Marketing terms evolve as rapidly as the platforms through which businesses put them to use. One need only consider the rapid rise and equally rapid fall of daily deals, email marketing campaigns and other marketing strategies that have shot to the heights of popularity and then slowly faded into the shadows. These things have not gone away, they are simply no longer buzzing on the tongues of marketing professionals who are continually in search of the newest and the next best thing. Following are the top 3 online marketing buzz words that you need to know right now.
1. SoLoMo
SoLoMo is a somewhat clumsy acronym for the fusion of social media marketing, local marketing and mobile app marketing. Ultimately, it is a term that is used to define mobile services that connect mobile phone users locally and socially. SoLoMo is essential for reaching the increasingly harried consumer. The widespread use of tablets and mobile phones to conduct online searches makes it necessary for businesses to streamline their marketing efforts so that they are continuously visible, effective and informative, even when using a smaller screen and a much refined manner of searching. SoLoMo makes it far easier for companies to devise and implement effective geographically local campaigns, brand their businesses and track consumer actions and buying habits.
2. Convergence
The convergence of very distinct technologies into one form has and continues to change both the way that people search for businesses and the way that businesses must market themselves. Cloud-sourcing has brought a number of different services together, allowing companies to transfer much of their operations onto the web, including data storage and even phone systems. Now, mobile phone technology and mobile apps have made it so that people can carry their devices right in their back pockets and conduct business wherever they may be. As technology continues to evolve at a mind-boggling pace, convergence will continue to remain on the tip of marketing tongues everywhere. As marketing terms go, convergence is one of the most important. Continued convergence is what ultimately changes how companies market themselves and how consumers find them.
3. Gamification
In its simplest terms, gamification means making a healthy game out of a company’s direct competition. Businesses are now using social networks and other online platforms to compete by fusing incentives and rewards programs with their marketing information. As a greater understanding is gained of this marketing term and all of the potential that it holds, marketers can look forward to a more cohesive and better-structured definition for gamification. Thus, to gamify the marketing strategies of a business will ultimately mean to create real gaming-style incentives in which there are actual winners and losers, rather than merely buyer rewards and point systems.
