Online marketing trends continue to evolve

Online marketing isn’t the future, it’s already here.

Growing your school’s enrollment starts with an expanded Web presence. But more than just a slick website you an Internet marketing strategy. Problem is, Internet marketing is a constantly changing field, which is why Paradigm Digital researches the latest trends and processes for bring prospective students to your website.

In an article earlier this year for Forbes, Jayson DeMers offered up seven predictions about online marketing in 2014. He recently revisited some of those predictions to see how he fared.

One prediction was that content marketing would be bigger than ever.

“In my original article, I predicted that content marketing – using valuable content to attract customers and clients, and to gain authority and trust – was the way forward for businesses in 2014,” DeMers wrote. “Using blog posts, newsletters, social media, videos and other inbound marketing techniques, businesses can build relationships, authority and trust with their audience; and ultimately, increase sales.”

DeMers said the evidence shows that there is a shift away from traditional marketing, such as television and magazines, towards inbound marketing strategies.

“Businesses need to continue to find ways to tie their content marketing in with their overall business goals, in order to measure and prove its effectiveness within the wider goals of the organization,” DeMers says. “A lack of education may be at least partly to blame for content marketing not reaching its potential in some organizations. According to Aaron Kahlow, founder of the Online Marketing Institute, lack of trained personnel is a significant roadblock.”

Another prediction by DeMers was that social media marketing would require more diversity.

“In my previous article, I suggested that businesses would increasingly use a variety of social networking platforms – not just Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn,” DeMers says. “With new platforms coming out of the woodwork every few months, businesses are constantly needing to evaluate which ones are the best use of their time and budget.

When deciding which platforms to invest in, it’s important to determine where your target market is active, and also which ones your competitors are using successfully. According to Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, the usual culprits still lead the pack in terms of popularity among businesses: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are still the most commonly used platforms among marketers.”

DeMers makes a strong case for intentional Internet marketing strategies that go way beyond just publishing a website and managing a Facebook page. Those successfully using the Web to reach new clients and customers are using strategic plans based on proven research and unique plans that are tailored to each school.

Other points from DeMars includes:

• Image-Centric Content Will Rule: With 70 percent of marketers recently reporting that they planned on increasing their use of images in 2014, image-centric content is becoming a central part of most marketing plans. Using attractive and well-placed images within your blog and social media posts, as well as using infographics to drive traffic and build inbound links, are both now common practices among businesses who understand the importance of images. Businesses looking to reach certain demographics – such as women and teens – will need to continue to expand their presence on visually based social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
• Less Will be More: The trend towards simplicity in marketing was the topic of an article I recently wrote, called Here’s the Simple Secret to Apple’s Marketing Success. In the article, I discussed how consumers are increasingly tiring of being bombarded by loud, flashy and complex websites and advertisements. I suggested that the constant attempt to be ‘bigger and better’ when it comes to marketing is simply unsustainable.
• Mobile-Friendly Content Will Be Necessary: I predicted that marketers would need to be strategic about how their content would be accessed on mobile devices. I’ve discussed before about how having a mobile content strategy should be a key part of any business owner’s marketing plan; I’ve even written about exactly how to create a mobile-optimized content marketing strategy.

Paradigm Digital uses proven methods to help career colleges and trade schools grow through branding, lead generation and enrollment performance improvement. Growing your trade school or career college requires a strategy and Paradigm Digital has it.

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