5 Digital Marketing Trends a Traditional Media Marketer Should Know

The other day I was talking to an old friend of mine whose experience is in traditional media. The integration of digital marketing into an overall marketing plan does not come naturally to him. He explained to me that he knew it was important to stay relevant to his customers, but he just didn’t quite understand the potential impact of what he was missing.

I wrote him the next day and shared the following five digital marketing trends to give him insight into the various audiences he is missing out on.

1. Social Media Is Booming With Boomers

The fastest growing demographic on Facebook and Google+ is 45-54; on Twitter it’s 55-64. With business users and the older demographic adopting social media, the marketing opportunities are greater and so are the costs of ignoring social. After all, baby boomers control 70% of the disposable income in the U.S.

2. A Smartphone Is Really Another Body Part

25% of smartphone owners aged 18–44 say they can’t recall the last time their smartphone wasn’t next to them. As a marketer, take mobile seriously. Plan for it and design for it. Whether it’s designing and maintaining your own mobile site or using mobile platforms to market your business, mobile must be a top priority.

3. Not All Social Sites Are Created Equally

LinkedIn has a lower percentage of active users than Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook, yet many marketers perceive the LinkedIn user as more desirable. Determining what’s important to you depends entirely on your business and your customers. Do the research to find out who they are and where and how they spend their time. Spend your resources there, wherever that may be.

4. You Are Not Alone

93% of marketers use social media for business. It doesn’t mean they’re all doing it well, but it does mean there are resources available to get help with your own social efforts. Find out who in your industry is getting results. Keep your attention focused on people who are solving the problems you’re encountering.

5. YouTube is the Video Star

YouTube reaches more US adults aged 18-34 than any cable network. They have one billion monthly unique visitors, and six billion hours of videos are watched every month. If this is your target age group, and you are not creating and posting videos, you are possibly missing a very important, very active channel.

I hope these five trends are as helpful to you as they were to my friend. There are powerful new ways to deliver new kinds of content (not ads, content) to new groupings of target audiences through new channels. Anyone in the traditional media who ignores these dramatic changes will be at a disadvantage to those who grasp them.

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