by ryan3 Inbound Marketing Predictions for 2015
As year-end quickly approaches, we have taken a step back to look at all of what’s happened with inbound marketing this year to make some predictions about where it’s going in 2015.
1. MORE ASKING LESS SELLING
There has been a fundamental shift in the entire buying process over the last few years. We believe it will continue to evolve. More companies are learning that content dissemination is one of the best avenues for reaching their best customers, but few use best practices. Businesses should use content to ‘ask’ customers what they want, like, or need, rather than ‘tell’ or rather ‘sell’ its own ideas. Granted, some claim that the customer often doesn’t know what they actually need. This may be true sometimes, but for the most part, we believe that every customer has distinct pain points which. Businesses that can tap into those pain points by asking the customer to interact and share their thoughts and ideas. After this discussion, businesses can tailor their services or products to address those needs. We believe companies that do this will succeed in building trust and creating long time brand advocates.
2. SMART WEBSITES AND SMART CONTENT
Another fascinating (and somewhat creepy, we admit it!) tool for inbound marketers is creating smart content and smart websites. What do we mean by that? Smart, in this sense means adapting to the user. These aren’t just customized modules, but actual code that will understand user preferences. It knows which content a user has already downloaded in the past as well as the personal information they have already submitted. It can then provide relevant, not redundant, content for your future interactions. This may seem a bit invasive, but it will actually benefit users. Why? Because the content will provide an experience that allows them to cut through the clutter and get to the content that is most relevant.
3. WEBSITES CUT THE CLUTTER
Every few years a great trend (or idea) evolves and reappears with some timely modifications. In 2015, websites will make the shift from basic to complicated back to basic. Let’s elaborate a bit. Web sites were initially very basic and static. There was a learning curve to creating them and designs were limited. Over the years, they have become more complex and coincidentally cluttered. Many businesses use their sites to provide information they believe is relevant, but visitors find distracting and complicated. We are starting to see the shift, but 2015 will mark a significant change. You can look forward to less clutter and more pertinent, useful information.
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