Digital Marketing: To the Future and Beyond

          Hello TravelBugs! Welcome to my final post for my digital marketing class.  This class had been my favorite so far in my MBA program.  I have learned so much about how digital marketing has been working in combination with traditional marketing to increase the amount of people reached by ads and companies.  Also finding how I can take what I am learning, how to connect it and utilize it to increase visibility of my personal blog but also for the companies I will work for.  My favorite topics were Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing because they are so applicable to the company I work for now and to the industry I want to work in.  
          For my current company, we are working to develop a digital marketing program.  The company is 20 years-old and has never done any marketing.  Instead, all of the clients were pulled in from cold calls.  My company is hoping, with digital marketing, we can pull in new clients but also keep connected with our current clients.  The Search Marketing topic will really help with generating ideas on how to increase our rank in organic search results.  While the Social Media Marketing topic will help with knowing the best ways to draw new and current clients in while keeping them interested in all of the updates and information we post.  
          For the industry I want to work in, the Thoroughbred Racing Industry, there is a need to start utilizing different marketing efforts or the sport will be lost completely.  While the industry gets good publicity and marketing during the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown races, the other eleven months of the year do not see any marketing or hype and we start losing more and more potential racing fans.  The best place to start is going to be Social Media Marketing because of the large diversity of people and generations you can reach there.  One of the farms making the most head way with this is Winstar Farms.  They have such a great marketing department, not only for their stallions but for the farm itself.  At least once a week they have video out on their Facebook page that features actives happening on the farm.  However, one of the biggest moves they have made, which I think will really pay off for them, was having an ad play during the Super Bowl of 2018.  While it was a small ad it was seen by millions of potential racing fans.  The commercial not only got people thinking about the Kentucky Derby and racing but it also drew them into to what the future could hold in racing.  More farms and racetracks need to follow in the footsteps of Winstar or this wonderful sporting event will be lost.  
         For my personal blog, all topics in this course provided great information but specially Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing will help me to market my blog and myself.  By using my blog to market myself I can show any future employers what I can do and how successful I can be.  The digital marketing space has seen so many changes in such a short amount of time and it will continue to fluctuate for some time to come.  I think the biggest change will be in how marketers access and collect user information.  There are more and more concerns coming to light about how user data is collected.  Especially with behavioral marketing, users are not happy with how the information is collected and used “against them.” I feel over the next several years there will be more strenuous regulations on how marketers can acquire and use data about users.  Do you agree?  Is there another aspect of digital marketing you think will see more change?  Let me know in the comments below.  Thank you for coming along on this journey with me.  Until next time, TTFN! Ta ta for now!