10 digital marketing trends to look out for 2016

As many forecasters have announced, 2016 will be the year of uprising in the world of marketing trends. Many things will evolve, change and adapt to the needs of the world. One thing is certain- whether you have a large or a small business, you will have to think towards developing a marketing strategy, one which will cover all the aspects of these marketing trends. It will be the year of reaching customers on their own field, and finding new ways of engaging with them will be the task. Here is a list of 10 digital marketing trends to look out for in 2016.

Interactive Content

Engaging with your audience is the most important thing to look after in 2016. Some say that the content is already engaging enough, however that is not true. Most of the content does not get that high number of shares or replies, which means that a more interactive content will have to be created. People’s hunger for high quality useful content is ever growing, and if you do not find a way of giving them what they want, they might as well switch to another business or channel. So think about videos, quizzes, surveys, calculators, contests, anything that will get their attention.

Competition is Rising

If you thought that 2015 was a tough year, wait to see this one. With more brands shifting right on the horizon, getting and reaching your target audience will be tougher than ever. More and more people will bid for the same words in the Google search, and the channel’s efficiency will be driven down. Facebook is no difference, for thousands of people advertise their products and services, and all are competing for the front page.

With this in mind, you will have to come up with a better way of reaching your target audience, and avoid the competition in the process.

The Year of Personalisation

Now that you have more information about your customers, you can start personalizing your emails, newsletter content, homepages and even imagery. The whole point is to dial a true message, one that will convey your meaning and in the same time reach your customer and make them feel special.

Those copy-pasted emails will not be enough to satisfy their needs in 2016, and as a marketing sleuth, you will have to work harder and dedicate a bit more time to satisfying each and every need of your customers. If you are lacking ideas on how to do it, seek help at customer.io and find a way of personalizing your content.

Customer Data Segmentation

Collecting all that data throughout 2015 was not enough, for now it is time to sit down and analyze all that has been collected. Marketers will have a huge responsibility of going through each and every segment in hope of finding something that will uncover new trends and ways of satisfying your customer’s needs. This requires valid and improved data segmentation and analysis tools, which never came cheap. In case you do not know how to use it, learning straight away will bring you a huge advantage over your competition.

Automation has Started

Basically, automation will allow you to segment and personalize your marketing content and tactics at scale. Automation will also connect all parts of a single corporation, making them learn from each other. Start automating slowly, and automate only those marketing tasks that look promising. Do not spend your resources on a non-essential marketing task.

Content Distribution

Having all those written content does not make it sell. In fact, if it is everything you are offering, it might just not be enough. It is probably a fact that you do not have a large community of followers to support your amplification. So in 2016, it is your job to create a paid distribution plan to make sure you are still in the game. The only way of doing it is by testing millions different amplification channels until you find the right one. Once you do, you can rank them by their efficiency and spend your money accordingly.

Mobile World

As many of you have notices, more and more websites are optimizing their content for mobile users, and more and more businesses are creating their own apps. Having an app is very important for the business, for you can easily contact and engage your customers with it. If your business does not have one, now would be the perfect moment to create it. By using an online mobile app builder, you can create one without any technical knowledge.

Once it is created, simply put it out there and promote it in any way you can. Make sure you let all your current customers know that you now have an app, and build yourself a community. When you achieve that, you will use your app for communication with your customers, sale of products and special promotions.

Video ads

In 2016, Google search might start indexing and search. This will be a major thing for all of you out there who are paying decent amount of money for video ads. This is one way of marketing that will continue to grow and expand to the unknown. Static ads are a thing of history, and video ads are outperforming almost any other type of promotion. But, optimizing videos for your business promotion is not an easy task, and learning how to do it might require some time. However, hiring an expert in this area might just do the trick.

Hybrid Advertising

More and more successful companies started creating hybrid ads with an engaging content. Having this in mind, the only way to compete with such competition is to start doing it yourself. Media sites are getting content in such rates that they are constantly working on putting it out there. It is a flourishing business, one that has to be seized while it has not become trend. Start creating hybrid ads, and engage your customers in a way never seen before.

Buy Button

Believe it or not, but it is estimated that in 2016, the “buy button” will receive more clicks than ever before. Putting them on social media sites like Faceboom, Pinterest and Twitter will be the right thing to do. Once you give your customers the ability to buy something straight away, they will give it a try. It serves to prolong the communication between you and your customers. Do not be skeptical about using it, this is the right time to do it, and 2017 might already be over it.

Many digital marketing trends will evolve, many will (re)appear out of nowhere; it is your job as a marketer to seize the opportunity and beat your competition before the race has even begun.