Digital Marketing Planning for 2025 - The Digital Marketing Podcast

Summary

The Digital Marketing Podcast: Digital Marketing Planning for 2025

Release Date: December 20, 2024
Host: Daniel Rowles
Produced by TargetInternet.com

Introduction

In the December 20, 2024 episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, hosted solo by Daniel Rowles, the discussion pivots towards the evolving landscape of digital marketing as we approach 2025. Daniel delves into the emerging opportunities and challenges, particularly emphasizing the transformative role of generative AI and the resultant shifts in content creation and digital strategies.

Generative AI: Boon or Bane for Content Creation

Increased Content Noise

Daniel begins by addressing the surge in content generation driven by generative AI tools. This influx has heightened the "noise" in the digital space, making it increasingly challenging for content creators to stand out. He states:

"We've seen this year huge amounts of change because of generative AI... it's leading to loads of things becoming more difficult." [05:30]

Rise of Video Content

With the global rollout of Sora, OpenAI's video platform, there's a noticeable boom in video content. This surge necessitates innovative strategies to maintain content visibility and engagement.

Google's E-A-T and Algorithm Adjustments

Google is refining its algorithms to prioritize quality content, focusing on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-A-T). Daniel highlights:

"Google is trying to differentiate good quality content... leading to lots of things becoming more difficult." [10:15]

This shift affects how smaller brands perform in search generative experiences, often overshadowed by larger, more authoritative brands.

Search Generative Experience (SGE) Implications

Daniel provides a concrete example:

"If you search for something like what is data scraping... we're not being mentioned in there at the moment. Only big brands are being mentioned." [12:45]

This illustrates the challenge smaller enterprises face in maintaining visibility amidst AI-driven search results.

Educational Initiatives and Resources

Free One-Hour Update Webinars

Daniel announces TargetInternet.com's commitment to supporting marketers through free monthly webinars covering SEO, social media, analytics, and more. He encourages listeners to subscribe to their newsletter to access these resources:

"Every month now, we are doing these one-hour update webinars completely free... you just need to subscribe to the newsletter." [15:00]

AI Panel Insights from Imperial College

Drawing from his recent experience at Imperial College, Daniel shares key insights from an AI panel comprising experts from prestigious institutions like Cambridge and MIT.

Short-Term Optimism

AI is praised for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness, automating mundane tasks, and introducing valuable tools:

"Short term, brilliant. Efficiency, effectiveness... lots of useful tools." [20:20]

Medium-Term Concerns: Deep Fakes

The panel expresses apprehension about the societal impact of deep fake videos, advocating for measures to manage and mitigate their proliferation:

"Deep fake video is really going to change things... we need to look at putting the brakes on that." [25:10]

Long-Term Worries: AI Creating AI

Looking ahead, the panel warns of unintended consequences as AI systems begin to create more AI, posing existential risks:

"In the long term, when AIs can create AIs, we're going to get lots of unintended consequences." [28:55]

Strategic Focus: Effectiveness Over Efficiency

Daniel emphasizes the necessity of prioritizing effectiveness in content creation rather than merely increasing output. Drawing parallels to journalism, he advocates for in-depth research, unique insights, and authentic storytelling to enhance engagement:

"We need to start thinking like journalists... that's what makes that content stand out." [33:00]

He underscores that exceptional, thoughtfully crafted content is crucial to cut through the noise, as opposed to rapidly produced, low-effort material.

Maintaining Brand Consistency with AI Tools

Advancements in image and video creation tools now facilitate greater brand consistency. These tools enable marketers to adhere to brand colors, shapes, and overall aesthetics effortlessly, ensuring uniformity across all content:

"With image and video creation tools, the ability to keep it on brand, to make it consistent... is starting to make that a little bit more possible." [35:40]

Adapting to the Rapid Pace of Change

Daniel acknowledges that the swift pace of technological advancements presents both challenges and excitement for marketers. To navigate this landscape, he advocates for fostering a culture of learning and innovation within organizations:

"What we're seeing in organizations that are differentiating is embracing that culture of change." [38:15]

Embracing Continuous Learning

Incorporating ongoing education into weekly routines ensures that teams stay abreast of the latest trends without sacrificing productivity. Daniel shares strategies for integrating learning, such as:

"Listen to a podcast, watch a video, then get people together to reflect on that and look at how we might implement it." [40:00]

Digital Transformation Insights

Highlighting his digital transformation program, Daniel reveals that 72% of market disruptions now originate from industry incumbents rather than startups. This statistic underscores the importance of established companies innovating to avoid being outpaced:

"72% of disruption is now coming from industry incumbents... if we don't want to be disrupted, we need to disrupt ourselves." [42:30]

Actionable Recommendations

Benchmarking Current Performance

Daniel recommends utilizing TargetInternet.com's free benchmarking tools to assess and compare current marketing performance against industry standards:

"If you go on to targetInternet.com... you can benchmark yourself or your team for free." [45:00]

Cultivating Competitive Advantage

Understanding one's benchmark and striving to surpass industry averages can provide a crucial edge in the competitive market landscape.

Engaging with the Community and Future Content

Daniel invites listeners to engage with TargetInternet.com's offerings, including live sessions, audio courses, and monthly masterclasses. He also seeks feedback on the podcast format, proposing additional solo episodes for updates and conference insights:

"Let us know if you found this one useful and you think this might be a good format." [50:00]

Closing Remarks

Wrapping up the episode, Daniel extends warm wishes for the holiday season and hints at the return of the trio hosts in the new year with fresh content. He reiterates the importance of adapting to change, fostering innovation, and maintaining a continuous learning mindset to thrive in the dynamic field of digital marketing.

Key Takeaways

Generative AI is transforming content creation, increasing competition and noise in the digital space.
Google's E-A-T and algorithm changes favor high-quality, authoritative content, posing challenges for smaller brands.
Continuous Learning and fostering a culture of innovation are essential for staying ahead in digital marketing.
Benchmarking against industry standards can provide a competitive advantage.
Quality over Quantity: Emphasizing effective, research-driven content to enhance engagement and stand out amidst AI-generated noise.
Ethical Considerations: Addressing the societal impacts of technologies like deep fakes is crucial for sustainable growth.

For more insights, resources, and episodes, visit targetinternet.com/podcast.

Transcript

Daniel Rolls (0:00)

Welcome back to the Digital Marketing Podcast brought to you by targetinternet.com My name is Daniel Rolls and in this episode we're going to be talking about the digital marketing opportunities and challenges for 2025. Okay, so this is going to be a slightly different one. You've just got me today. No Louise, no Kieran. We've actually kind of finished up for Christmas, but I had a couple of experiences over the last couple of weeks that have got me thinking about the challenges and guess the opportunities we're going to be facing in the year ahead. And I wanted to get this episode in just to give you something to think about over the break and as you start making your plans for the year ahead. We've already seen this year huge amounts of change because of generative AI and we've spoken about it loads in the podcast already. But what it's really leading to, and we've seen this across a number of different channels, is that huge level of noise, loads and loads of people using these tools to pump out content. And we've been talking about that for a while already. But actually with the release of Sora, so OpenAI's video platform has been rolled out globally. It's just about to go live in the UK and across the EU as well. We're seeing huge amounts of video content as well. It's made a change in which the way that Google is approaching its algorithm trying to differentiate good quality content and we've talked about eat, experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. And you can go back to those previous episodes, but it's leading to lots of things becoming more difficult. We've got more content to stand out from. There's suddenly going to be huge amounts of video content. We've started looking more and more search generative experience in Google when you've got those AI results at the top of things, which is actually meaning only really the big brands are showing up. So if I give you an example, if you search for something like what is data scraping or how to get Google Analytics certification, there's a whole number of phrases that the target Internet website ranks number one for an organic results. But actually when you get a search generative experience, we're not being mentioned in there at the moment. So even though you're number one in Google and one situation where we're number one and number three, it's only big brands that are being mentioned in the generative result. So we're going to have to look at how we address that and we're going to be talking about that a lot in the new year. Now, just, just before we dig deeper into things as well, just a quick reminder, every month now, we are doing these one hour update webinars completely free. It's with me. So if you want to attend those live, all you need to do is sign up to the newsletter. So target Internet.com newsletter. We've just published the schedule the year ahead. So we've got episodes on SEO, social media, algorithm updates, analytics, changes, all those kind of things. Completely free for everyone. You just need to subscribe to the newsletter and then you can book yourself into those sessions. And we're going to be covering the trends for 2025 in a load of detail in some of those live sessions. I'd really love it if you joined us to get signed up and get involved with those. So we've got all this noise, we've got these changes in the search algorithms were going through and seeing changes to our roles. And it was really interesting. We did an AI panel at Imperial College. So lots of you know that I teach at Imperial College, by the way. I got asked this question the other day, is it a college? Imperial College is a university. So we have undergraduate and postgraduate. We're actually ranked according to some of the rankings, second best in the world. So you've got mit, that normally number one weekend number two, Oxford and Cambridge, depending on the rankings you're looking at actually coming below us as well. So it's an amazing leading university. And panel got together, some people from Imperial, some people from Cambridge, MIT and others. And they asked them, did they think that AI was going to be a good thing in the short term, medium term and long term. And the answer was, short term, brilliant. Efficiency, effectiveness, it's going to be really useful, loads of useful tools, lots of change, hopefully getting rid of some of those mundane tasks that we all do. In the medium term. They're a bit more concerned because they said, look, deep fake video is really going to change things from a societal point of view. We need to look at putting the brakes on that or working how we manage it or how we allow people to differentiate from what's real and what's deep faked. So we're going to have those challenges. But then they said in the long term, actually this gets a bit worrying because when AIs can create AIs, we're going to get lots of unintended consequences starting to happen. So I think we need to start worrying about those things. Maybe we'll talk about that in future episodes and get some, some people in to talk about it. But this can't just be at this stage about efficiency, getting more. Getting more content out. It has to be about effectiveness. It really needs to be about how do we do things better? Because otherwise we're just adding to the noise. And we've already seen this in social media. Unless we do something exceptional, unless we're creative, I think for the year ahead, we're just going to be, you know, getting less and less engagement with our content. And something that really stuck with me from a conversation I had was we need to start thinking like journalists, like, what's actually an interesting story, what's really going to drive engagement? Because otherwise, if we're just going, well, I can get a blog post out real quick, or I can get an article or a white paper out really quickly. There's no real barrier to entry. Anybody can do that. Whereas a proper journalist is going to go off and do research, they're going to get insights, they're getting opinions, and that's what makes that content stand out. And actually, I think from a content creator's point of view, it's way more interesting to be creating content in that way than it is just the pumping stuff out, like it's just a process. So I think if there is very little barrier to entry, anyone could do it, then we probably shouldn't be doing it. So I think as we look at this, we're going to see lots of opportunities for creating content, but really need to step back and start thinking, should we be creating it? How can we make it a little bit more exceptional as well? The other thing I've seen that's really interesting is with the image and video creation tools, the ability to keep it on brand, to make it consistent. So if you've got brand, colors, shapes, all those kind of things, suddenly we're starting to see tools making that a little bit more possible to do as well. So I think the year ahead is going to be one of the toughest we've had keeping up to the pace of change, because it is moving so quickly. It's going to be really hard, but actually it means it's really exciting as well. There's going to be loads of opportunity. So I think what we're seeing in organizations that are differentiating is saying, look, we don't need to know everything. It can be completely overwhelming. But what we do do is embrace that culture of change. And we're actually factoring learning into our week by week. And we're going through and saying, like, how do we all get together and do this. We can't go to training courses every week. We can't, you know, be out of the office all the time. So how do we get people together? Maybe listen to a podcast, watch a video, then get people together to reflect on that and look at how we might implement it. So having a culture of learning and a culture of innovation, trying new things within the organization, that's what's really differentiating brands at the moment, because we know that if we don't do it, our competitors potentially will be. And one of the stats that came out in a digital transformation program that I'm running at the moment was that 72% of disruption is now coming from industry incumbents, I. E. It's not startups coming in and doing something and disrupting a market, it's existing competitors. So if we don't want to be disrupted, we need to disrupt ourselves. We need to have that culture of learning and then we need that culture of trying out new stuff and putting it into place as well. So I think a really good place to start with this is benchmark, where you are now. And of course, we've got our skills benchmark. So if it is completely free. So if you go on to target Internet.com you'll see the benchmark on the menu. You can benchmark yourself or your team for free. But the thing I keep saying to people is where you see where your benchmark is and then you compare it to your industry, because you've got all of that industry data in there. You don't need to be 100%, you just need to be slightly better than your competitors to get that competitive advantage. So I wanted to leave that thought at the end of the year and say, okay, if we're going to address, address this, how do we go into the new year with that culture of learning, with that culture of innovation, trying all these different things out, making sure that we get ahead of all these algorithm changes. So if you haven't already, sign up to the newsletter, you get access to all of those live sessions. And then remember as well, members have now got access to those audio courses. And we have our live master classes every month, and I know lots of you attending those already. It's been great to see you along. Those. A quick question for me as well, if we carried on doing our episodes as normal with all three of us, but actually we might have some in between episodes like these, where I'm just giving you a bit of an update of what I've seen at a particular conference or something that I've been thinking about. Would that be a useful addition, or should we just stick to the normal format? Now, bear in mind, this wouldn't be a replacement. It would be in addition to so we'll do more episodes. So let us know if you found this one useful and you think this might be a good format. If not, we won't do them. So have a fantastic Christmas break, have a very happy New year, and we'll be back very early in the new year with lots of new episodes. With all three of us. It won't just be me. So have a great one. And thank you for listening to the Digital Marketing Podcast. For more episodes resources to leave a review or to get in contact, go to targetinternet.com podcast.