It is high time to look ahead to what will be the most important trends in online marketing in the year 2015. There is a real hunger for knowledge among marketers about the upcoming trends in content, social media & overall digital marketing. Here is the post digging deep into a variety of important areas to focus on for digital marketing in 2015.
1. Mobile Optimization Will Rule: Master It
Although optimizing for mobile has been a significant priority for businesses in 2014, but 2015 is predicted to be the year where mobile strategies go beyond just having a responsive website. 
Google has been giving additional prominence to it and thus stated that - mobile usability is now "relevant for optimal search results." - which is apparent in the recent launch of a new ranking factor in Google Webmaster Tools named "Mobile Usability" 2015 is going to witness many businesses finally integrating mobile into all expanses of their digital marketing through:
- a fully responsive website
- mobile ads
- a separate content specially for mobile website users.
Businesses will also start realizing the necessity of having a mobile social media strategy that contemplates how mobile users interact with social media posts.
2. Content Marketing Will be Bigger Than Ever
- 69% marketers are creating more content now than they did one year ago
- 62% digital marketing analysts are creating more engaging and high-quality content than the previous year
As marketers continue to realize the benefits of their content strategies, bucks previously set aside for PPC, SEO and Social Media will be re-allocated to content marketing efforts. 
The variety of content that will prevail in the coming year:
- How-to Blogs
- Informative Blogs & Articles
- Infographics
- Meme
- Video Content
- Product Reviews/Client Testimonials
All that gives businesses an advantage over their competitors. Businesses will be willing to capitalize on mobile content - creating short-form content readable on mobile devices, understanding audience s mobile habits and putting more stress on video/visual content viral via mobile.
3. Social media ad spend to sharply increase: 30% increase than the last year
In the first part of 2014, Facebook reported increased ad revenue (10%) over the preceding fiscal period. Businesses are witnessing positive results from investment in social media, in the form of increased exposure and traffic. 
Twitter s new advertising options (currently in beta), where payment is triggered by specific actions like website clicks, app downloads and email opt-ins, will mean small to medium-sized businesses will be more likely to invest in these objective-based campaigns.
4. Visual Storytelling: Perfect for engaging and nurturing engagement
Blended with Videos, visual stories fashioned for marketing purposes will be able to trigger the engagement and inspire emotions, sending a clear note about the brand to its customer communities and helping to define it against the surrounding surge of noise. 
Human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text, and Articles containing images get 95% more views than articles without Start with a strong visual story concept that get parallel all your social media strategy and business objectives to get immediate & more impactful response.
5. SEO, Content Marketing & Social Media will go hand in hand
Content marketing has been described as the "new pattern SEO". SEO and content marketing will continue to co-exist as two distinct but intertwined stream that rely on each other for success. Content marketing is undoubtedly the principal influencer of search visibility. 
Businesses not investing in a solid content strategy will notice that their SEO campaigns are not effective. Social media, will come to be seen as an essential catalyst of any content strategy. While businesses have been focused on creating great-quality content, less focus has been given to stimulating and distributing that content, herein social media can be leveraged as a content distribution tool. All 3 put together - Businesses will increasingly realize the other benefits of social media, including
- Increased brand recognition,
- Improved customer insights, and
- Higher conversion rates
Bottom line, this means that big data and advanced analytics can be used to drive sales growth through more effective marketing and advertising. What s on your radar for 2015? Let us know in the comments.