[Hammock’s Current Idea Email was released yesterday.
Subscribe now to receive your own issue, once every two weeks.]
the hammock idea email brings smart marketing ideas to your inbox

c818e7160699e63cb971e3c2_620x274

Idea: Customer Media and Content Predictions for 2014, Part One

This week and next, we are bringing you our 10 predictions for 2014 related to the media, content and technology used by marketers to communicate directly with customers, members, clients, et. al. Some will be quite obvious—the incremental, “around the edges” innovation that is most common. Other predictions will fall outside the box of conventional wisdom—the more significant and surprising way the future arrives.

Here are our first five 2014 predictions related to customer media, content and relationship marketing.

1. By this time next year, more than 40 percent of the digital interactions between you and your customers will be initiated by them via a mobile device—not a desktop or laptop computer. Today, the percentage of interactions on your site from mobile devices is likely around 15-20 percent, unless you are one of the top online retailers that reached the 30 percent mark in September, according to Comscore.

2. Websites will slowly be replaced by web apps. That’s a bit of a joke, as a web app is technically the same as a website. However, what we mean is this: Websites will be designed with the interface and functionality of apps. As we’ve said before, the smallest screen on which a website can be viewed is quickly becoming the most important screen to design for.

3. Customers and marketers will finally figure out what Twitter is all about, while Facebook will become more and more confusing to customers and marketers. For location-aware and local advertising, Google will, when all is said and done, be the winner.

4. Email will continue to dominate in 2014. Indeed, email is the digital media most likely to survive if the Earth is ever struck by a giant asteroid. Thus, email marketing will continue as long as the messages that companies send are considered valuable by the audience receiving them. The longevity of email is helped by the efforts of Google and others to stamp out spam.

5. In 2014, the animated GIF will be recognized as an effective communication tool for something more than funny pet videos. But don’t be alamed, in 2014, we’ll still have plenty of funny pet videos.

Next week, we tackle predictions for strategy and media trends.

(Note: Because the next Idea Email is scheduled for Christmas week, we’re delivering it to you next week instead. We’ll pick back up our regular schedule in 2014 with our first issue on Thursday,
Jan. 9.)

 


The Idea Email is distributed free, once every two weeks, by Hammock, the customer media and content marketing company. Please share this with friends and colleagues who can subscribe here. We respect your privacy, and each mailing includes a one-click unsubscribe link. We typically feature one or more companies and organizations in each Idea Email. If any company we mention has a relationship to Hammock (as a current or former client, for example), we will include a disclosure.


the idea email benefits for your business