If there is one thing that digital marketing companies like to do, it is analyse just how well their content is performing.

With such number crunching so important, it is little wonder that surveys and research leads future direction.

One such finding, coming courtesy of  New York-based social media education firm Social Fresh, suggests that online advertising will comprise around 25% of companies’ budgets in 2015.

This is supported by UK digital marketing gurus Econsultancy, which found 71% of firms were planning to up their online ad spending, with an average increase of 27% also mentioned.

Findings from another social New York company, end-to-end content marketing software provider NewsCred, backed these numbers up. According to its research, 72% of marketers feel that branded content is more effective than many traditional forms of advertising.

The research also stated that carrying this branding through is important to many, with 46% responding that the design of their website is essential to developing a brand’s credibility and presence. With the content and accuracy of landing pages and features essential to customer experience, this is not a figure likely to surprise many.

According to Forbes, however, these spending increases will put a lot more pressure on digital firms.

Content delivery and search engine optimisation (SEO) agencies will see their clients demanding a significant increase in sales coming exclusively from digital marketing. The business news agency recently reported that 67% of marketers have isolated this as their prime focus for next year.

The way this content is put in front of customers also needs to be varied.

Social Fresh has suggested that embedding videos into landing page content increases conversion rates by 86%, for example. Findings by digital marketing guru Heidi Cohen, meanwhile, has shown that Facebook is still number one when it comes to sharing content.

It commands over 80% of the market apparently, although the importance of Twitter and Google+ can still not be dismissed.

John Murray

John is every inch the wordsmith and loves a game of Scrabble above all else. With experience writing for newspapers, John’s time at university was spent studying Creative Writing – something which comes across in his love of the pun.