Member Article

Digital Marketing Trends in 2016

We all know that our life is continuously becoming more digital and adapting every social aspects online. Businesses are also embracing the change in many terms. 2016 will be the year when big data and marketing automation would take a lead in the digital marketing field.

We have collected few insights and digital marketing trends for 2016, that every brand will need to focus on in order to reach the right audience and engaging them on an individual level. This is something we call lead nurturing.

• The increasing mobile usage will replace the desktop:

More and more users are going online to access the content, media or whatever. The trend is most noticeable on social media (say Facebook) and the way online shopping works. Likewise, almost half of the emails globally are opened on mobile phones.

People are addicted to the mobile phones, with 58% of the smartphone users, that don’t go even an hour without checking their phones. If any content that’s not tailored for mobile devices, chances are high that will fall aside and go unnoticed. [mindset-checking] So, unsurprisingly, the use of mobile marketing will continue to be one of key trends to follow in 2016.

• Video ads will dominate:

Video ads are not a new thing in marketing industry. But when it comes to digital marketing scenario, this would be something different this year because Google is finally getting into the party with in-SERP video advertising. Facebook and Bing are already offering advertisers video options. With Google’s ownership of YouTube, the possibilities are virtually limitless.

• App Streaming will lead to an explosion of apps:

Few months back Google announced a new experiment from their Moonshot projects. With App Streaming, Google allows the app content to be searchable and “streamable”, when any user makes a Google search from the smartphone. Users will be able to access the app content right from the mobile browser by clicking on the “Stream” button, even if you don’t have the particular app installed. 2016 will be the year more business owners realize the online visibility advantages of a dedicated app. A mobile-friendly website works wonders, but soon, apps will begin to replace them. So your digital marketing strategy should adopt app indexing and deep linking this year.

• Digital Assistants would be a new kind of optimization:

Digital Assistant like Siri, Cortana and Google Now, access the search engines when they need. So the key to optimize your business content in this new format would be definitely a point to keep in your marketing strategy. So this would be wise if you optimize your content or business information to be easily accessible by these assistants, rather than just focusing on tracking and funneling customers through website.

• Cross device tracking:

Mobile stands as the main driver in cross-device marketing strategy. According to Google, 90% of consumers start an activity on one device yet finish on another. Customers are now becoming more brand oriented, they watch an ad or browse a website on their mobile while travelling to work, prior to completing an action on a different devices. So expect more business oriented content, video footage, interviews and reviews being the part of your marketing. Working wisely with high quality content for users can definitely lower your Cost Per acquisition (CPA).

The digital marketing industry is becoming more complex and volatile. But at the same time it’s exciting for those who stays up with the ever changing and modern trends.

• Increased Automation:

Digital marketing excels taking on automated tasks such as Tweeting, to Facebook marketing to target your audience and email sequences. A survey from Twitter says, “An estimated 25 percent of Tweets are ‘bot’-generated.” Well, companies can liberate humans by allocating these marketing automatons to these systems. The statistics above says clearly that in 2016, marketing automation activities would be something that would be implemented a lot compared to others.

This will definitely help small businesses to compete with large enterprises exploring the opportunities in influencing the customers.

• Emoji/Sticker Marketing:

Emojis and Stickers became word of the year in 2015. Emojis and stickers were implemented according to the trends and events undergoing with some business idea. For example WWF campaign was a great way to raise awareness of the endangered species. [emoji]

• Will social media be a helping hand in generating revenue?

So far, the social media has been slow in conversions and generating revenue. But in creating awareness and making a brand value, it is of no match. We can expect a big change in 2016, with being able to shop within a social media network provides a wider opportunity for retailers and customers. Once can convert the entire social media sites in to an online eCommerce portal. We are well aware of the newsw from last year, Pinterest (buyable Pins) and Instagram added e-commerce to their networks, following in the footsteps of Twitter and Facebook.

It would be interesting to see social channels contributing towards the business revenue generations in 2016.

Putting it all together…

With new platforms and initiatives in digital marketing, it’ll be interesting to watch out the new trends in 2016. The coming year looks great for online marketing, shaking up the game with these trends. Will digital marketers capitalize on everything from big data to new initiatives to the latest technologies? Well, we have to wait and see.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Prashant .