There can be little doubting the tremendous transformative effect the web, tech, and computers have had on the world of advertising and marketing. From simple showcase corporate websites right through to dedicated mobile apps and expansive, 24/7/365 e-commerce stores, the web has utterly transformed the options available for firms to reach out to clients and expand into new markets.
The incessant rise of social media
While the web itself has brought unprecedented benefits to firms looking to make a meaningful connection with customers (both existing and potential), surely no other tech has helped foster client/company relations better than the growth in social platforms.
Whereas social media was once viewed by many CEOs as the preserve of angst-ridden teens, with ongoing improvements in marketing and analytics software, social media has become the platform of choice for many firms seeking to build valuable bonds and interactions with their clients. Indeed, in today’s highly connected and media-rich world, customers have come to expect their favorite firms to have a strong presence across all the major social platforms—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube (note, there are many others you could—and potentially should—also target).
The growth of mobile and opportunities the mobile web presents
It’s easy to forget that that web is, in real terms, very much in its infancy and still developing and maturing. While today’s web is a far cry from the first basic, text-based website fired up by Tim Berners-Lee on August 6th, 1991 in CERN, Switzerland, many would argue it has only begun to reach new levels of usefulness and functionality over the last decade or so.
Alongside this constant growth and transformation has come the relatively new movement towards the mobile web. Largely spearheaded by the development of the iPhone back in 2007, the mobile internet has completely transformed how (and where) we now use the web and encouraged a plethora of geo-specific technologies and apps that have enhanced and improved our most common web services.
The ubiquity of mobile devices and on-the-go internet use has also given rise to a huge range of location-specific services including geographically specific web promotions, mobile-specific services, and text message advertising that can draw on the tech and processing power of handheld devices (e.g. using the phone’s camera, microphone, GPS, and so on). If you want to stay one step ahead of the digital marketing curve, you should look at embracing the opportunities offered by mobile promotions.
The importance of having an optimized website
With such massive growth in mobile device use has come the increasing need for website admins to ensure their pages scale appropriately so they remain useable on the biggest range of devices: everything from smart watches and cell phones right up to large TV screens. Indeed, Google recently introduced a wide-ranging policy where it penalizes sites that aren’t built to a so-called responsive format (able to be viewed on the biggest range of screens).
In line with this, you should also ensure you employ search engine optimization (SEO) on your site to help generate more traffic from search engines. SEO is the highly detailed process used by internet marketing specialists to increase footfall to websites by pushing them higher up the search engine results pages (SERPs) under terms, keywords, and phrases most likely to be used by clients looking for their particular services. Good SEO can mean the difference between your site languishing in obscurity or attracting increased traffic and visitors.