‘Digital Marketing’ is a much used phrase that has been kicking about for some time now and is used to describe the type of marketing that is carried out through digital channels. Although it’s still a relatively new concept, the power of digital marketing has been continuously highlighted, as the influence that social media and a digital presence can have on a business’ tangible success is proven over and over again. In fact, such is the power of digital marketing, that the US research company Forrester has predicated that in 2013, the term ‘digital marketing’ will become simply ‘marketing’ as many non-digital forms of marketing become obsolete.

The prediction comes from Forrester’s ‘Trends for the B2C CMO to watch in 2013,’ which identifies ‘digital disruption’ that will impact in all areas over the next 12 months, with established broadcasters forced to compete with platforms such as Vine and YouTube and even something as traditionally high street as banking facing competition from services such as Square. Although not every business needs to venture into e-commerce in order to survive, at least some sort of digital marketing presence is going to be key to staying afloat as more and more people are turning to their smart phones, tablets and computers to find everything from groceries to mechanics. If you’re not convinced that these types of technology are that widely owned then the figures speak for themselves - in 2012 smart phone penetration in the UK reached 50% of the population aged 13 or above1, a rise on 2011, when figures provided by Ofcom showed that a quarter of the adult population and half of the teenage population of the UK owned a smart phone.

However, whilst digital marketing is going to become the marketing method of choice for most of us this year, the rules of the game are changing somewhat. Traditional methods of ‘push’ marketing – ‘buy my product’ type messages – are becoming rather redundant as the sheer number of these that are received by customers every day mean that many now trigger an instant delete or ignore. Instead, digital marketing is moving towards more of a quality approach that clearly demonstrates why a consumer should listen – and respond to – the marketer’s message. This means that marketing in 2013 will be all about creating new, quality, interesting content and then utilising and optimising it to better than anyone else.

Contact Klood for some help in developing a competitive digital marketing plan for your business.

photo credit: Rosaura Ochoa via photopin cc