We hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. But now that Christmas is over, it’s really time to enjoy the rest of the quiet moments of 2014 and prepare yourself for 2015.

Time-to-diversity

Everyone wants to know what the next big thing will be in marketing. Marketers have made their predictions. Here are mine. Now forgive me because I am a bit biased. I look at marketing as an integrated system. You don’t just need one form of marketing whether it’s mobile, social, email, website…whatever. You need it all.  If I can give you one piece of advice (other than integrate all your marketing efforts) is to diversify your content.

This post isn’t about how content marketing should be your only focus for 2015. You should be creating content anyway. But don’t focus on just one type. You should diversify the content you create. Of course make sure you have blogs, email newsletters, articles, press releases, and images. What will be big in 2015 is video. More and more marketers will use video to connect with their market.

How you use the video is up for discussion. It’s not enough to have a YouTube channel, although you need to have one and maintain it. Diversifying content for 2015 means taking videos and incorporating said videos with other content forms. For instance, videos can be used as greetings in the form of business greetings using Inviter for holidays and birthdays. This mean sound a bit unconventional…birthday greetings for customers and employees. But remember…I said diversify. I didn’t say diversity and try new things…but you should…try new things. Holiday and birthday cards go a long way to make your audience feel special. Here is an example of holiday video greeting Inviter sent me for Christmas. It’s catchy and made me feel a little warm and fuzzy. I then shared it on my social channels. That creates buzz and brand awareness and boosts conversions.

So create videos for greetings. You can also use videos for newsletters. Video newsletters can be used in conjunction with your traditional email newsletters. Use videos as an insert to said newsletters. Diversify your content. The content of these videos should be just like the content of your other newsletters, only more conversational. Talk to your customers…make them feel like you’re only speaking to them.

Then use video in social media. Create videos for these different forms of content first.  Don’t share them via social until they’re published on other channels first. You want the viewers to feel special. Make it exclusive for a bit. Then a day or two later, share it on social.

So ladies and gentlemen, diversify your content…with video in 2015.