It is no news to anyone that in the last few years social media marketing and other forms of digital marketing have grown considerably. But do you know just how much? Let me give you a statistic:  5 years ago just 10% of small businesses used social media as a form of marketing, and today in 2013 a whopping 87% use it for marketing purposes.

Over the past 5-10 years with the advances in technology, the way we market our businesses has changed forever. No longer do we have only a handful of platforms in which we use for marketing. Today there are many platforms and this number continues to grow.  In addition, today is not just about which platforms to choose, it’s about how can I get my message across all of them at once. The consumer has changed with technology and it is getting easier and easier to view, share, and be knowledgeable of digital information (company brands). All of these changes and advances in technology provide options; these options believe it or not make marketing more of a challenge  than it was in the 90’s, say 59% of small business owners.

We have established that technology has increased the options of digital marketing making it more difficult for small business owners, but what else has changed? In a survey of small businesses it was found that being “locally owned” as a strategy has made a considerable difference from 5 years ago. In fact it has seen an increase of 9% from 2008. This leads me to believe that for small businesses it is smarter to hone in on a smaller niche market and dominate that than to “be all things at once”; something my college economics professor specifically told me not to be.

This next question is “what does the future hold for digital marketing”?

It’s hard to predict too far into the future as technology is ever changing but in my option 3 things are right now and will be very important going into 2014:

•  Cross-Platform Marketing – Companies will need to reach the consumer wherever they are. In today’s world, this is “everywhere”. With smart phones people are able to be signed in to multiple social networks, watch videos on YouTube, and research a product all at the exact same time. Don’t you think your brand should be in all of these places at the same time too?
• Micro VideoAds® – This is a concept that I came up with for my new start up that stems from the micro videos that Vine and Instagram now offer. I believe that people’s attention spans are lessening every day which is why these micro videos are becoming so popular. We as marketers need to reach the consumer in this way. My company Dynamic Digital Marketing has come up with a formula for these Micro Video Advertisements that can be used for any small to large business. We will be rolling this product out in the next 2 months. (If you’re interested in  a free quote for this product please e mail me at gharrington@dynamicdigitalfirm.com)
• Mobile Marketing – Marketers have already increased their mobile marketing budgets in 2013 by 46%. I believe this will continue to increase going into 2014 and 2015. Smart phone ownership continues to increase by roughly 10% a year and people spend an average of 1 ½ to 2 hours a day on their phone. That is almost 23 days a year or almost 6 1/2 % of their yearly lives. For the generation Y’s and generations Z’s this percentage is much higher. My advice marketers and small business owners, follow the crowd and go mobile.

If you are interested in Micro VideoAds®, any other service we provide, consulting, or just some basic advice, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at gharrington@dynamicdigitalfirm.com.