Did you ever wish that the Magic 8-Ball you owned as a child could actually see the future? As we move out of 2013 and tip toe into 2014, forecasting the latest trends in Digital Marketing shouldn’t be a tough task. After all, companies are always looking for room to grow, and are seeking to capitalize on the trends that can yield the greatest commercial benefits.Not one form of advertising experienced more growth than mobile advertising did in 2013, according to AdAge Mobile Fact Pack. And while that would certainly mean that mobile is no longer “emerging,” it is now an essential component to any advertising strategy. Now we’re shaking the trees to see What’s new in the world of Mobile Marketing in 2014:
E-mail Goes Mobile First
Raise your hand if most of your e-mails are now opened on your mobile device. We can’t see you, but we’re pretty sure that your hand is raised. That’s because over half of all emails are now opened on mobile devices, and that number is only projected to increase. The reason for the steady climb? PC sales are in a steep decline, with worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter of 2013 down 8.6 percent according to Gartner.
New Mobile Video Formats
Have you noticed Facebook’s new in-stream ads? Considered a digital challenge to television, Facebook has begun to let advertisers test a new video format that plays automatically when users check their news feeds. It’s just one of the ways new formats have started to emerge as the industry evolves, and who else would you expect to be leading the pack but Facebook? Monetizing huge numbers of users through mobile ads continues to be the goal of businesses around the world, but they aim to do so without alienating mobile users with auto-play formats and repeated interruptions. In that sense, mobile video remains ripe for innovation.
Mobile RTB will make up nearly half of all mobile ad buys
In September, eMarketer increased their forecast for Mobile Real Time Bidding (RTB) thanks to 70% annual growth,according to VentureBeat. At this point, it seems there’s no disagreement in the industry that RTB will represent the future of the mobile ad marketplace. RTB blazed its own trail in 2013 with Twitter’s acquisition of MoPub, considered an early leader in mobile RTB technology, and the overall size of the RTB market was projected to reach 30% by year’s end, says AdExchanger.It certainly doesn’t take a Magic 8-Ball to see that the major marketing trend in 2014 will continue to be an investment in mobile. Technology is taking over, and with the right strategies your business should find a significant return on investment next year when it comes to mobile marketing.
