Digital marketing agencies have been chopping and changing since they opened shop. It’s becoming harder and harder to predict where this massively mobile industry will go next. There are so many different types of agencies now (full service, integrated, SEO), that putting your finger on what a digital marketing agency does can be quite difficult. In this guide we take a look at how and why things will change.
[easy-tweet tweet=”It’s becoming harder to predict where the digital #marketing industry will go next”]
1. Integrated agencies will become the norm
One of the less celebrated aspects of the rise of social media and social media marketing is the fact that it has combined the two previously incompatible worlds of PR and digital. More user generated content means that you can bypass the old world of meeting and buttering up journalists.
You can now send your own positive messages through social media accounts which ultimately means that a digital agency can’t just be focused on digital and a PR agency vice-versa. PR agencies need to understand every part of the digital puzzle if they are to compete with their digital counterparts. One thing you might notice is that there could even be a small dip in the amount of PR agencies operating by the end of the decade.
2. Increased mobile marketing
Mobile was king last year with mobile searches overtaking desktop for the first time ever. It had been the channel of choice for agencies who were dealing with younger brands for quite some time now. However, it was in 2015 that it really took off. The best way of marketing anything was through mobile.
This trend is set to continue over the next few years and it won’t be long before every agency has a mobile division. Understanding how to deliver a wide range of content through this ever-growing platform will soon be more than a luxury, it will be essential.
3. Analytics will become more commonplace
The concept of coverage is incredibly widespread. Long gone are the days when you would simply skim through the day’s papers in the hope of finding something relevant to the brand that you were looking after. Coverage now represents many different things – it could be social buzz, increased traffic or related user-generated content. The way that these things are tracked will eventually become more and more in-depth. Proving the value of what you are doing can only be done through demonstrating coverage. The better you are at analysing and presenting it, the happier your clients will be.
4. Content will become even more regal
It seems like you can’t go a day without someone saying that ‘content is king’. You hear it everywhere from huge conferences to client meetings. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s true. Generating content is becoming key to every marketing plan. Expect to see agencies adopt larger video departments, sign more freelance writers and employ more bloggers. Content departments will become more specialised and it’s definitely one of the most exciting aspects of working in a digital marketing agency. It will be fascinating to see how this develops over the next few years.
[easy-tweet tweet=”Digital marketing is an incredibly exciting place to be with new technologies creating constant change”]
Digital marketing is an incredibly exciting place to be right now with new technologies and ideas all contributing to an ever changing state of flux. Marketing strategies have moved away from the ‘hypodermic needle’ model to an ever–growing world of user-generated messages and stories. How agencies react to this will be key.