The past year brought changes to the algorithms in Google’s page ranking, Facebook’s Newsfeed display, and more. These changes have had a major impact on both B2C and B2B marketers, and have forced them to consider new approaches to reach their audiences online.
There is only one constant certainty with these algorithms, and that is that they will continue to change. It seems that as soon as marketers have adjusted to one update to Facebook’s algorithm, a new one is released. Even Twitter is now experimenting with an algorithmically-curated feed.
The takeaway from these changes is clear: marketers must be agile and willing to adapt their strategies as algorithms evolve.
The key to an agile marketing approach is data. To effectively reach clients in 2014, B2B marketers must harvest data, segment it appropriately and put meaningful time into analyzing it to extract meaningful insights. To achieve marketing efficiency, marketers must deploy strategies that effectively respond to what is and is not working. Best practices must be personalized: there is no one-size-fits-all digital strategy.
Google continues to change its ranking algorithm as well, making many SEO promises obsolete. Again, marketing agility is critical. But this also reveals the importance of creating digital content for people, not algorithms. As SEO changes, marketers find themselves playing catch-up to master the new requirements. If website content was written exclusively to please an old algorithm, it may need to be scrapped and replaced. But if old content is essentially useful, it can be repurposed to work with a new algorithm with minimal and superficial changes.
As any marketer knows, algorithms are just one of the many ever-changing pieces of the marketing puzzle. In the month ahead, we’ll take a look back at the first three quarters of 2014, share changes that have taken place this year so far, and discuss what marketers need to consider as they prepare for 2015. Visit our blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in October to learn more about the latest marketing evolutions, new best practices and how to employ them going forward.
Photo Credit: mkhmarketing via Flickr Creative Commons
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