5 Marketing Trends Emerging in 2016
In a blink of an eye, the world of digital marketing is rapidly changing with dozens of more diverse, yet fragmented platforms arriving each year and most existing companies have to be on their toes so to stay up-to-date with the newest apps and invest some serious resources to keep up with the trends . The year of 2016 will be a host for a different new trends and varies in the social scene.
What does 2016 hold for businesses? Below are the five of the top trends taking place in digital marketing and what local businesses can do to get their marketing message out using them.
1. Live Streaming Video
We saw the beginnings of a new age of live-casting with new technology such as Periscope, Meerkat and the usage of Snapchat in 2015, but it is bigger than ever now!
Live streaming video is well thought-out to be the next big thing in social media marketing. Since Meerkat launched at SXSW 2015 and two weeks later Periscope followed, many have wondered if live streaming is simply just a fad. The answer to this was then offered up at this year’s SXSW as resounding no: live streaming is here to stay. Social media allows for communication for customer and brands but live streaming video goes an extra step further, revealing a much more genuine side of your business. It is unedited, unfiltered and shows the moment-to-moment unscripted outlook into life as it is unfolding. Both Periscope and Meerkat is a tremendous new opportunity for businesses to give behind-the-scenes view of their products and services. Blab and Facebook Live are also two of the many broadcasting apps that quickly gained popularity since January.
2. Significant shift to mobile
Last year was a big year for mobile. Mobiles were concluded to be the second screens and the desktops the first. Since the digital market has seen the surge of smartphones and tablets, trend now has been upturned. The usage of desktop devices has been surpassed by the usage of mobile devices. More than ever, mobile devices has the higher usage of people to browse social media, access entertainment and news, do research, communicate with other people, and view visual content, and this is only set to increase in 2016 as smartphone technology goes smarter and smarter and take note this year it is predicted that 2 billion consumers will own a smartphone. For social media marketing, it only means that in 2016 and beyond, it will become indispensable to consider mobile across all digital campaigns, and significant for brands to keep track of how their users are discovering and engaging with their content.
3. Automation Of Social Media Marketing
Marketing automation is nothing new but it is another important trend surfacing in social media landscapes in 2016. Marketing automation platform refers to a software that let marketers advertise on numerous social media channels concurrently. Eliminating the need of repeating same marketing message over multiple social media channels is one of the importance of marketing automation. It then saves time and efforts while also contributing your business some solid exposure on multiple social media channels. Thus, 2016 is the year for marketers have to lunge in, recognize gaps in their sales and marketing funnels, and build an automation strategy to make their jobs easier and their goals more realistic.
4. Advertising will become more expensive.
In the online marketing world, online marketing competition has increased radically over the track of the past few years, a trend that will continue in 2016. On all areas of digital marketing, companies are expected to spend $10 billion more than they did in 2015.
5. IoT User Adoption and Data
According to a CMO article by Adobe, wearable technology will see a user adoption rate of 28 percent by 2016. This means that there’s going to be a whole lot more data for businesses to pit. The intuitiveness and effectiveness of Facebook and Google ads, which are capable to target customers by their actions on the Internet where businesses and brands already rely on.
As technology grow and as consumer adoption is taking up, the Internet of Things will keep on developing. Companies that uses the Internet of Things will commence to perceive increase in customer engagement and data collection. The Internet of Things with its connected devices will connote that companies can contact customers at the right time depending on where they are in the consumer cycle and not just when they are in store or on your website. One thing is for sure: the Internet of Things devices and technology will include more push options for consumers who allows to automatically reorder goods or add them to shopping lists. This means that IoT will become a better-quality tool that businesses can use to engage with customers.
These five marketing trends aren’t the only ones that will surface over the course of the year, but they will be some of the most significant you should look forward to. As the old saying goes, “The early bird gets the worm.” Companies should then consider on how they can integrate these trends into their marketing strategies now.
Photo: Pixabay