Over the years, the team here at Blink;Tech has made some major predictions about where internet technology was headed and the long-term value of following certain key web marketing strategies. The words “long-term” are extremely important here, because it is pretty easy to jump on the buzzword bandwagon in support of the next great social platform or marketing tool. But these things tend to grow quickly then fade just as fast in value and/or impact. They are not long-term strategies, but rather short-term opportunities (or even distractions).
What we have always focused on for our clients was building a tech and marketing infrastructure that would ride the long, slow swell of sea change in the marketplace. This approach has helped our long-term clients grow their businesses on a solid foundation, something that can be pretty difficult to do in web technology where seemingly there is some new, shiny buzzword being thrown about on a seemingly weekly basis.
So what were some of these big predictions we made? And why did they matter? Well, let’s go over a few and you can see if your business has been leveraging a few of these strategies for the long-term. If you have, we’ll bet they are bringing you the most clients, conversions, and/or ROI.
The Rise of Mobile
We have been screaming from the rooftop about this longer than we can remember. In a blog from April 2012 we wrote, “The mobile user is one of ‘now,’ one of ‘I am ready to do business,’ ‘I am ready to go there now,’ etc. The successful website leverages this new behavior today.”
We also pushed many of our clients away from mobile apps in lieu of a more affordable and adaptable website utilizing Responsive Web Design, which was easily viewed on any device and was much more effective for small businesses marketing to new prospective clients.
Today it is all about mobile. The average small to medium-sized business can get as much as 60 to 70% of traffic from mobile devices. We believe this is still going to go up.
The Long-Term ROI of Blogging
More than any other strategy, blogging continues to be the most cost-effective way of growing solid long-term traffic on a website. And our clients and blog readers who have followed our lead on this one, have reaped the rewards. The businesses we’ve worked with whose sites have the highest and best targeted traffic all did it by blogging.
There are however a few things you should know. The first is that blogging is a long-game. You will not see results sometimes for as much as a year. But when the results start showing up, they are usually not only consistent, but lasting and cheap since the only ongoing cost for a successful blog post is the cost of bandwidth due to high traffic.
The second key point is that blogging can be very technical. Not only in what topics are chosen, but the wording and structure of the blog. If not done correctly, a blog can be lost in the backwaters of the internet. Work with professionals who specialize in blogging and SEO before wasting a lot of time and resources.
The Importance of Video
Long before this January 2015 blog, we were encouraging our clients to consider video in their marketing. While high quality video can be shot, edited, and uploaded out of any smartphone these days, back then it wasn’t as easy – or affordable. But we knew that was rapidly changing and encouraged our clients to stick with it.
According to YouTube, users currently watch about 1 billion hours of videos on the platform each day. This is just YouTube. Facebook accounts for over 100 million hours of video watched each day. Like mobile, video will continue to grow.
The Diminishing Return of Organic Social Media
Honestly one of our biggest frustrations when getting calls from new prospective clients is when they ask for help with their social media business posts. We have to hit them with a hard truth: social media these days is a pay-to-play game if you want any appreciable results. We even wrote a blog about this back in June 2014.
To clarify, we still encourage clients to keep a minimal organic presence on their social media platforms – and even more so since the pandemic started. But when it comes to actual results, having us help them with social media advertising is always a far superior use of company resources. And the pay-to-play paradigm is only going to continue.
The Downfall of Email
Ugh, email! It is the living fossil of the internet. Yes, it is still widely used and you can generate some traction with email newsletters, but we’ve been encouraging our clients to wean themselves off of it for many years.
These days, for inter-office communication nothing beats the cloud. Productivity software provides superior asynchronous and collaborative communication, and file-sharing platforms totally eradicate the frustration of email attachments and troublesome email forwards.
Mobile is another email slayer. SMS marketing will continue to grow and as users become more accustomed to it, they will gladly ignore those clunky email marketing efforts that quite often end up in the spam box. The pandemic has introduced a lot of businesses and consumers alike to the power and possibility of SMS message marketing, which has only quickened email’s slow extinction. And this is a great segue to our next prediction.
The Growing Tech Savvy of the Average Consumer
While we’ve been talking about this one since the beginnings of Blink;Tech, the recent Covid-19 pandemic not only made this prediction come true, but put it into warp drive. Practically everything above has only increased in relevancy due to the average consumer having more time to spend on his or her smartphone, and a new set of hurdles to negotiate in day-to-day life.
And it’s not only Millennials leading this tech savvy consumer movement – Baby Boomers who previously were tech-resistant have had to adjust quickly to the pandemic where technology has come to our aid like never before.
As we move forward, if you don’t have an easy way for your customers or clients to both communicate and pay you, they may get frustrated and take their business where these new technological conveniences are being employed. There has been a lot of disruption and despair due to the pandemic, but one positive thing is that we know the power of technology and know-how to move forward in a safer, more convenient world.
Has Your Business Been Left Behind?
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us so we can help you get caught up with new technologies and business strategies that were unimaginable even a decade ago. It’s never too late to start!
