperforming social media pages, there will be a great disconnect.

In addition to increasing budgets for these things, companies have also stated a desire to increase budgets for mobile data tracking (67 percent of companies surveyed) and more money will be focused on branded apps (66 percent). 84 percent of mobile marketing budgets plan on being maintained or even increased, while 38 percent of the 5k surveyed will shift money from traditional advertising into the digital side.

Does your business need to get noticed on the web with great advertising, social media, and other marketing efforts? Then contact Integraphix, a Chicago marketing agency with almost three decades of experience in both traditional and digital marketing.

5 B2B Marketing Trends for 2015

Here we are in the 9th month of 2014; we are officially 3/4s of the way done with the year. If this was a football or basketball game, we'd be in the 4th quarter. That being said, we in the corporate world are looking at 2015 and wondering what is on the horizon for our industries. When you are in the creative industry, like marketing, then each year brings something different.

So what is in store for 2015 for the marketing and advertising industry?

1. Micro-targeting. Well this one has been on some radar's for a year or so already. It is now time to really get to know your customers and clients. We need to move past the plans and strategies that are one-size fits all and really get into making custom ideas and plans that fit people uniquely. These strategies will find the small, likely profitable, subsets of our target markets. Why go for these consumers? Well, doing so will allow you to capture more market without doing something you shouldn't already be doing. It will require data parsing to make the one on one conversations that we need for micro-targeting. 
1. Get into buyer persona development and learn how the people think, live, and what motivates them. We do this with major target markets but it's time to give that love to subsets. 
2. Paid placement is here for the long-haul. Social networks, as well as some large publishers, are moving away from earned media and towards paid media. This means that great marketing teams will have to spend more money and especially time on paid placement in order to get noticed by consumers. We have all see an increase in promoted Tweets, sponsored Instagram posts, and how few of our posts on Facebook reach nearly the amount they used to (a 44% decline). 
3. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile users are rampant now with the incredible access to smart phones and tablets… now even phablets. We are consumers 24/7 now, no matter what time of day or where we are, we are able to buy, view, and talk about anything. The challenge this coming year will be to create amazing digital experiences that will fit with the lifestyles of our target markets. The time has come for mobile-optimized elements and activities as well as dynamic content that offers an incredible, personalized experience in digital form. Mobile marketing is a fantastic place for engagement with consumers and even in real-time. 
4. Marketing automation that changes the game. In the past, marketing was about responding to things that happened; nowadays, we have tools that allow us to stay a move ahead. The term "real-time marketing" is more real than ever. we have tools like CRM, email marketing, content management, search engine optimization, analytics, lead generation tools, etc. that all help us boost our ability to give quality content and in great time. 
5. Quality content. We have seen the shift to content marketing and a more explosive use of tools such as blogging, articles, and social media to get more words out there. We like to connect with consumers and give them stories to enjoy while the brand loyalty gets stronger. This means that the need for professional writers will be put at the forefront instead of just a luxury. 

Getting the right marketing trends and knowing what will happen before it happens can be tricky. This is why so many businesses hire a marketing firm rather than try to devote non-existing time to it. Hire an agency that can help your business stay current and grow. Contact Integraphix.