INFINITY NATION’ S DIGITAL PREDICTIONS FOR 2017
TECHNOLOGY REVVED UP
It’ s been a busy start to the year for Infinity Nation. Since announcing their name change from toinfinity in December, they’ ve been busy promoting their new website and brand identity.
They’ ve also had a key win, as founder Al Keck has been accepted onto the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business programme. Out of 200 applicants only 40 people were given the opportunity to take part. Al said:“ This is a huge achievement for me and the company. It gives Infinity Nation greater access to education, capital and business support services, helping us with our growth plans.” The Infinity Nation team have compiled their digital marketing predictions for 2017. Here are their thoughts for the year ahead.
James Foote Head of SEO |
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Shannon Kovacs Social Media Manager |
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“ I expect to see voice search becoming popular on mobile and desktop in 2017, as well as creating topic modelled website pages that address searcher intent. I think efforts with be refocussed on technical SEO, addressing crawl inefficiencies with websites in Google and making sure a company’ s blog is a valuable resource for their market and has a defined marketing goal.“ It will also become increasingly important to align other marketing channels with SEO. PR should be a defined avenue for brand outreach and digital awareness and social media should work in conjunction with SEO.”
“ Everyone has said it, but this will be the year of the‘ Bots’. They were increasing in popularity last year, but expect to see more big brands using them to answer customer queries to take the pressure off human teams. We’ ve all become aware of‘ over-sharing’ in the digital space, and‘ dark social’ is something all brands should be aware of. Expect to see more people sharing content privately – whether that’ s via WhatsApp or direct messaging.
“ Ephemeral content is going to continue to grow as it allows the user to safely bask in the knowledge that it’ s not going to linger forever and ultimately come back to haunt you.
“ The use of video will also continue to rise. Facebook has already stated it wants to become a video-only channel in the coming years. if you’ re incorporating paid social into your strategy, video is always preferred and will guarantee you increased reach and engagement.”
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James Martin Email Marketing Manager |
Lol Lowe Paid Search Lead |
Aaron Challice Senior Designer |
“ I believe that video will become a common element within emails, which will increase click-through rates by 200-300 %.
“ Email design will be based on a mobile first approach with mobile accounting for 80 % of all users.
“ Interactive email will also become the norm, allowing for users to effectively pick and choose what they see.
“ A single tap to buy will be introduced, allowing users to make purchases with a single touch.”
“ Google will be looking at more ways of making video ads more achievable for smaller advertisers, as currently the production costs and effort required for slick videos is beyond most SMEs.
“ I’ m also hoping for innovations in the online shopping experience. There was nothing new in 2016 and improvements for shopping in terms of feed management, campaign management and promotions is long overdue.”
“ More brands will be taking the mobile first approach – mobile first then desktop design.
“ There will be fewer menu options, flat design will be a thing of the past and look to the rise of duotones, which are used to find a balance between a minimal or busy website.”
For more info: www. infinitynation. co. uk
@ toinfinity
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How Excalibur can help you protect your mobile workforce
Swindon-based Excalibur are secure mobile technology specialists.
They spend a lot of time developing security solutions that deliver the protection businesses need to survive online. If you manage a mobile workforce, they have launched a new service to meet your security needs.
As a Vodafone Total Communications Partner, Excalibur has access to the latest services and solutions from the country’ s leading network provider. Their new service, Vodafone Secure Net is designed specifically to secure mobile devices against just about every threat out there right now.
Vodafone Secure Net is a cloud-based platform that keeps mobile devices safe from harm. It includes malware protection, virus scanning, phishing protection, parental controls and monitors websites for hacks or malicious code. Every current attack vector used by hackers is addressed with this solution. It delivers:
• Automatic protection for mobile devices using the Vodafone network.
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For more info: www.. ex-c. co. uk
• Protection against viruses, malware, phishing attacks.
• Encryption for Wi-Fi connections.
• Warnings over hacked websites or compromised downloads.
• Parental protections that can be used for work too.
To make it work, Vodafone Secure Net downloads a small app onto the device. It interacts with secure cloud servers to monitor all data going in or out of the device. A simple dashboard controls all device settings and can be managed locally by the user or centrally by an administrator. The app then displays a small icon in the device browser to tell users they are protected.
Vodafone Secure Net only checks for malicious code and not content so your privacy is still assured.
Protection from mobile threats With the mobile workforce increasing steadily and an increasing reliance on mobile devices to manage all aspects of our lives, protecting these devices is becoming highly important. From apps to hacked websites, malware to vulnerabilities, the threats are many and require a robust solution to protect users from them.
According to the McAfee Mobile Threat report for 2016, the company detected over 37 million unique instances of mobile malware over the past 12 months. Around 9 million suspicious apps, 3 million infected mobile devices and over 1 million bad URLs. The company expects these numbers to grow as our reliance on mobile devices increases and the sophistication of these attack vectors improves.
Vodafone Secure Net is one answer to this problem. It monitors apps, web use, downloads and many aspects of mobile use and protects users from harm. It is a comprehensive defence against a growing threat. It is also available to all Excalibur mobile customers.
If you want to protect mobile devices from the worst of the current security threats, contact Excalibur to find out more.
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