Ignorance of Digital Marketing: The Silent Killer

By Art Moryedi, Marlik Group, a creative design and inbound marketing agency. This firm specializes in helping businesses that are serious about their business growth and want to generating more leads, increase sales and improve ROI.

One of the most widespread causes of failure today comes down to ignorance and denial on how the world works today. Forces such as inbound marketing, social media, and the share economy are radically reshaping many industries. If you're not keeping up with these realities or choose to ignore them, your competitors will leapfrog ahead of you. Let's look at why ignorance of marketing trends is a silent killer for businesses.

New Digital Marketing Trends

There are many digital marketing trends that threaten to leave many businesses behind. Whether your focus is SEO, social media, blogging, paid advertising, video, or other types of marketing, it's essential to stay current with the latest developments in these fields. Some examples include:

• Live Video Streaming - Facebook is putting lots of effort into promoting Facebook Live, its video streaming service, a good indication that this is a significant trend. Other services, such as YouTube and Periscope are also offering this type of service. There are many opportunities for businesses to engage with their customers using live streaming.
• Chatbots - Offering live chat on your website lets you educate visitors and provide support to customers. We're still in the early stages of the chatbot revolution. This is another technology that benefits a wide variety of businesses.
• Stories on Instagram and SnapChat - Both of these new and growing social media sites introduced a storiesfeature. If your audience is young, this is a trend to watch carefully. As with video streaming, stories make viewers feel like they're part of the action.
• Diverse devices. Smartphones and tablets are more popular than ever. Another thing to watch for is the growth of wearable technology. Marketers will soon have to make sure that their messages reach people wearing devices such as smart watches.

The Share Economy
By now, everyone is aware that the internet, Google, Facebook, and YouTube play a huge role in contemporary marketing. Over the last few years, however, some even newer and equally revolutionary technologies and platforms have developed. Many businesses are not adapting to these changes. A good example of this is the share economy is a broad term that includes services such as Uber, Airbnb, Fiverr, TaskRabbit and many others. Another example of this type of service is crowdfunding. Once again, the people creating platforms such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter don't actually fund anything. These services connect project developers with investors.

Also known as the collaborative economy, this is a new business model built on cooperation and networking. Note that Uber doesn't provide rides like a traditional taxi company. Rather, it connects drivers with riders. This is a distinction that's crucial for understanding the collaborative economy. Many businesses that don't understand this process, such as taxi companies and hotels, have fallen victim to these leading edge services. Share economy services operate almost entirely through websites and apps. They are all about providing platforms that fill important needs.

How Will These (and other) Marketing Trends Affect You?
We've looked at some of the emerging trends that are transforming business. Don't make the mistake of reading some of these developments and saying "this doesn't apply to me." For example, most business owners probably feel that the share economy isn't directly relevant to them. Even if you're in a completely unrelated industry, however, you should observe and learn how this movement is transforming the world.

Similarly, Instagram Stories and live streaming video aren't necessarily ideal for your current marketing needs. However, it's still worth watching these trends. You might find ways to use these or other emerging technologies. Be especially vigilant if your competitors are using a certain platform. Think of ways to leverage the needs and abilities of your customers. Just as importantly, ask how future businesses in your field might threaten your current business model. One way to avoid falling victim to disruption is to become one of the disruptors!