As we progress into 2014, online marketing experts are airing and exchanging their views on the way forward for the evolving digital markets. With expectations of sweeping changes likely to happen, we present to you insights from our in-house experts on what will work for us.
Our in-house experts include:
- Mr. Ashish Gaikwad, Design Head
- Mr. George P, AVP, Online Search Marketing
- Ms. Manvi Gupta Sharma, Sr. Manager, Brand Outreach
- Mr. Tejas Thakkar, Assistant Manager, SEO
- Mr. Santosh S, Online Marketing Manager
Look out for design evolution in scrolling patterns
The first fold mantra that was looked upon as an established design pattern is likely to see an end soon. Why? The evolving user behaviour reveals trends to move away from this traditional design feature. A few research studies conducted over the year points out that users have started seeking rich content along with easy navigation processes to facilitate this content. It has now become a challenge to make user stay and dig deeper the page in the absence of rich content. In fact, only the designers are very much likely to admire a well designed page.
When designing a page remember it is going to be viewed daily. An effective design that adapts to the above mentioned purpose will be an added advantage to increase visitors. ‘Scrolling Patterns’ are going to be extensively used. Different types of touch screen devices which has internet access like (Mobile,Tablet,Xbox,TV etc.) has also played a vital role in changing the established pattern of scrolling. We can find many e-commerce and social media websites have started using infinite scrolling pattern. Other scrolling patterns we might see will be column wise horizontal scrolling, parallax scrolling, element or object based scrolling.
– Ashish Gaikwad, Design Head
Google will be giving more importance to Product Listing Ads in 2014
In 2014 we may not be observing radical changes in Adwords as seen in 2013. Google has already began to experiment a few things on the sponsored ad listings i.e. an Orange Google ‘Ad’ images will start to appear or already is appearing on paid ad listings. Also, I look forward to see the impact on click through rate, whether the CTR goes up or down that remains to be seen. But the Orange button is kind of eye catching and I am looking forward to see the campaign performance.
Google is giving more importance to Product Listing Ads (PLAs)… why not? They are paid now. For nearly a decade, online merchants were getting free traffic through Froogle/Google Base will no longer be free as the products will be listed on commercial model built on the Product Listing Ads program.
PLAs will be moving from the right hand side of the SERP to top spots on the left and its popularity is growing and may outperform regular paid text ads.
– George P, AVP, Online Search Marketing
Mobile is the way to go and yes don’t forget ‘Geo Tagging’
If we see the consumer trends of the past six months, we know that mobile is the next big platform. While social networking platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter will continue to accelerate consumer engagement, we need to watch out for messaging apps such as Line, Whatsapp, etc which will precede them.
‘Geo Tagging’, is another area that might work as a big boost for your integrated marketing strategies. Pinterest has already realised its importance and is giving brands a chance to place their pins. Even through these changes, quality content still remains the king and the indispensable ingredient for generating fruitful interactions.
Integrating social media strategy with the marketing and branding strategies will become a must.
– Manvi Sharma, Sr. Manager, Brand Outreach
The claims of SEO’s death are an exaggeration. SEO is still alive and much more evolved than ever!
SEO isn’t dead. On the contrary it is still alive and much more evolved than ever. As long as we have search engines, we will continue to have SEO. One thing we all need to agree is that the landscape has changed now. It can be considered as a new start for the SEO. The strategies that worked probably a year ago would not work for you any longer. Traditional link building that comprised directory submissions or article submissions may not work for you anymore and social signals will carry more significance in SEO.
Out of those unnamed and assumed 200 odd factors of Google Algorithms that help us rank a website well in search results, content still plays the most important role in SEO. It might still be just a piece of the puzzle, albeit a very crucial one!
My mantra for SEO 2014 would be ‘Stay away from the shady SEO techniques, focus on Quality over Quantity, build content that is easy to find and good enough to be shared by the readers, link smartly and socialize well.’
– Tejas Thakkar, Assistant Manager, SEO
Synchronizing user behavior & data with Paid Search, Social & Display
New paid search features such as Google RLSA & Search Companion will use more audience data & behavior to decide ad placement & bidding. For example Motor Insurance Companies may raise the bid when your renewal is approaching & bid down after renewal.
With increasing use of Smartphone & high speed data availability mobile will be preferred device for research, entertainment activities. It will make sure 2014 Mobile campaigns spends are bigger, the challenge is small screen size. As Facebook ad platform evolves to the next level we expect more targeted campaigns with tools such as Facebook Advance audience tool. It allows you to use email database & send specific messages.
– Mr. Santosh S, Online Marketing Manager
In a nutshell 2014 will be a great mixture of advance technology & creativity.
What do you think does 2014 have in store? Share your views!
