3 Online Marketing Trends That Will Have the Biggest Impact On Your Company in 2014

Marketing a business online has never been more important or difficult. Changes are happening at the speed of light and chief marketing officers need to stay current with the latest trends.

Here are some facts from a survey of 3,000 marketers done by Michael A. Stelzner in the May 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report sponsored by the Social Media Examiner:

A whopping 97 percent of organizations use social media to market their businesses, up from 2012. A significant 86 percent of marketers said that social media was important to their businesses. This is also up from last year. However, only one in four marketers (26 percent) agreed they were able to measure their social activities. Only slightly more than one in three agreed with the statement “My Facebook marketing is effective.”

Here are three trends chief marketing officers need to be aware of in order to most effectively do their jobs in the second half of 2013.

Customer testimonials are God. The most credible form of selling is exposing your prospects to happy customers. Harness the feedback 24/7 and use it intelligently and in a timely manner in your online marketing campaigns. Social marketing makes it easy for a company’s customers and prospects to share a message. According to a recent Forrester research report, 70 percent of consumers trust recommendations from a friend, whereas only 10 percent trust advertising.

Video is king. The use of video and YouTube has been popular but it’s becoming even more popular according to a recent study by Social Media Examiner. Find ways to efficiently produce many videos for the vast majority of your marketing efforts on the major social networks and on your own website.

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Do you have a dozen tools to do your online marketing? Are you constantly hiring costly consultants, agencies and video crews? Figure out a way to reduce the cost and complexity of your programs by deploying the latest tools that integrate many features. If you have fewer people, vendors and tools to manage, your time will be freed up to focus on creative and proactive projects.

Craig Sherman is the CEO and founder of Sociamonials, a new service that combines a social marketing suite and unique self-service customer testimonial video producing tool. He is also the senior marketing manager of the California Chamber of Commerce, which is called CalChamber.