Digital marketing is a form of advertising that’s constantly evolving and progressing. In order to have success with this strategy, it’s important for marketers to remain current on the latest trends and adapt accordingly. Here are four of the top digital marketing trends for 2015:

1) SEM Continues to Dominate

For quite awhile, search engine marketing (SEM) has been one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach consumers and drive organic traffic from a targeted demographic. In 2015, it’s expected for that trend to continue, which is why marketers will spend a large percent of money on SEM. In fact, this technique accounts for roughly 14 percent of total marketing budgets. Because of the massive number of sales revenue that’s generated through search engines, it’s likely that this trend will continue well past 2015.

2) Web Traffic is a Major Measurement Tool

In the past, some of the main measuring sticks for marketing success were sales lead quality and social media sharing. However, web traffic is anticipated to outweigh both of these metrics, and 60 percent of marketers will use web traffic as their primary way of measuring the success of a campaign. Due to the fact that there are multitude of variables to determine true success, businesses that delve deeper into their analysis of web traffic should have an advantage over many competitors.

3) Video is a Highly Effective Medium

There’s no denying the impact that YouTube has had on the Internet and the world in general. And because of the popularity of smartphones, almost anyone can access and instantly watch videos at any time. Consequently, the popularity of marketing via videos is continuing to rise. Over 70 percent of marketers already use videos as a digital medium, and 7 percent will beef up their YouTube marketing in the New Year.

4) Organic Search Vastly Outweighs Outbound Marketing

In years past, many companies relied primarily on outbound marketing strategies where products or services were pushed onto consumers. But with search engines and the rise of digital marketing, it’s easy to see that traditional, outbound marketing is drying up at a rapid rate. To prove this point, research has found that organic search leads have over a 14 percent close rate, and outbound marketing leads have less than a 2 percent rate. This means that people are finding products on their own accord and aren’t responding to pushy sales tactics.

Understanding what’s happening in the digital marketing world in 2015 is essential to keeping up with the competition and building lasting relationships with consumers. By taking the initiative to adapt to these trends, businesses should not only be able to survive, but thrive this year.

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